Grandmaster Michael Adams of England pulled off a scintillating victory over GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan in the fifth game of the World Chess Championship final, now drawing to a close, in Tripoli, Libya, on Sunday.
Coming from behind for the second time in the six-game final, Adams levelled scores after five games at 2.5-2.5. All eyes will now be on the last game today (Monday) in which Kasimdzhanov will have the advantage of playing white, the colour that has yielded him a 100 per cent score so far in the tournament.
In the event of a draw in the sixth game, the match will go to tie-breakers, in which a different set of games of shorter duration will determine the winner.
Adams has not played any tie-breakers in the entire championship and that might be a handicap for the Englishman.
He made most of his opportunities against the Uzbek, who employed the Tchigorin variation of Ruy Lopez closed. After following routine theory, in his final game with white under
normal time control, Adams capitalised on the chance to close the queenside completely and built a devastating attack on the black king by uncorking a brilliant plan.
Kasimdzhanov had little chance once white was able to organise his pieces and steamroll his king side pawns. Soon black's forces were mere spectators to the slaughter carried out by Adams.
The end came abruptly for Kasimdzhanov as he tried for a desperate counter attack by sacrificing a pawn. The queens got exchanged and the game was over in 46 moves.
This is the second time that Adams made a comeback in the final. Earlier, after losing the second game, the Englishman had put up a virtuoso performance to level scores, but another loss in the fourth game shook him again.
The championship, that began with 124 players, carries a total prize pool of over US $1.5 million with the winner getting a purse of US $100,000 and a match against World's top rated player Garry Kasparov as part of a reunification treaty.
The moves (Game 5):
Michael Adams vs Rustam Kasimdzhanov
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. h3 Na5 10. Bc2 c5 11. d4 Qc7 12. d5 Nc4 13. a4 Bd7 14. b3 Nb6 15. a5 Nc8 16. c4 b4 17. Nbd2 g6 18. Nf1 Nh5 19. Bh6 Re8 20. Qd2 Bf8 21. g4 Ng7 22. N3h2 Qd8 23. f4 exf4 24. Qxf4 Qe7 25. Nf3 f6 26. Ng3 Rd8 27. Rf1 Ne8 28. Bxf8 Qxf8 29. e5 dxe5 30. Nxe5 Ncd6 31. Rae1 Qg7 32. Nd3 Rac8 33. Qf2 f5 34. Ne5 Nf6 35. Nxd7 Rxd7 36. gxf5 g5 37. Re6 Kh8 38. Bd1 g4 39. hxg4 Rg8 40. Qf4 Nxg4 41. Bxg4 Qxg4 42. Qxg4 Rxg4 43. Kh2 h5 44. Kh3 Rd4 45. f6 Nf7 46. Rf5 - black resigned
