THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
June 22, 2004, Tuesday
English Tripoli double
By Malcolm Pein
MICHAEL Adams and Nigel Short completed routine victories in the
first round of the Fide Knockout Championships at Tripoli. England’s
finest both won 2-0, but the real work is to come. Few seeds were
eliminated as the field was reduced from 128 to 64, and the losers
returned home with $6,000, less Fide’s 20 per cent cut.
In round two, Short faces a tough match against Poland’s leading
grandmaster, Michal Krasenkow, ranked 97. Adams will face either
Karen Asrian of Armenia or Evgeny Agrest of Sweden, whose tie went to
a playoff.
The Cornishman is now the second seed in the absence of Alexander
Morozevich. Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria is the highest rated player.
He arrived late for the game after some travel problems but was
allowed to play later.
Twenty one of the 60 matches have gone to a playoff and none of the
favourites has yet been eliminated. The pairings were organised so
that the number one seed faced number 128, two against number 127 and
so on.
The stronger player has won nearly all the time, but Hicham Hamdouchi
of Morocco defeated former Russian champion Alexander Motylev and
Ghaem Maghami of Iran despatched the Armenian Rafael Vaganian 2-0.
Aleksandar Wojtkiewicz put out Kiril Georgiev. Thirteen-year-old
Magnus Carlsen drew twice with former world junior champion Levon
Aronian of Armenia.
SHORT’S Yemeni opponent put up spirited resistance but the knight
sacrifice was never going to work.
N Short – H Kadhi
Fide WCh KO Tripoli (1.2)
French McCutcheon
1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Bg5 Bb4 5 e5 h6 6 Bd2 Bxc3 7 bxc3 Ne4 8
Qg4 g6 9 Bd3 Nxd2 10 Kxd2 c5 11 h4 Bd7 12 Rb1 Bc6 13 h5 g5 14 f4 Nd7
15 Nf3 cxd4 16 cxd4 gxf4 17 Qxf4 Qe7 18 Ke2 0-0-0 19 Qh4 Qf8 20 g4
Rg8 21 g5 hxg5 22 Nxg5 Nxe5 23 dxe5 Qg7 24 Rhg1 Qxe5+ 25 Kd2 d4 26
Rbe1 Qa5+ 27 Ke2 Rd5 28 Nxf7 Re8 29 h6 e5 30 Rg4 Rd7 31 Ng5 e4 32
Nxe4 Bb5 33 Kf1 Bxd3+ 34 cxd3 Kb8 35 Kg1 Rh7 36 Rf1 Reh8 37 Qg3+ 1-0
Kadhi e p p 7 o c p p p p p p n g p p p p o ‘ p * p p p b p f b p p p
p p p p * d
Short
Final position after 37.Qg3+