17th European Individual

[Mick Norris]

Gawain drew

Rd. Bo. No. Name Typ Gr FED Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Typ Gr FED Rtg No.
6 32 18 GM Howell David W L ACP ENG 2671 3 3 GM Antal Gergely HUN 2539 92
6 39 100 GM Andersen Mads DEN 2505 3 3 GM Jones Gawain C B ACP ENG 2657 27

[Tim Harding]

Rd. Bo. No. Name Typ Gr FED Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Typ Gr FED Rtg No.
6 32 18 GM Howell David W L ACP ENG 2671 3 3 GM Antal Gergely HUN 2539 92
6 39 100 GM Andersen Mads DEN 2505 3 3 GM Jones Gawain C B ACP ENG 2657 27

I joined today's games after 40 minutes. Howell still thinking (over seven minutes now) about his sixth move in a standard QG Accepted!
His first move time is showing as more than 7 minutes so he was presumably late again.
Often he gets into bad time trouble.
Why does a potential top-100 player keep handicapping himself like this?

A BIT LATER: Howell finally made move six in just under 9 minutes.
Jones is playing a Sicilian Dragadorf - could get exciting.

On board 4 Berges-Vitiukov agreed drawn in 10 moves. Playing to keep qualification for the World Cup safe I suppose. Or maybe they are good friends.

[LawrenceCooper]

Rd. Bo. No. Name Typ Gr FED Rtg Pts. Result Pts. Name Typ Gr FED Rtg No.
6 32 18 GM Howell David W L ACP ENG 2671 3 3 GM Antal Gergely HUN 2539 92
6 39 100 GM Andersen Mads DEN 2505 3 3 GM Jones Gawain C B ACP ENG 2657 27

I joined today's games after 40 minutes. Howell still thinking (over seven minutes now) about his sixth move in a standard QG Accepted!
His first move time is showing as more than 7 minutes so he was presumably late again.
Often he gets into bad time trouble.
Why does a potential top-100 player keep handicapping himself like this?

A BIT LATER: Howell finally made move six in just under 9 minutes.

The Bg4 lines aren't that common, especially for a player that has played 1 e4 for most of his career.

[Tim Harding]

The Bg4 lines aren't that common, especially for a player that has played 1 e4 for most of his career.

Maybe, but that doesn't explain the 7 minutes late does it?

I suppose that after 1 Nf3 d5 2 d4 Nf6 3 c4 dxc4 4 Nf3 Bg4 5 h3 Bh5 Howell was thinking about 6 g4 Bg6 7 Ne5 since both 6 Nc3 and 6 Bxc4 usually lead to the same position next move. It has now continued 6 Nc3 e6 7 Bxc4 Nc6 8 g4. Howell nearly half an hour behind on the clock.

The Jones game is too weird for me; 5...g6 but his B is still on f8. is this normal?

[LawrenceCooper]

The Bg4 lines aren't that common, especially for a player that has played 1 e4 for most of his career.

Maybe, but that doesn't explain the 7 minutes late does it?

I don't recall making a comment about that so not sure what point you are trying to make

[Roger de Coverly]

The Jones game is too weird for me; 5...g6 but his B is still on f8. is this normal?

They are following a Simon Williams game from around five years ago. Given that Gawain later played .. e5, leaving the Bishop on f8 has a logic to it. It also fights for a tempo, in the event of White trying Bh6.

Combining g6 with a6 is a slightly strange hybrid, although Botvinnik played it in the 1960s, against John Littlewood at Hastings being one well recorded encounter.

Event "It \"e2e4 Masters\" (d)"] [Site "Sunningdale (England)"] [Date "2011.08.12"] [Round "5"] [White "Eggleston David (ENG)"] [Black "Williams Simon (ENG)"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B72"] [WhiteElo "2362"] [BlackElo "2512"] [Annotator ""] [Source ""] [Remark ""] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 a6 7.f3 b5 8.a4 b4 9.Na2 e5 10.Nb3 d5 11.Bg5 Nbd7 12.exd5 Bb7 13.Qd2 Bxd5 14.Nxb4 Bxb3 15.cxb3 Qb6 16.Nd5 Nxd5 17.Qxd5 Bb4+ 18.Bd2 O-O 19.Bxb4 Qxb4+ 20.Qd2 Qxb3 21.Ra3 Qb7 22.Bc4 Nb6 23.Ba2 Rfd8 24.Qf2 Rd4 25.a5 Nc4 26.Bxc4 Qb4+ 27.Rc3 Rxc4 28.Qd2 Rac8 29.Rxc4 Rxc4 30.Ke2 Qb5 31.Kf2 Qc5+ 32.Kg3 Rc2 33.b4 Qc7 34.Qe3 e4+ 35.Kh3 exf3 36.gxf3 h5 37.Qe8+ Kh7 38.b5 axb5 39.a6 b4 40.Qe4 b3 41.Qb7 Qf4 42.Qe4 Qd6 43.Qe8 Qf6 44.Rf1 Qf5+ 45.Kg3 h4+ 46.Kxh4 Qf4+ 47.Kh3 0-1

[Tim Harding]

The Bg4 lines aren't that common, especially for a player that has played 1 e4 for most of his career.

