Games: Chess

To begin with the best bit, it's White to play and win in the diagram position, which comes from Adams-Georgadze, played on Thursday in the second round of the world championship in Groningen in the Netherlands. Adams finished it off beautifully with 1.Qd2!! when 1...Qxd2 allows 2.Ra8+ Bd8 3.Rxd8 mate. Instead Georgadze played 1...Qc6, but after 2.Qh6+ Ke8 3.Qe6 he resigned. There is nothing to be done about the threats of 4.Ra7 or 4.Nxd6+ Qxd6 5.Ra8+.

So Adams needs only a draw in the second game to go through to the third round. The other two British players in the competition both drew the first games of their second-round matches, Sadler as Black against Ehlvest, and Short as White against Korchnoi.

Meanwhile, two of the favourites were having very different experiences. Anand won an impressive game against Nikolic, but just look at what happened to Vassily Ivanchuk:

White: Yasser Seirawan

Black: Vassily Ivanchuk

1 d4 Nf6 12 Qh6 Ndc5

2 c4 g6 13 Rd1 Qb6

3 Nc3 Bg7 14 Bb1 Ke7

4 e4 d6 15 f4 exf4

5 Bd3 e5 16 Rf1 Rf8

6 d5 a5 17 Qxf4 f6

7 Nge2 Na6 18 dxc6 Qxc6

8 f3 Nd7 19 Nd4 Qe8

9 Be3 Bh6 20 Nd5+ Kd8

10 Qd2 Bxe3 21 Qxd6 Bd7

11 Qxe3 c6 22 Nb5 resigns

Black's plan of exchanging his black-squared bishop with 9...Bh6 (when 10.Bxh6 is met by Qh4+) was all very well, but he began to miss the piece rather badly when his d-pawn needed a defender.

Anand's finish was very powerful. At the end, 37.Kg2 Qe2+ 38.Kh3 Qf1+ 39.Kg4 h5+ 40.Kg5 Bf6 is mate.

White: Predrag Nikolic

Black: Viswanathan Anand

1 d4 d5 20 Rc4 axb4

2 c4 c6 21 axb4 Rdb8

3 Nc3 Nf6 22 e4 Nc7

4 Nf3 e6 23 Rfc1 Nb5

5 Bg5 h6 24 Nde5 Rd8

6 Bxf6 Qxf6 25 Nxc6 Bxc6

7 e3 Nd7 26 Rxc6 Ra3

8 Bd3 dxc4 27 Qc4 Nxd4

9 Bxc4 g6 28 Nxd4 Rxd4

10 0-0 Bg7 29 Rc8+ Kh7

11 b4 0-0 30 Qc6 Rd2

12 Rc1 Qe7 31 Rc7 Qd8

13 Qb3 Nb6 32 g3 Rf3

14 Bd3 Rd8 33 Rf1 Rdxf2

15 Ne4 Nd5 34 Rxf2 Qd1+

16 a3 Bd7 35 Kg2 Rxf2+

17 Nc5 Be8 36 Kxf2 Bd4+

18 Bb1 b6 White resigned

19 Nd3 a5