Michael Adams and John Nunn scored a golden double for England at the world senior championships for over-50s and over-65s, which ended at Terrasini, Sicily, on Sunday. The pair were both top seeded, then saw their chances slip in the middle rounds before they launched decisive finishing spurts to capture their world titles. First prize in each section was €3,000.
Both winners have a strong connection with Cornwall – Nunn currently resides in Bude, while Adams was raised in Truro.
In their prime years, Adams and Nunn were close to the world’s best. Adams, an eight-time British champion, was narrowly defeated in the final of the Fide world championship in 2004, while Nunn, a mathematician and three-time world champion in chess problem solving, reached the world top 10 and went on to become an eminent chess author, whose 30-plus books are lucid and helpful models of instruction in all phases of the game.
Nunn, 68, retained his over-65 world championship from 2022, this time against much stronger opposition in a mammoth 152-player field headed by 10 grandmasters, who included the former Soviets Yuri Balashov and Rafael Vaganian. Nunn’s crown was in danger when he went astray in a superior position against Daniel Cámpora, and the Argentinian was still ahead at the start of the final round before losing to Lubomir Ftacnik, leaving Nunn’s 8.5/11 and superior tiebreak to the Slovakian as a winning total.
For Adams, 51, the over-50 was his first world crown in a long and distinguished career. Back in 2004, he had been agonisingly close to victory in the Fide knockout world championship before losing the final on tiebreak to Rustam Kasimdzhanov. This time, the outcome justified his decision to prefer the journey to Sicily to competing in the Fide Grand Swiss on the Isle of Man. His opposition in Terrasini included 16 grandmasters.
Adams said afterwards that he intends to play more senior events in future. His high 2670 Fide rating will make him favourite in 2024 unless Vishy Anand and Vasyl Ivanchuk decide to compete. “It felt great to win a world title,” Adams said. “Especially given the slim chances of that with two rounds to go.”
It was a victory achieved by the chess equivalent of a photo-finish, as Adams scored an unbeaten 8.5/11 to edge out Serbia’s Suat Atalik on tiebreak. The first tiebreaker was their drawn individual game, and they were also level on the second tiebreaker, but Adams was fractionally ahead, 77 to 76.5, on the third Buchholz tiebreaker based on the scores of opponents played. A close call, but also compensation for 2004 and 2014 when Keith Arkell was denied the same world over-50 title when his tiebreak was fractionally behind Zurab Sturua.
Adams played a powerful attacking game in the final round, and was clearly winning at the end when his opponent blundered his queen. Nunn’s persistent final-round pressure paid off when his opponent blundered by 23…Rg8? which led to the loss of a bishop and the game.
The unlucky player in the over-65s was Terry Chapman, who has had his best results in European senior championships, including two silver medals and a tie for first to fourth. Chapman shared the lead with Rainer Knaak on 6.5/8, and outplayed the German GM by fine strategic chess in their ninth round meeting. Knowing that a top three place meant an automatic GM or IM title, he declined a draw even though short of time, only to blunder and lose.
England’s manager of senior chess, Nigel Povah, has been a driving force in the performances of the past two years, when the over-65, over-50, and women’s over-50 teams have all won gold. Povah told the English Chess Federation website: “ These two successes at the seniors level are further evidence of England’s growing reputation as a leading nation at seniors chess, after our recent successes at both World and European senior team championships.”
Next year’s world senior teams event is in Krakow, Poland, in the first half of July, and any Guardian readers born in 1974 or earlier and rated above 1800 would be candidates for one of the England teams. Contact Nigel.Povah52@gmail.com if you are interested.
The $460,000 Grand Swiss and $140,000 Women’s Grand Swiss also ended on Sunday evening at Douglas, Isle of Man. It was a double Indian success, though not by the expected teenage prodigies as Vidit Gujrathi, 29, won the open event while Rameshbabu Vaishali, the 22-year-old sister of Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, won the women’s Grand Swiss. For a brother and sister to both reach a Candidates is unique in chess history.
Vidit qualified for the 2024 world title Candidates in Toronto, as did the world No 3, Hikaru Nakamura, who continues to play the best chess of his career at age 35. Nakamura was very close to qualifying for a world title match at the 2022 Candidates, and went on to win Norway Chess at Stavanger 2023 ahead of Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana.
Nikita Vitiugov, the former Russian who is now the England No 1, suffered his only defeat in the final round, but his 6.5/11 was still rated above the 2700 elite grandmaster level. Shreyas Royal, at 14 one of the youngest in the tournament, scored 4.5/11 against a field including nine 2600+ GMs and missed his second GM norm by just half a point.
India now has two representatives in the open Candidates – Praggnanandhaa and Vidit. There could have been a third, but Dommaraju Gukesh’s form has fallen away in recent weeks.
Nakamura and Caruana will represent the US, Ian Nepomniachtchi qualifies as loser of the 2023 world championship match, while the little-known Azerbaijani Nijat Abasov qualified via the World Cup. The Candidates will be played at Toronto in April 2024. Two places remain to be decided, one by rating and the other by the Fide tournament circuit.
Despite his indifferent form in recent months, Alireza Firouzja is still best placed to take the rating spot, as his live rating is 2762 against 2754 for Anish Giri and 2752 for Wesley So. The Sinquefield Cup at St Louis in the second half of November will decide the issue, since all three contenders are playing there. Giri also leads the Fide circuit race (Caruana has more points, but has already qualified) ahead of Gukesh and So, which is an extra insurance for Firouzja.
Although she disappointed in the Women’s Grand Swiss, Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina is still the favourite to win the Women’s Candidates with one caveat. Hou Yifan, the former champion and all-time No 2 woman after Judit Polgar, can capture the ratings spot if she plays another 15 classical games before the January 2024 rating list. Hou is only a part-time player now, but if she decides to take the world crown seriously again she would be a strong contender.
Meanwhile, China’s world champion, Ding Liren, who has not played a game in public for six months, has announced that he will be returning to action at Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee in January. Ding explained that his long absence was due to an unspecified illness. It is very likely that some of the candidates will also compete at Wijk aan Zee, so that the results there should be informative.
What of Carlsen? Just a few days ago, the world No 1 completed a rare double by winning the early and late versions of chess.com’s Titled Tuesday. The Norwegian lost only one game out of 22, but the most remarkable feature was his choice of openings.
His two King’s Gambits began 1 e4 e5 2 f4 Bc5 3 Qh5!? and 1 e4 e5 2 f4 exf4 3 Nc3 !? Qh4+ 4 Ke2, while he also used 1 h4?! d5 2 d4. Finally, his key game against Firouzja opened 1 h4?! a6!? only the third time that this sequence has been played between two masters.
Next up: the European team championships at Budva, Montenegro, starting on Saturday, where England are seeded fourth with realistic hopes of a medal.
3893: 1 Qxd3! Qxd3 2 Nxf6+! Bxf6 3 Rg1+ Kf8 4 Bh6+ Bg7 5 Bxg7+ Kg8 6 Rh8 mate
