Games: Chess

Michael Adams had no trouble holding the world number one, Garry Kasparov, to a draw in the ninth round of the Tilburg tournament. Indeed, he gained a clear advantage from the opening and seemed to have a good chance at least of making the champion suffer the indignity of having to defend a passive position for some time. At move 23, however, Adams made some a miscalculation in allowing a black rook to advance into his side of the board. In Adams's own words, he became "confused" after 23 ... Rb4 and decided to force a draw rather than risk losing the thread of the game completely.

For the second time in the tournament, Kasparov had found himself in trouble when meeting an unorthodox line against the Sicilian Defence. Peter Svidler had beaten him with a home-made concoction beginning 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.c3, and this time Adams tricked him into a variation that he would normally not play by starting with a closed system with Nc3 and g3, then dodging into an open variation with 6.d4.

White: Michael Adams. Black: Garry Kasparov

1 e4 c5 2 Nc3 e6 3 Nf3 a6 4 g3 b5 5 Bg2 Bb7 6 d4 cxd4 7 Nxd4 b4 8 Na4 Nf6 9 Bg5 Qa5 10 Bxf6 gxf6 11 c3 Nc6 12 0-0 Bg7 13 cxb4 Qxc4 14 Ne2 Bh6 15 f4 0-0 16 Rc1 a5 17 a3 Qe7 18 Nc5 Ba6 19 Rf2 Ra7 20 Nxa6 Rxa6 21 Nc3 Rb8 22 Rd2 Ra7 23 a4 Rb4 24 Na2 Rb8 25 Nc3 Rb4 26 Na2 Rb8 27 Nc3 drawn by repetition.

Despite this draw, Kasparov still leads with 7 points, half a point ahead of Kramnik and Svidler. Adams and Leko share fourth place on 51/2 points.