After my loss yesterday I was keen to bounce back in round eight. I was paired against David Howell, a young talent who has matured from being simply a chess prodigy to a well rounded strong player and number four in England. I had the White pieces and decided to try repeating what worked so well against Gupta in the last round of the Commonwealth Championships. He deviated early on but the arising structure wasn’t so different. David, true to form, used lots of time and I quickly built up a big lead on the clock and after an inaccuracy a big advantage on the board too. I kept my cool and managed to convert the full point, a win I’m very happy with as David is a very strong player. Top board was a draw so I’ve narrowed the gap to half a point with three rounds to go.
This round I managed to visit the Commentary room where you can check out my comments of the game.(Starts 02:58:33 approximately until 03:14:31)
Here’s the game if you have missed it!
###pgn###[Event “British Championships”] [Site “Sheffield”] [Date “2011.08.02”] [Round “8”] [White “Jones, G.”] [Black “Howell, D.”] [Result “1-0”] [ECO “C54”] [WhiteElo “2606”] [BlackElo “2625”] [PlyCount “79”] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Bc4 Bc5 5. c3 Nf6 6. e5 d5 7. Bb5 Ne4 8. cxd4 Bb6 9. Nc3 O-O 10. Be3 Ne7 11. Bd3 Bf5 12. O-O Nxc3 13. bxc3 Rc8 14. Nh4 Bxd3 15. Qxd3 c5 16. Bg5 Qd7 17. Bxe7 Qxe7 18. Nf5 Qd7 19. Qf3 Qe6 20. c4 g6 21. Nh6+ Kg7 22. cxd5 Qd7 23. Ng4 Qf5 24. Qxf5 gxf5 25. Ne3 Kg6 26. Nc4 cxd4 27. Nxb6 axb6 28. Rfd1 f4 29. Rxd4 Kf5 30. Re1 Rfe8 31. g3 fxg3 32. hxg3 Rc5 33. g4+ Kg5 34. d6 h5 35. e6 fxe6 36. Rxe6 Rd8 37. d7 Rc7 38. Re5+ Kg6 39. Rd6+ Kg7 40. Rg5+ 1-0%%%pgn%%%
Tomorrow I have another White against Jonathan Hawkins, an IM who has been improving at a very fast rate and already drawn with Mickey Adams here so will be another very tough game.