Chess

Andrew Whiteley

The large number of entries — 94 — for (or the biennial world team championship olympiad) in Lucerne, desirable though II! is, creates problems; particularly as costs lit the number of rounds to 14, insuffi- cient to sort out so many teams. But at least this is no doubt about the eventual winner h is time After recent indifferent results

a ccond to Hungary in 1978 and winners on

tie -break in 1980) the Russians look set to s,tifY their role as favourites by a substan- tial margin. With four rounds to go they hitave established a lead of four points and have already beaten the next three seeds — 'SA, Hungary and England. s; rIgland's fourth seeding is their highest th'Ilce the second world war, not counting b e olympiad in Israel in 1976 which was A°ger Yecnted by many of the top countries.

ten rounds of mixed results their seedi

ng seems about right, and with some t°11' their strongest rivals still to be played e/' will be hard pushed to obtain a medal.

But they have good chances of improving on their equal sixth place in 1980 and so ob- taining their best result since the second world war.

After eight rounds England were equal with the USA, but in round 9 they suffered an unexpected disaster against the USSR, losing by 1/2 - 312, reminding us of the bad old days when the Russians always used to crush us. This defeat pushed England down to equal 10th to 13th position. It was Speelman who salvaged the half-point in his match against Polugayevsky. Stean's game against Beliaysky was indicative of the general air of disaster.

Beliaysky-Stean: Round 9; Sicilian Poisoned

Pawn.

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6Bg5 e6 7 f4 Qb6 This variation forms a major chapter in the recent Nunn/Stean monograph Najdorf Sicilian. 8 Qd2 Qxb2 9 Nb3 Nbd7 (Pro- bably stronger is ... Nc6) 10 Bd3 b5 11 0-0 Nc5 12 NxcS dxc5 13 Bxf6 gxf6 14 Rabl Qa3 15 NxbS Black resigns. If 15 ... axb5 16 Bxb5 + Ke7 17 Rfdl mates. A sensational miniature.

The Russians already seem to be walking off with the team championship, with Kar- pov and Kasparov both in excellent form, and they followed their demolition of England with a 4-0 victory over Switzerland, including a brilliant win by Kasparov playing on top board against Kor- chnoi. In the same round on Tuesday England bounced back, demolishing Holland by 4-0. The USSR now has 30 points, ahead of England and the USA both with 26.

The individual English scores after ten rounds are: Miles 5/8, Nunn 6/8, Speelman 41/2/7, Stean 21/2/5, Mestel 4%2/7 and Chandler 31/2/5.

Olympiads provide an ideal setting for David and Goliath encounters. Among the more interesting results so far are wins by the Scots Mackay and Macnabb over grandmasters Hort and Sigurjonsson, In- donesia's 4-0 win over Finland and the English women's 3-0 win over Yugoslavia. The following game would have provided a major upset a few years ago but after China's recent successes it shocked few peo- ple except the unfortunate loser.

Gheorghiu (Romania) — Liu (China): Modern Benoni Defence.

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 e6 4 Nc3 exd5 5 cxd5 d6 6 Nf3 g6 7 Nd2 Nbd7 8 e4 Bg7 9 Bet 0-0 100-0 Re8 11 a4 Ne5 Dubious. The knight will soon be fac- ed with the choice of ignominious retreat or perilous advance. 12 Rel a6 13 f4 Neg4 14 Bf3 h5 15 Nc4 Nxe4 Ingenious but unsound. 16 Rxe4 Bd4 + 17 Rxd4 cxd4 18 Ne4 Qh4 19 Ncxd6 Qhx2 + 20 Kf 1 Bf5 21 NxfS gxf5 22 Nf2 d3 Ob- jectively 22 ... Ne3 + was the best try but still inadequate. Instead Black stakes all on a trap. 23 Qxd3 h4 24 QxfS?? 24 Bd2 would have left White well on top. 24 ... Qgl + Ouch! White resigns. Timeo Sinaeos el done ferentes!