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Hello everyone! Today I´m commenting Adams - Navara for you. Last year they competed in European team championship on Crete, where Adams chose the "modern" Spanish with 8.h3, 9.d3 and 10.a3. David had no problems to equalize and the draw was agreed in 38th move. So it´s really presumable that we´ll see the Spanish again (because Adams plays rarely another move except 1.e4). But I will risk it and I´ll tip that David will surprise today and use the Sicilian!:-)
1.e4 e6 Well, not Sicilian, but French! It´s also David´s favorite "secret weapon" sometimes.
2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nd7 5.c3 c5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.Ngf3 g6 ( Interesting, David is going in the track of the Adams - Berg, which was played last year in Crete! We can surely expect a concrete preparation! The most common continuation here is 7... Qb6)
8.h4 Very natural continuation, white wants immediately profit from black´s weakening of his kingside.
8... Qb6 ( It´s here! In the game mentioned above Berg chose 8... h6 and he lost the game in 48 moves.)
9.dxc5 ( After about 15 minutes thinking Adams have chosen this move, which was played only once time according to my databases. Almost 80 percents of players chose 9.h5 here, which seems very logical. In my eyes this exchange slightly helps black, but it can be only subjective and superficial valuation.)
9... Qc7 ( Novelty according to my bases!:-) In the only game (as I mentioned above) 9... Nxc5 was played and white won, but this game wasn´t played by extra strong players.)
10.Nb3 It´s great for the chess fans that after 10 moves we´re totally out of theory. Both players have to "making up" now!
10... Ndxe5 Where did the white pawn center disappear?:-)
11.Nxe5 Nxe5 12.O-O Nxd3 It should be a good deal for black to oust of the whitecoloured bishop in the French almost always.
13.Qxd3 Bg7 I suppose black has gained a very solid position from the opening. Two bishops, quite a nice central pawns... But white has also good active options - h5-h6, try to occupy important d4 and e5 squares, rooks probably to central files. Black I think will operate with central pawns and b6 stroke in the right moment too.
14.h5 O-O 15.Bg5 b6 ( For your amusement - Rybka says that also 15... gxh5 was a good option too!:-) But I think no one living could ever do such a strange decision!...)
16.h6 Bh8 Any surprising moves yet...:-) Pawn on the h6 can be very dangerous for black and useful for white (in his attack of course), but it can be also a weakness in the future, especially in the endgame (where, on the other hand, it may be a decisive power too:-))
17.cxb6 axb6 Next little plus for black. Now his rook can use the a-file for the active play and his bishop gained a nice diagonal f1-a6 for itself.
18.Rfe1 Bb7 Right, diagonal f1-a6 has no meaning for the bishop yet, beyond it would obstruct its own rook. David counts with e5 in the future, so he wants to supply d5 pawn by his bishop just from b7.
19.Nd4 e5 And central pawns are going forward!:-)
20.Nb5 Qc6 ( David peeps at g2 square, so he´s creating a dangerous queen-bishop battery on the h1-a8 diagonal. 20... Qd7 was an interesting option too with idea to "consume eat up" on the white knight, for example: 21.a4 Bc6 22.Rec1 Ra5 with an uneasy pressure on the queenside.)
21.a4 f6 22.Bd2 f5 Black slowly takes the iniciative to his own hands and white position starts to seem very uncomfortable! I brightly like David´s decision to play in the center (not on the queenside), it is much more upleasant for white! What to play now? Probably 23.f4, but after 23...d4 I strongly starts to fear for my king!
23.f4 d4 24.Qf1 As expected. I´m really wondering what advance David choses now!
24... dxc3 Black has chosen the easiest continuation. But I´m not sure whether white gets some counter-attack chances now. There were other interesting possibilities I think, for instance after (24... exf4 (24... e4 was another interesting move, more positional I think, but the right is that now after 25.cxd4 Qd5 26.Be3 Rfc8 black has "only" a compensation for the pawn.) 25.Nxd4 Bxd4 26.cxd4 g5 a very unclear position would came into being!)
25.Bxc3 exf4 26.Bxh8 Kxh8 27.Rac1 Qf6 28.Qxf4 Qxb2 Well, black is still a pawn up, but his king could have some troubles now (thanks to h6 pawn!) The position is in the dynamical balance now.
29.Qe5 ( Very strange decision made by Adams! He wholly optionally exchanges queens and passes to sligthly worse engdame! But white is starting to get time troubles, so maybe this was a reason to make that decision. Tha fact is that e.g. after 29.Re2 Qf6 30.Rc7 Bd5 31.Ree7 Bg8 white has nice active figures but nothing more!)
29... Qxe5 30.Rxe5 Rxa4 Oh, now black could have some problems with the white knight! Maybe 30...Rfd8 or 30.Rad8 were better alternatives! Really, this was a critical moment of the game! It was very important not to let white knight close to black king with tempo! Indeed, (30... Rad8 ( In fact after deeper analysis 30... Rfd8 seems even better! Now 31.Nc7 is a nonsense due to 31... Rac8) 31.Rc7 (31.Nc7 Rd7 32.Ne6 Ra8 should be OK for black and 31.Na3 seems very dubious.) 31... Bd5 32.Ree7 Bg8 gives nothing now!)
31.Nd6 Rd4 32.Rc7 (32.Nf7 was another choice. But after 32... Kg8 33.Rc7 Re4 white has probably no more than an eternal check: 34.Ng5 Rxe5 35.Rg7 and so on. So Adams´ move was better choice.)
32... Bd5 33.Rd7! Great, suddenly it´s the white who grabs the iniciative!
33... Kg8?? Oh no! Now Adams is winning easily after 34.Ne8! 33...Bc6 or 33..Rd1 first and then 34...Bc6 was necessary! For example: (33... Rd1 34.Kh2 Bc6 35.Nf7 Kg8 36.Rxd1 Kxf7 and altough black position isn´s good, he´s got some drawish chances I suppose. And also 33...Bg8 could be a good version of the sacrifice.)
34.Re8 Well, this continuation is also winning.
34... Rxe8 35.Nxe8 Rd1 ( This loses immediately. The last small chance for black was : 35... Rh4 36.Nf6 Kf8 37.Nxh7 Kg8 38.Nf6 Kf8 39.Nxd5 Rxh6)
36.Kh2 There´s no defence for black any more.
36... Bb3 37.Nf6 Kf8 38.Nxh7 Kg8 39.Nf6 Kf8 40.h7 Incredible game! Adams got from opening nothing, but!... except a nice pawn on h6 which decided the game in the end!! David got a very nice pressure in the middlegame, but since 24th move he started to play too "materialistic chess" instead of continuing with grabing iniciative. Adams made the best of this, took up the iniciative himself and after series of mistakes made by David he was able to "promote" his "hero pawn" to the queen! I will back to the black´s 30th move again, because it was a critical moment for the game! Very nervous game for me today!:-) OK, thank you for your attention, nice evening to everyone! IM David Kanovsky, The Czech republic, http://www.dejf721.info
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