European Chess International in Liverpool

Short played Alekhine's Defence in round 3 (and won against Simon Fowler). I wonder if he'll play it against Adams? Alekhine's used to be quite popular twenty years ago, but I hardly ever see it nowadays.

Originally posted by Jie
Black could have gone 16 ..Qd7 or 16..g6 instead of playing Bc8 and then not picking the rook. He should rather have taken the rook rather than what he did.

Originally posted by Fat Lady
Short played Alekhine's Defence in round 3 (and won against Simon Fowler). I wonder if he'll play it against Adams? Alekhine's used to be quite popular twenty years ago, but I hardly ever see it nowadays.

Ulf Andersson has a zero point bye in round 9 - anyone know the story behind that?

Just a guess, but...he'd already used his half-point bye and for whatever reason needed another day off?

Originally posted by Fat Lady
No, Short played the French Defence. He's chosen a very interesting line which I thought was just bad for Black. However I've never seen 7. ... Nh6 before, so maybe he's worked out a way to make it playable for Black again!

Oh no! It looks like a forced draw after ten moves. What a disappointment. I though Short might have gone for a win with 9. ... g5

Here's a much better game - David Tebb's win from round 9 which brought him back to 50% - 4.5/9 with one round to go.

not many players play 1d4 and also 1e4...do you think this is his way, or he just did it because of lower rated opponents ?

I can testify that our Mr Tebb was undone in Round 8 by the shocking shirt gambit. The young Mr Eggleston sported a shirt so loud and tasteless that Tebb simply had no chance.

I often considered wearing a b/w checked shirt covered in chess pieces.
I wonder if it would put my opponent off.

Also, how about a shirt covered with printed analysis of your favourite opening?

You could sit there reading your clothes.

The problem with that is your opponent would be the one who would get to read the analysis, not you ! Maybe you could fox him by wearing a top with some faulty analysis printed on it ...

Early on in round one David Tebb versus a 2570 GM played 26 Nd4 where I can see his preference for knights comes from. (As Bxd5 is playable immediately).

A pathetic 13 move draw by Adams in the last round handed first place to Werle, who himself drew in 17 moves (he started the round 1/2 point clear of Adams). Short won very quickly to draw level with Adams.