Chess

Wonder women

Raymond Keene

Dia Cramling has dominated news about

women's chess ever since her exploits at last year's Lloyds Bank Masters. During the Lucerne Olympiad even the world champion, Maia Chiburdanidze, seemed awed by her presence and rapidly agreed a draw in their game, although she had the White pieces and stood somewhat better. Now Chiburdanidze has effectively reclaim- ed her status after an astonishingly fine per- formance at Dortmund, where she not only defeated Chandler and Short, but also miss- ed the Grandmaster norm by a mere half- point. This represents one of the outstan- ding female performances of all time in an international chess event.

Dortmund Tournament, April 1983

12 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112 Tit 1 Saba (GM)

X V1 1/2 I 0

I 1 1/2 1 1 1 8 2 Hod t (GM) 1/2 X 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 1 1/2 0 1I 1 71/2 3 Chandler (IM) 1/2 1/2 X 0 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 1 1 1 1 71/2 4 Chiburdanidze (WGM) 0 1/2 1 X 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 1/2 1 1 7 5 Kindermann (IM) 1/21/21/21/2X 01/211011/26 6 Wedberg (IM) 101/21/21 X1/20 1/210 1/2 51/2 7 Lobron (GM)

Q 0 0 Vi Vi Vi X1/2 I I 1/21

51/2 8 Csom (GM) 0 1/21/2001 1/2X1/21.1 1/2 51/2 9 Gufeld (IM) 1/2 1 0 1/2 0 1/2 0 1/2 X 1 1/2 1/2 5 10 Grzesik 0001/210000 X 1 1/23 11 Short (1M) 0 0 0 0 0 1 1/2 0 1/2 0 X 1 3 12 Bischoff (1M) 0 0 0 0 1/2 1/2 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 0 X 21/2 Category (0(2476) GM = 71/2 1M = 51/2

Congratulations to Murray Chandler who made his second Grandmaster norm at Dortmund and now needs only one more for the title. More on this success in a later article.

Pia Cramling's near-scalping of Korch- noi at Lloyds Bank 1982 is what keeps most of her rivals terrified. Here is the critical position documented in Informator 34, a collection of 745 of the most important games played over the last six months of 1982.

Pia Cramling — Victor Korchnoi: White o play. Pia now captured the N with 39 fxe3 when 39 ... Qe2+ 40 Khl Qel + 41 Kh2 Qe2 + allowed her great opponent salvation by perpetual check. In- stead, from the diagram, 39 Qx17! Nxg4 + 40 hxg4 leaves Black helpless against mate on g8 or g6.

Here is the game between Chiburdan- idze and Short. I do not pretend to understand what is going on.

Chiburdanidze — Short: Caro-Kann Defence. e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Nf6 5 Nx16+

gxf6 6 Be2 Qc7 7 Nf3 Bg4 8 c4 e6 90-0 Nd7 10 d5 0-0-0 11 dxe6 Ne5 12 Nd2 Bxe6 13 Qa4 Rg8 Ne4 Bxc4 15 Bh5 Bxf1 16 Kxfl Nd3 Black mug be winning here. 17 Oxa7 Qe5 18 Be3 Qxe4 19 Qa8 + Kc7 20 Bb6+ ! Kxb6 21 Qxd8 + Kc5?? After 21 Ka7 Black could still draw, since White cannot avoid 22 Qa5 + with perpetual check. 22 b4+ Kxb4 23 Bf3 Qe5 24 Rbl + 25 Qd2 + Ka3 26 Rxb2! b5 27 Rb3 + Ka4 28 Oa Black resigns.

Another breakthrough for women's chess has been the publication of Mein Weg zum Erfolg, by Barbara Hund, West Ger- many's only female Grandmaster. This, the first book about a woman GM in the West, is a most attractive publication with mall photos, diagrams and interesting biographical details of the 22-year-old GM' including 34 of her games with very deep notes. It is in German, but should apPeal to anyone concerned with outstanding female achievement in a male-dominated area. Both books mentioned should be available from Chess and the BCM while inquiries about Barbara Hund's book can also be sent to Rau Verlag, POB 1204°7' 4000 Dusseldorf 12, W. Germany. Finally, in the women's Candidates quarter-finals which have just finished, Irma Levitina (USSR) beat Nona Gaprin" dashvili (USSR) 6-4 (with no games drawn); Nana loseliani (USSR) beat Liu Shai Lan (China) 6-3; Lidia Semenova (USSR) heat Margareta Muresan (Romania) 51/2-41/2; and Nana Alexandria (USSR) beat Tatiana Lematchko (ex-Bulgaria, now stateless). 51/2-41/2. Alexandria now plays Levitina and Semenona plays Ioseliani in the semi-finals later in the year.