Gibraltar 26 January - 5 February 2015

[Chris Rice]

Howell has gone 15.Re3 is he really going for it?

Position doesn't look that great for White (White's just gone 17 Bg5) but perhaps is holdable. Lawrence Trent seems to have equalized easily enough against Bologan.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Howell has gone 15.Re3 is he really going for it?

Position doesn't look that great for White (White's just gone 17 Bg5) but perhaps is holdable. Lawrence Trent seems to have equalized easily enough against Bologan.

After 20.Nf4, it looks like White has a kingside attack, but is it just an optical advantage, not a real one? Does something like 20...Rc3 spoil things for White?

[Chris Rice]

Clearly the attack was optical after 20...Qd8, this stops the h-pawn moving though not sure how much of a threat that really was anyway. White looks pretty solid now (after 26 Re3) even though Black's doubled rooks and Nc3 look visually impressive. How does Black improve his position? C'mom David!

[Carl Hibbard]

Isn't white just waiting for the sword to fall due to little active moves?

[Matthew Turner]

I think I'd be fairly surprised if David doesn't lose this in the end. Black looks to just enter down the c-file, bit of a shame really.
Matt

[Chris Rice]

Looks like David's fallen asleep again, down to 3 minutes.

[Chris Rice]

Nakamura allowing the queen exchange looks to give Howell some chances of holding the R&p ending.

[Roger de Coverly]

Looks like David's fallen asleep again, down to 3 minutes.

He's simplified to a Rook and pawn ending, but lost a pawn in the process. Still it's going to be 5v4 all on the same side, so there will be some drawing prospects. White has only one more move to the time control and 45 seconds to make it according to chessbomb. Hikaru has a choice of decent moves according to the chessbomb Stockfish but is now using up his time advantage.

[Chris Rice]

Lawrence finally buckled

Bologan - Trent Rd 7 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. b4 e6 4. a3 Bg7 5. Bb2 O-O 6. e3 b6 7. Be2 c5 8. O-O Nc6 9. d4 d6 10. b5 Na5 11. dxc5 dxc5 12. Nbd2 Bb7 13. Qc2 Qe7 14. Rad1 Nh5 15. Ne5 Bxe5 16. Bxe5 Qg5 17. Bg3 Nxg3 18. hxg3 Qe5 19. Bf3 Rfd8 20. Rfe1 Kf8 21. g4 h6 22. Bxb7 Nxb7 23. f4 Qg7 24. Nf3 Kg8 25. Qe4 Na5 26. Ne5 Qf6 27. Rd7 Rxd7 28. Nxd7 Qd8 29. Rd1 Rc8 30. g5 hxg5 31. Qe5 Qe7 32. Nf6+ Kf8 33. Nd5 1-0

[Carl Hibbard]

Nakamura allowing the queen exchange looks to give Howell some chances of holding the R&p ending.

No.

[Paul Dargan]

Really no chances? - now (after 63.Kb2) hasn't he got one of those

'attack the pawn from the side (keeping the rook tied-down in front of the pawn) and just check the king away when it approaches'

defences?

Paul

[Carl Hibbard]

I am surprised by how far that has gone.

[Paul Dargan]

Weird, it's not a Vancura position - and in fact 63.Kb2 seems to have been a losing blunder and 63.Rd3+ would have kept a theoretically drawn position ... these things can turn on quite subtle points ... I'm sure Herr Muller will be along on Chassbase shortly to explain why.

[edited: and for the first time in getting-on for 6 hours David has more time on the clock than Nakamura!]

Paul

[Carl Hibbard]

It looked lost at the 42...Kxf6 point when I commented 'no' however where is Keith when you need him?

[Paul Dargan]

It seems that Ke3 gave the half-point back when Kg3 would have won ... need to dig-out my copy of DEM and see why ...

Paul