by Aviv Friedman

Adams - Ivanchuk:

Adams - Ivanchuk:   The Paulsen Sicilian gets one last try in this tournament, this time from Ivanchuk. 11.Be3 is new, 11.Nxc6, which is more usual, has been seen before. The game wasn't too lively, white was nagging black's weak queenside pawns, but never really seem to have had anything. Eventually, on move 22, Chuky decided to just suffer a bit to accelerate the draw by going 22…Qh6. Black might have looked a bit ugly in that endgame, but with such scattered pawns, even winning the 'e' pawn was not going to be enough, unless black blundered. As a matter of fact, on the last move, 46.Rh8 in a dead drawn position, Chuky didn't move for close to 10 minutes. He turned to his side, as if annoyed that no draw offer accompanied that move. He stared away from the board, but not in his usual concentrated way. It was clear he was miffed. When after all that time of obviously doing nothing, he wrote his preference on his beverage ticket and handed it to the arbiter. Mickey had enough, and a draw was registered. I suppose Vasia needed to add 'to go' to his drink order!

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