PokerStars Isle of Man International 4-12 October 2014

[John Moore]

Roger - MVL has 5.5, his opponent, Popliski, has 6 so it is only he who could reach 7.

[Martin Crichton]

a win will net him £1500 minimum now (3 on 6.5) (board 2 was a draw) or £1875 if Short or Howell lose (4 on 6.5)

[Carl Hibbard]

Is Howell going for the win as looks like a nice position?

[Roger de Coverly]

Is Howell going for the win as looks like a nice position?

The Stockfish engine at the chessbomb site thought Nigel's Kh1 allowed Black a very slight edge. It's difficult to think of any David Howell games with either colour where he just safely neutralises and steers for a draw.

[John Moore]

Don't know anything about these kind of positions but looks to me like Black has a problem finding something for his white squared bishop to do and White has a central pawn roller potentially. Black is probably OK but I doubt anything more than that.

[Roger de Coverly]

Black is probably OK but I doubt anything more than that.

Most of the position is a Modern Benoni. The dark square Bishop on b4 makes it look odd. The light square bishop just stays at home or parks on d7. It has a potential future as part of a Bxh3 sacrifice to get in round the White King.

[Martin Crichton]

Is Howell going for the win as looks like a nice position?

?? Looks to me like Short is turning the screw

I predict a win for Short

[Martin Crichton]

Jones - Raznikov looks double edged

[Roger de Coverly]

I predict a win for Short

It looks as if MVL is now better in an ending, so only Short and Howell share in the event of a draw, not that it is imminent.

[AustinElliott]

A draw on bd 1 now would give the players a clear shared 1st place, surely? Tiviakov and Fressinet seemed to have somewhere else to be, so both finish on 6.5, and the only other player on 6 was young Popilski, who looks distinctly worse against MVL.

[Roger de Coverly]

A draw on bd 1 now would give the players a clear shared 1st place, surely?

A win for either would give them outright first place. It is after all a tournament sponsored by a poker organiser.

At move 23, the Stockfish on chessbomb thinks that Nigel has incorrectly followed up an otherwise promising attacking idea.

[AustinElliott]

A draw on bd 1 now would give the players a clear shared 1st place, surely?

A win for either would give them outright first place. It is after all a tournament sponsored by a poker organiser.

At move 23, the Stockfish on chessbomb thinks that Nigel has incorrectly followed up an otherwise promising attacking idea.

Interesting - it looks quite dangerous to my Patzervision, and Howell is down to his usual 10-min-left-to-move-40.

In some lines I was thinking the saving grace might be that after ..Bxe2 in some variations the Bishop attacks the h5 Knight, which would otherwise allow Qh6 sacs with unavoidable mate on g7...

[JustinHadi]

David Howell looks to have a good position against Short. Maybe he's finally living up to his potential as a 2700+ player? Let's see if Short can swindle something out of the game though.

[AustinElliott]

Short-Howell is now almost reminding me of Anand-Carlsen game 9.

[John Moore]

Justin, I think that David has quite an unpleasant position to defend. He may be OK but he has even more wood stuck on the Queenside than Nigel and he has to be careful not to allow some Ra5 cheapo.