97th British Championships and "Mickey" Adams

The 97th British Championships is currently going on at the Sports Centre, University of Kent Canterbury, CT2 7NL finishing tomorrow, Saturday 7 August. The Championship is notable for two things: 1) The return to tournament play of GM Michael Adams, England's present top chessplayer (except for one brief period when Nigel Short overtook him at the end of last year); 2) The same GM Michael Adams "running away" with the title of British Champion, securing the title with one round to spare 9/10 (+7 =2 0-).

Puzzles from GM Adams play:

Round 5


Why is 23 Nxf7 a blunder? Do you see how it leads to a forced mate some moves later?

Round 7


White just played 29 Rd1. What do you play as Black to win?

Instructive games from GM Adams play:

Round 1
How to crush the King's Gambit!

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Round 2
How to play the Caro-Kann Advanced Variation

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Round 8
According to GM Kevin Spraggett:

This round saw a tough fight! The experienced Conquest dug in deep with his CaroKann and built up a solid ''come and get me'' fortress. Adams was up to the challenge! He used the e5-square as a manoeuvring pivot for his two Knights and probed Conquest's position time and time again. Then before Conquest knew what had happened, he lost his e6-pawn! A very instructive game and one of the best from the championship!

Play and learn.

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