Michael Adams rises to world No16 on back of victory at Werder Bremen
Leonard Barden
guardian.co.uk, Friday 23 March 2012 19.02 EDT
Last Saturday an Englishman scored a title-deciding winner at one of Germany’s top football stadiums. And yes, it really is a story for the chess column.
Werder Bremen hosted the penultimate Bundesliga weekend in the spacious business lounge of its football club, who conveniently had an away fixture against Dortmund. Bremen had won nine, drawn two of their previous matches, while the league title holders, Baden-Baden, had conceded just one draw. Now it was head to head, for which B-B unleashed their biggest gun, the world champion Vishy Anand. The UK No1 Michael Adams played board three, behind the Russian champion Peter Svidler.
Bremen spoilt a great chance near the end of a tight match when Pavel Eljanov missed a likely win against Anand. Seven of the eight games were drawn, but after six hours’ play Adams was still in action, nibbling away with a slight edge. The 40-year-old Cornishman has nicknames of The Spider and The Boa Constrictor which he lived up to by slowly squeezing a pawn through to queen in 68 moves to cement a 4.5-3.5 victory for his team. There are still two matches of the season left, but Bremen have virtually conceded the title.
Adams’s strong Bundesliga season has spiked his world ranking to No16, a six-year high. In his best years he was world No4, a Fide world finalist, and close to a match with Garry Kasparov.
Luke McShane also had a great weekend where the 28-year-old England No2’s world ranking jumped 19 places to No39, his best ever. Then came a surprise bonus: Moscow’s Tal Memorial announced that McShane had totalled an astonishing 13,800 votes in winning its online poll for a wildcard place in June’s prestige event. The world Nos 1 and 2 Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian, who both conceded draws to McShane in the London Classic, will be the top seeds.
McShane is currently often listed as “the world’s best amateur”, and it is unclear whether he will be granted time off from his City job to take up his place in Moscow.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk
Adams can still play mean chess.