chess

Michael Adams scored a great triumph in the Intel Grand Prix in London last weekend, beating Alexei Dreyev by 2-0 in the final, but what, you may ask, happened to all the more fancied runners?

The most fancied of all, Garry Kasparov, decided to give the London event a miss. With his PCA world title defence coming up next week against Anand, he said he needed time to acclimatise himself to New York. He was perhaps also happy not to pay another visit to the arena where a machine had beaten him last year.

Anand himself turned up in London, cheerfully willing to play a few games of chess after the seclusion of several months' preparation for his world title bid. Wins against Lautier and Sokolov took him through to the semi- finals, but he was then beaten by Dreyev.

The other half of the draw was full of Englishmen. Adams beat Jon Speelman in the first round and Tony Miles in the semi-final. In between, he defeated Jeroen Piket of the Netherlands. Meanwhile, with Vassily Ivanchuk eliminated by Dreyev, and Vladimir Kramnik knocked out by Miles no previous Grand Prix winner had survived to the final.

The blunder of the event happened in a first round game. Vladimir Malaniuk mishandled an early advantage, then attacked with 26.Nxg6. All would have been unclear after 28.Ne7+; instead he allowed a simple mate in two.

White: Vladimir Malaniuk

Black: Vassily Ivanchuk

1 d4 Nf6 16 Rfe1 Qe7

2 Nf3 e6 17 Re3 g6

3 c4 b6 18 Rae1 b5

4 e3 Bb4+ 19 axb5 axb5

5 Bd2 Bxd2+ 20 Qxb5 Reb8

6 Nbxd2 Bb7 21 Qd3 Rxb2

7 Bd3 c5 22 Nc4 Rba2

8 e4 d6 23 e5 dxe5

9 d5 exd5 24 d6 Qe6

10 cxd5 0-0 25 Nfxe5 Nd5

11 0-0 Ba6 26 Nxg6 Nxe3

12 Qe2 Bxd3 27 Rxe3 Qf6

13 Qxd3 Nbd7 28 Nge5 Qxf2+

14 h3 Re8 White resigns

15 a4 a6