Chess: Adams is on course for the Candidates

WITH three rounds left to play in the Interzonal tournament in Biel, Switzerland, England's Michael Adams is well placed to become one of the 10 qualifiers for next year's Candidates' matches, writes William Hartston. The new Fide world championship system, revamped in the aftermath of the defection by Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short, works as follows:

In September, Jan Timman and Anatoly Karpov will contest the vacant title. The loser will join Artur Yusupov (beaten semi-finalist in the previous cycle) and 10 qualifiers from Biel in the first round of Candidates' matches in January. The six winners will then play another round to determine three semi- finalists. The fourth will be the world champion. The winners of the two semi-finals will contest the 1995 title match.

Meanwhile, the PCA (Professional Chessplayers' Association) has promised its own eliminating events, to be contested largely by the same players.

Players defeated in one 'world championship' will seek revenge victories in the other; 1994 promises to be a year of total confusion.

Leading scores after round 10 in Biel: Gelfand 71 2 ; Adams and Kamsky 7; Bareyev, Khalifman, Salov, Kramnik, Dreyev, Barua, van der Sterren, Portisch 61 2 .

In the following game from round eight in Biel, one of the pre-tournament favourites was defeated. Boris Gelfand's combination beginning with 20. Bxh7+] seemed to take Vishy Anand by surprise. The mating threats of 22. Ra4] and 23. g3] forced win of the queen.

----------------------------------------------------------------- White: Gelfand Black: Anand ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1 d4 d5 16 dxc5 Qxc5 2 c4 c6 17 Qa4 Rb8 3 Nc3 Nf6 18 0-0 0-0 4 e3 e6 19 Qxd7 Rfd8 5 Nf3 Nbd7 20 Bxh7 Kxh7 6 Bd3 dxc4 21 Qxf7 Rxd2 7 Bxc4 b5 22 Ra4 Qg5 8 Bd3 Bb7 23 g3 e5 9 a3 b4 24 Rh4+ Qxh4 10 Ne4 Nxe4 25 gxh4 Rd6 11 Bxe4 Qc7 26 h5 Be4 12 axb4 Bxb4+ 27 Qe7 Rbb6 13 Bd2 Bxd2+ 28 Qxe5 Re6 14 Nxd2 c5 29 Qf4 1-0 15 Qc2 Qb6 -----------------------------------------------------------------