Best game prizes of the last rounds

Round 6 Report by John Saunders

The sixth round at Olympia consisted of four draws out of four, so the leader board didn’t change. All four games were hard fought, as usual, and winning chances came and went on various boards.

The first game to finish was the all-English battle between Nigel Short and David Howell. Nigel treated us to some 19th century romanticism – a King’s Gambit. David chose a 1870s continuation by Blackburne (7...Bg7) rather than the older 7...Bd6, as played by Staunton amongst others. In the spirit of the opening, the players disdained to defend pawns and attacked hard but eventually the pieces came off and a level position appeared on the board.

Round 7 Report by John Saunders

The game between Hikaru Nakamura and Mickey Adams went right down to the kings - a most appropriate end to a fighting tournament. Mickey played his favourite Marshall Attack and Hikaru exited the ‘book’ when he played 17 a4. It is very possible that Hikaru could have improved on move 21 when he allowed a discovered attack on his queen. The queens came off and Mickey retained some compensation for his sacrificed pawn in the shape of the two bishops and pressure against Hikaru’s hanging pawns. Eventually he managed to equalise material and draw the game.

Final Scores: 1st Magnus Carlsen 13/21, 2-3rd Vishy Anand, Luke McShane 11, 4th Hikaru Nakamura 10, 5th Vladimir Kramnik 10, 6th Mickey Adams 8, 7th David Howell 4, 8th Nigel Short 2. (Note, games are scored 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss)