England’s finest: a lovely combination by Michael Adams #chess

Today is a rest day in the Tromsø Olympiad after yesterday's fifth round. England is in the bunch of teams around where our players' rating would suggest, but it is early days yet, and a lot will change as the event continues.

Mickey Adams is on fine form, with +2 from his three games, all against +2700 players. I loved his classic Mickey play against Alexei Shirov but yesterday's combination against Quang Liem Le of Vietnam was a classic.

We were at the beach yesterday during the round, so I could only catch snippets. A Catalan, I thought it was heading to a draw when I first logged in.

White to play: position after 23...Qd6-e6

Indeed, Stockfish tells me white has the better of a more or less level game here. I suspected the a pawns to come off, and a natural continuation is 24 Na5 Nb4 25 Rd7 Rd7 26 Qe2 Rd1+ 27 Qd1 Qa2 27 Nb7 Bb2 reaching this position:

White has some advantage, but not a winning one, even if the Pc6 falls.

However, Le didn't play this, instead choosing 24 Bd5. I assume white thought this would be pretty similar after 24…Rd5 25 Na5: the rooks come off, and the a, b and c pawns, and then white has the better of the position. However, Mickey played 24…cd !? which keeps the rooks on, and after 25 Na5 d4! he is down a pawn, but with compensation. (What I don't know is if in fact it is all still level, with white no option but to return the pawn).

After a few more moves, the following position was reached.

Position after 32...Rdc7

White has one or two ways to untangle, and several ways to make a mess of his position. 33 Qa5 is probably best, getting away from the unpleasant pin on the c file, and after 33…Qe7, the game goes on. White however played 33 Rc2?!.

At first, I thought Mickey's 32…Qe8 inspired, but on second glance Rdc2 has the effect of offering to exchange queens: so Qe8 is somewhat forced, or at least it is just a choice between Qe7 and Qe8, and e8 carries some tactical motifs. After 33 Rc4?? (33 Qe3[] and the game goes on, but black is better after 33..Qc6+! 34 Qf3 Rd4!)we reach the following position:

Black to play and win

33…b5! 34 Rb4 Rc5! 35 Qc5[]

Bf8! 36 Qb5 Qe2+! and black is winning.

Mickey obviously saw- I suspect instantly- the geometry of the chess board. Not only were there pins on the c file, there was also a fork, with LPDO possibilities.

A lovely combination: how quickly a level position turned into 0-1.

To cap off the game, there was a pretty finish. This is the position after the last move of the game, 44…Rd8-d4!

If 45 Qd4, it is mate in two by 45…Qf1+ 46 Kh4[] Be7 mate.

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