Chess

Michael Adams has been having mixed fortunes in the Wijk aan Zee tournament. In the first round, he won a well-played endgame against Paul van der Sterren.

It was Black (van der Sterren) to play in the diagram position. He should get on with Kf6, h6 and g5. Instead the game continued 1...c6 2.d5! cxd5 3.Rxd5 Re7 4.Rc5 Be6 5.Rb5 Bc8 6.Rb6 Ke8 7.Bd5 Kd8 8.c4 Kc7 9.Rf6 Bd7 10.b5 b6 11.Kf3 Re1 12.Kf4 Be8 13.Kg5 Rg1 14.Kh6! Rxg3 15.c5! bxc5 16.b6+ Kb8 17.Rd6 resigns. The end would have been 17...Kc8 18.b7+ Kc7 19.Rd8.

In the second round, Adams comfortably held Karpov to a draw, but in round three he came up against an inspired pawn sacrifice by Kramnik. 19...Bd3? 20.Bxd6 is fine for White, but after 19...Ra6 he was struggling. At the end, 30.Ra1 Kf8 is hopeless for White.

White: Michael Adams

Black: Vladimir Kramnik

1 e4 c5 16 Qxb8 Rfxb8

2 Nf3 Nc6 17 Bxe7 Rxb2

3 Nc3 d6 18 a3 Rxc2

4 d4 cxd4 19 Rae1 Ra6

5 Nxd4 Nf6 20 Be4 Bxe4

6 g3 g6 21 Rxe4 Bb2

7 Bg2 Nxd4 22 Rfe1 Rc1

8 Qxd4 Bg7 23 Rxc1 Bxc1

9 0-0 0-0 24 Bf6 Ra8

10 Qb4 a5 25 Rc4 Bxa3

11 Qb3 Be6 26 Bd4 Bc5

12 Nd5 a4 27 Bxc5 dxc5

13 Qxb7 Nxd5 28 Rxc5 a3

14 exd5 Bf5 29 Rc1 a2

15 Bg5 Qb8 White resigned