Further bid for UK top spot

Gawain Jones shines in Plovdiv to further bid for UK top spot
Leonard Barden
The Guardian, Friday 6 April 2012

England’s Gawain Jones, 24, ended up 15th, far above his seeding, in the European Championship at Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Jones’s 7.5/11 total qualifies him for the $1.2m 2013 World Cup and strengthens his growing challenge to Michael Adams and Nigel Short at the top of UK chess. His sights are now set on a place in the world top 100 – likely after Plovdiv – and an invitation to the London Classic, where English GMs meet the global elite.

First prize at Plovdiv, €14,000, went to the No3 seed, Russia’s Dmitry Jakovenko, who was undefeated with 8.5/11 and beat France’s Laurent Fressinet in the crucial final round. A day earlier Fressinet took the lead with this lucid attack. The game is level until Black’s 17…dxc4? opened up White’s bishops and led to 25 Nxh6+! when gxh6 26 Qxh6 is crushing. At the end Black conceded since Qg5 would be decisive.

L Fressinet v V Akopian

1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 e6 3 c4 b6 4 e3 Bb7 5 Nc3 Bb4 6 Bd3 0-0 7 0-0 Bxc3 8 bxc3 d6 9 Nd2 Nbd7 10 e4 e5 11 f3 Re8 12 Rf2 c6 13 Nf1 d5 14 Ng3 Qc7 15 Bg5 h6 16 Be3 Rad8 17 Nf5 dxc4? 18 Bxc4 b5 19 Bb3 Nc5 20 Rd2 Nxb3 21 axb3 a6 22 dxe5 Rxd2 23 Qxd2 Qe5 24 Bd4 Qe6 25 Nxh6+! Kh7 26 Nf5 1-0

The later rounds at Plovdiv were marred by an escalating dispute over the most hated rule in chess, the International Chess Federation’s draconian zero tolerance default for any player arriving late at the board, and by an attempt to enhance referee power.

Its trigger came when the No2 seed Shak Mamedyarov was zeroed for arriving 10 seconds late (one minute, said the organisers) in round eight. Next day Mamedyarov agreed an early draw and was zeroed again under a rule punishing halves in less than 40 moves. After that the Azeri had had enough, and withdrew from the championship.

In practice an early-draw ban is normally evaded by repeating the position three times, an automatic draw under chess rules. But for the final round even early draws by repetition were banned.

Chess players match footballers in their distrust of over-zealous referees and Plovdiv may spark some real action at last rather than the previous simmering discontent over zero tolerance. The Association of Chess Professionals, the trade union for pros, has a new and energetic head, Israel’s Emil Sutovsky. The ACP recently secured an agreement with Fide giving it enhanced status, and Sutovsky announced this week that it will campaign against zero time defaults and the “preposterous” arbiter actions at Plovdiv.

Forty years ago there was a ban on sub-40 move draws without arbiter permission in the Olympiad, the world team event, at Varna. Bobby Fischer agreed an early half with Bulgaria’s No1 and left the hall with the comment “This rule is for Commie cheaters, not for me”. Fischer’s action provoked a major crisis until backstage talks led to a deal. I watched as a solemn procession entered the playing hall, led by the chief arbiter Salo Flohr followed by the US and Bulgarian captains. They went to the Fischer board with its final position still intact, where the two captains each pronounced it drawn and arbiter Flohr gave his blessing. Fischer claimed it as his victory, and he was right, for the 1962 attempt at a sub-40 draw ban was soon abandoned.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk