Howell beats Grandelius in England against Sweden match
Evenly matched
On the occasion of its 30th anniversary, the London Chess Center organized a match between two leading grandmasters from England and Sweden, David Howell and Nils Grandelius. The competition took place March 2-12 and was held at the Swedish Ambassador’s residence in London. No spectators allowed.
Nigel Short takes us on an electrifying journey through a very rich chess career, where he beat no less than twelve world champions. His experience of tournaments and matches around the world – Short has visited a total of 89 countries – can be seen in the stories that precede the games that he comments on with humor and instructive insights.
Ten matches were played, five of them with a classic “slow” time control – 40 moves in 120 minutes with 30 seconds steps per move – and five matches with the slightly shorter FIDE time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves and 30 seconds steps per move. Pulling offers before move 30 was prohibited.
- David Howell, born 1990, currently occupies fourth place in the English rankings behind Michael Adams, Gawain Jones and Luke McShane with 2646 Elo ratings. At the age of 16, he was the youngest Briton to receive the Grand Master title. Three times, in 2009, 2013 and 2014, Howell won the British Championship.
- Nils Grandelius, born 1993, has been the highest ranked player in Sweden without interruption since 2015. He currently has 2663 in ratings. In 2015, he won the Swedish individual championship.
In the 10-game confrontation, the two grandmasters turned out to be equally matched opponents.
After three draws, Howell took the lead after winning a marathon meeting of 86 moves with the white pieces.
A little more chess in the beautiful hall | Photo: John Saunders
That win gave David Howell the lead, but Nils Grandelius equalized in the second match, which was played with a FIDE time control. The Swede’s remarkable win was analyzed in depth by Daniel King in his Power Play show
In Game 8, Howell immediately restored his former advantage.
35.Re1 [35.Re1 Qd8 (35…Qf8 36.Ra8) 36.Qxd8 Nxd8 37.Rxe8+] 1–0
During the competition, 10,000 euros were raised to help Ukraine.