Chess - The Scotsman 10/06/13

BRITISH No 1 Michael Adams and Germany’s Arkadij Naiditsch – the current world number 33 – head an impressive line-up for the second Scottish Blitz Championship, sponsored by Walkers Shortbread, which takes place at Surgeon’s Hall in Edinburgh this coming Saturday, 15 June.

Adams, the world No 18, now takes the top seed billing ahead of last year’s champion Naiditsch. Thirteen other titled players have entered, with England’s Danny Gormally heading the list that also includes seven Scottish champions – Colin McNab, Andrew Greet, John Shaw, Craig Pritchett, Douglas Bryson, Andrew Muir and Alan Tate – among the 90-strong field so far.

If that doesn’t whet your appetite, then there’s also a current Scottish world champion playing, Alan Minnican of Wandering Dragons, who last month in Crete played the tournament of his life to capture the ACO World Amateur Championship title (below 2200) with an impressive winning score of 7/9.

Kudos goes to Jonathan Edwards once again for putting on an even better Scottish Blitz than last year’s debut – a truly superb coup!

It’s not too late to enter (£20), with all relevant information available at www.scottishblitz.com.

M Potterat - A Minnican

ACO World Amateur, (6)

The Sniper

1 d4 g6 2 e4 Bg7 3 Nc3 c5 4 d5 d6 5 Be2 Nf6 6 Bf4 Qa5 7 Qd2 0–0 8 f3 Re8 9 g4 Nbd7 10 Bh6 Bh8 11 g5 Nh5 12 Nh3 Qb4 13 0–0–0 Nb6 14 Nf2 c4 15 a3 Qa5 16 Nb1 Qc5 17 Ng4 Na4 18 c3 a5 19 Rdf1 Ra6 20 Ne3 Bh3 21 Re1 b5 22 Bd1 Rb8 23 Ng4 Rab6 24 e5 b4 25 axb4 axb4 26 Bxa4 bxc3 27 Nxc3 Rxb2 28 Qxb2 Rxb2 29 Kxb2 Bxg4 30 fxg4 Nf4 31 Rb1 Bxe5 32 Ka2 Qa7 33 Rhc1 Ne2 34 Ka3 Nxc3 35 Rb4 Qc5 36 Bb3 Qa5+ 37 Ba4 Qxb4+! 38 Kxb4 Na2+ 39 Kxc4 Nxc1 40 Kb5 Nd3 41 Bc2 Nf2 42 h3 Nxh3 43 Kc6 e6 44 Kd7 Nf4 45 dxe6 fxe6 46 Ke7 d5 47 Ba4 d4 48 Bb3 d3 49 Bc4 d2 50 Bb3 Bg7 51 Bd1 Nd5+ 0–1