by Aviv Friedman

Vallejo - Adams:

Vallejo - Adams:   Black got a pretty favorable hedgehog structure, without the white Nc3 and black Nf6. I think that eases a bit on black’s task of positioning his dark-squared B on the a1-h8 diagonal, and white is missing some of the pressure against d5 and b5. Usually, against 12…d6 if white chooses the 13.b3 line, he places his B on either b2 or a3, here he placed it on e3 and later f2, seemingly, without much venom. After Adams equalized, and was getting ready for some action of his own (an idea like …e5 somewhere) Paco realized that sitting and waiting would lead to bad news, and went aggressive with 19.g4 and 20.b4. The majority opinion was not too high of this. I, myself, remembered a famous Timman - Seirawan game where black had a solid position a la Mickey’s and when white played the g4 and b4 ‘stuff’ his position was blown to pieces. That did not happen here, although many thought it might. 23..h5(?) looks too loosening to me - black’s feared Ng4 perhaps, but now he was missing his "h" pawn to keep the "h" file closed. 25…Bf8?! compounding the kingside weaknesses should have spelled an upset, and a first win to the Spaniard had he played 36.Rc2! instead of 36.h3 (Vallejo missed 37...Be2! there) for example: 36…Bb3!? 37.Rb2 Bc2 (what else!? 37…Rc2 38.Rxc2 Bxc2 is similar) 38.h3! Qf2 39.Re2 wins. True, after 39…Qh4 40.Qxc2 Nxf6 there are some technical efforts needed but it should suffice. In the actual game, white thought he could allow the black Q to penetrate to f2 and go to g5 with his, but indeed 37…Be2! Was a very nice forced resource, forcing a draw.

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