Maybe, but that doesn't explain the 7 minutes late does it?

I don't recall making a comment about that so not sure what point you are trying to make

My main point was about handicapping himself by late arrival when he is also a time trouble addict.
Then spending unnecessary time on obvious moves was a secondary point.
True, he could reckon that move 6 was a major decision but many players would think they had better make up for wasted time with a couple of quick natural and dafe moves (Nc3 and Bxc4) and the sequence in which these are played would have no real significance so why spend 10 minutes on it...

[LawrenceCooper]

Maybe, but that doesn't explain the 7 minutes late does it?

I don't recall making a comment about that so not sure what point you are trying to make

My main point was about handicapping himself by late arrival when he is also a time trouble addict.
Then spending unnecessary time on obvious moves was a secondary point.
True, he could reckon that move 6 was a major decision but many players would think they had better make up for wasted time with a couple of quick natural and dafe moves (Nc3 and Bxc4) and the sequence in which these are played would have no real significance so why spend 10 minutes on it...

His opponent has never played 4...Bg4 before as far as I am aware so it's only natural to spend some time deciding on what set up to employ against it.

[Mick Norris]

I joined today's games after 40 minutes. Howell still thinking (over seven minutes now) about his sixth move in a standard QG Accepted!
His first move time is showing as more than 7 minutes so he was presumably late again.
Often he gets into bad time trouble.
Why does a potential top-100 player keep handicapping himself like this?

A BIT LATER: Howell finally made move six in just under 9 minutes.
Jones is playing a Sicilian Dragadorf - could get exciting.

Where are you watching the games? chess24live has packed up, TWIC also has Howell stopping at move 11, but Gawain's game still going at move 22

If you are trusting the move times on chess24live, then you haven't necessarily got accurate data

[Tim Harding]

Yes it does look as if Howell's live board may have broken down. I don't think it's necessarily a chess24 problem.

Wojtaszek and Navara seem to have agreed a draw.

I wasn't watching for the last 20-30 minutes as I was composing a long new piece in the Seniors section concerning some changes in future events, especially conditions for the 2016 World Senior Individual and different venue for the 2017 World Senior Individual. Those who may be interested are invited to read that and comment.

[LawrenceCooper]

I joined today's games after 40 minutes. Howell still thinking (over seven minutes now) about his sixth move in a standard QG Accepted!
His first move time is showing as more than 7 minutes so he was presumably late again.
Often he gets into bad time trouble.
Why does a potential top-100 player keep handicapping himself like this?

A BIT LATER: Howell finally made move six in just under 9 minutes.
Jones is playing a Sicilian Dragadorf - could get exciting.

Where are you watching the games? chess24live has packed up, TWIC also has Howell stopping at move 11, but Gawain's game still going at move 22

If you are trusting the move times on chess24live, then you haven't necessarily got accurate data

Chess24, it seemed to grind to a halt for 30 minutes or more but going again now. Gawain has knight+2 pawns for a rook whilst David's position is in the early middle game.

[Tim Harding]

Howell and opponent down to increment at 6.21pm BST, at move 37 in ending about equal but unbalanced

[Tim Harding]

Dylan Loeb McClain (the AGON man some of you love to hate) has an article about The Shrinking European Championship:

http://worldchess.com/2016/05/16/the-sh ... mpionship/

The tournament may be nominally weaker than in previous years but neither Howell nor Jones look like gaining the benefit.

They have both made the time control and in each case a draw seems likely.

Howell has R,B,3P v 2 rooks and one pawn. Jones has a pawn for the exchange and is not safe yet, against an opponent rated 150 points lower.

[LawrenceCooper]

Dylan Loeb McClain (the AGON man some of you love to hate) has an article about The Shrinking European Championship:

http://worldchess.com/2016/05/16/the-sh ... mpionship/

The tournament may be nominally weaker than in previous years but neither Howell nor Jones look like gaining the benefit.

They have both made the time control and in each case a draw seems likely.

Howell has R,B,3P v 2 rooks and one pawn. Jones has a pawn for the exchange and is not safe yet, against an opponent rated 150 points lower.

Gawain has drawn, his opponent deciding it wasn't worth winning the a pawn and trying to play what I assume was a drawn ending with RR+2 v RN+3 all on the same side.

[Barry Sandercock]

David Howell drew.