The mighty
have fallen at Linares in round 14. Michael Addams from the black side of
the board would summit Mount Anand. Beating Anand from the black side of
the board has to be similar to climbing Mount Everest. I read stories
about climbers who step out of their tents, at 17,000 feet, in their
stocking feet, only to slide a mile down the mountain and off the edge to
their deaths. It happens often, one small slip. One small mistake, like
not putting your spiked boots on before stepping out of your tent, can end
it all on Mount Everest. Similarly, when climbing Mount Anand, one small
slip and you are finished. Michael Addams tried to summit Mount Kasparov
in round 12 and failed. Addams made that fatal mistake. But with chess,
you can get up from a bad fall.
In round 14,
Adams was determined to summit Mount Anand. But lets not forget chess is a
war game. Today’s game went into a
Queen’s Indian Nimzovich variation. By move 30 Adams had won a pawn. The
game became a battle of the heavy pieces. The howitzers would control this
middle game. It was Adams' queen, two rooks and 5 pawns (two connected
central passers) vs. Anand’s queen, two rooks and 4 pawns (one outside
passer).
With all this firepower still
on the board, the kings would sit this one out in their bunkers. Anand’s
a-pawn would be stopped two squares from queening. Adams’ central
passers on the c and d-files were now on the move. They were backed up by
both of Adams’ howitzer rooks on the back rank. Adams pushed his c-pawn
to Anand’s 2nd rank. Adams c- rook was close behind and found
a post on c3. This forced Anand’s queen to give up the protection of his
a-passer. Passers were exchange along with a pair of heavy rooks. Anand was
on the defensive now. Adams’
army invaded Anand’s territory. Addams had a centrally posted queen on
d5. Adams’ rook was aggressive posted on Anand’s f3 square. Addams’
passer was deep inside Anand’s territory on c3. Addams’ army was
poised for a final assault. He used an ingenious strategy that threaten to
mate Anand king, attack his rook, or queen a pawn. Faced with all three of
these unstoppable threats, Anand resigned. This game didn’t do much to
change the standings. Anand took third place behind Kasparov and Topalov.
Addams would take fifth behind Leko.
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