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WMCC London diary
| Worldchampionship London 2000 - Day 4 | By Jeroen Noomen |
Round 6
Following the opening moves of the game FRITZ - CHESS TIGER on Kasparov.Com I had a good feeling: FRITZ had just entered one of my prepared variations, of which I know it is good for black. FRITZ deviated from the game Tiviakov-Van Wely, Dutch championship 2000, a game that Loek won in very nice style. FRITZ's choice didn't make much difference, since TIGER got a very promising position. It's always nice when you can hurt your opponent with a good piece of homework! Still, somehow FRITZ managed to hold on in the endgame. TIGER was an exchange down, but had a lot of compensation, with serveral white pawns being in danger. Unfortunately TIGER chose the wrong type of ending, of which it didn't know it is a draw….. So FRITZ was very lucky to escape with half a point. Unlucky TIGER, since with a win it would have shared first place. What happened in SOS-REBEL is not known to me, I can only say that the loss in this game must have come as a big disappointment for Ed. I was very depressed, too. This was the last chance for REBEL to stay on track for a possible win. Now everything is over….. Some more surprises, as JUNIOR was unable to beat ZCHESS. After a lucky start JUNIOR now starts losing very valuable half points. SHREDDER was caught into a prepared variation by NIMZO. The last one won a piece, but didn't manage to take full advantage of that. Again SHREDDER saved a completely lost position. It is really unbelievable that the worldchampion hasn't lost a game here, yet. After this round the pack of leaders was extended to 5 programs, all having 4 points.
Results sixth round
| Junior - Zchess | draw |
| Fritz - CHESS TIGER | draw |
| Nimzo - Shredder | draw |
| SOS - REBEL | 1:0 |
| Crafty - Insomniac | 0:1 |
| Francesca - Pacque Expert | 1:0 |
| Diep - Xinix | 1:0 |
Round 7
After a lot of draws in the last rounds between all favourites, there now remains the question who will be the best in 'beating the rest of the pack'. CHESS TIGER did a good job by beating DIEP, that had problems in the opening (I got this information from Frank Quisinsky's homepage). Also REBEL had no problems in beating XINIX. In the meantime FRITZ and SHREDDER took important victories. FRITZ slaughtered ZCHESS in a little more than 20 moves. SHREDDER finally looked impressive by winning in attacking style against SOS. This only took 31 moves. The only top pairing saw JUNIOR completely misplaying the opening against NIMZO. NIMZO won a pawn, but had no idea how to make use of it. JUNIOR was able to close the position completely and it was likely that yet another top game would end in a draw. Finally NIMZO decided to give it a try and sacrificed an exchange. This was unclear, but the tactics worked and NIMZO could break down the defence of JUNIOR. This means that FRITZ, NIMZO and SHREDDER share the first place.
Results seventh round
| Shredder - SOS | 1:0 |
| Junior - Nimzo | 0:1 |
| Zchess - Fritz | 0:1 |
| CHESS TIGER - Diep | 1:0 |
| Insomniac - Francesca | 1:0 |
| Xinix - REBEL | 0:1 |
| Pacque Expert - Crafty | 0:1 |
Standings after the seventh round
| 5,0 points: | Shredder, Fritz, Nimzo |
| 4,5 points: | CHESS TIGER |
| 4,0 points: | Junior, SOS, REBEL, Insomniac |
| 3,5 points: | Zchess, Crafty |
| 3,0 points: | Francesca |
| 2,5 points: | Diep |
| 1,0 points: | Xinix |
| 0,0 points: | Pacque Expert |
All games of WMCC 2000! Download wmcc2000.pgn.
The results and standings from WMCCC 2000