A multitude of contests

Besides the Grand Chess Tour final, an abundance of chess was played at this year’s London Chess Classic. More than 2,000 children visited the festival, which was organised by the charity Chess in Schools and Communities. Fittingly, two talented youngsters shared first place in the Fide Open event — 14-year-old Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa from India and 18-year-old Anton Smirnov, from Australia.
 
Michael Adams added another title to his collection by winning the British Knockout Championship. He had a close shave in the quarter finals, narrowly surviving an Armageddon game against the promising young player Marcus Harvey, who sailed through a qualifying tournament with 8.5/9 the previous day. So, like last year, I battled Adams in a hard-fought semi-final which was only
decided in the final blitz game. This year, he got the better of me and went on to beat David Howell in the final. This week’s game is a crucial one from their match.
 
In the Pro-Biz Cup, held at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, grandmasters were paired with leading business brains to raise money for the charity. Players alternated moves, and each duo was permitted two brief time-outs for consultation. I teamed up with Russell Picot, who chairs the trustee board of the HSBC Bank (UK) Pension Fund. Paired against the entrepreneur Etan Ilfeld and the world no. 4 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the first round, we won a sharp game — see the puzzle. With a good finish, we tied for first with Magnus Carlsen and Demis Hassabis, CEO of artificial intelligence company DeepMind, and Russell showed admirable composure to win a one-on-one blitz playoff against Demis.
 
Michael Adams–David Howell
British Knockout Championship (Rapid), 2019
 
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 4 d3 Bc5 5 Bxc6 dxc6 6 O-O Nd7 7 Be3 Qe7 7… Bxe3 8 fxe3 gives White play along the open f-file.