5th February, 2003

In the past, the only connection Gibraltar had with chess was that of
being betrayed by the British Government, like a pawn in some crazy
chess game of international politics and double dealing with Spain over
a 300 year old sovereignty conflict.

While the latest counter-gambit of a referendum by the 30,000 or so
Gibraltarians saw an overwhelming and almost unanimous vote against such
claims, it didn't however stop chess being an issue on the Rock - they
are now more than halfway through staging their first-ever international
tournament on the Mediterranean resort.

The new addition to the international arena is the GibTelecom Chess
Festival, containing both a Masters and Amateurs event with a total
prize fund of $15,000, running 28 January to 6 February at the Caleta
Hotel. The top-rated Masters section, headed by former world
championship challenger Nigel Short contains no fewer than 31
grandmasters among the cosmopolitan field of 58.

As expected, Short made the early running in the tournament and took the
overall lead in round three with 3/3 after beating Scotland's John Shaw.
However Short's chances of winning the tournament suffered a major
setback in round five, when the top seed lost to Cypriote GM Vasili
Kotronias, who now has a commanding one point lead over the chasing
pack.

Standings: 1 Kotronias (Cyprus) 5.5/6; 2-3 Sulskis (Lithuania), McShane
(England) 4.5; 4-15 Epishin (Russia), Palac (Croatia), Korneev (Russia),
Short (England), Hamdouchi (Morroco), B Lalic (England), Johansen
(Australia), Tiviakov (Holland), Speelman (England), Cherniaev (Russia),
Reinderman (Holland), Pavlovic (Yugoslavia) 4. Scottish scores: 26 Colin
McNab 3; 30 John Shaw 3.

A wonderful victory from Shaw over the top-rated Norwegian GM Simen
Agdestein. The bullets soon start to fly as Shaw fires at random at the
number six seed with his trademark Sicilian Kalashnikov.
S Agdestein J Shaw
Gibraltar Masters, (2)
Sicilian Kalashnikov
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 e5 5 Nb5 d6 6 c4 Be7 7 N1c3 a6 8 Na3
f5 9 Bd3 f4 10 g3 Nf6 11 gxf4 exf4 12 Bxf4 0-0 13 Rg1 Ne5 14 Be2 Nfg4 15
Bg3 Bh4 16 Rg2 Bxg3 17 hxg3 Qf6 18 Nd5 Qh6 19 Bf1 Nf3+ 20 Ke2 Nge5 21
Ne7+ Kh8 22 Nxc8 Raxc8 23 Qc1 Nd4+ 24 Kd1 Qh1 25 Kd2 Rf3 26 Nb1 Nxc4+ 27
Ke1 d5 28 Nc3 Re8 29 Qd1 Ne3 0-1

JOHN B HENDERSON