CHESS
War games
David Spanier
Israel has been prevented from taking part in the chess Olympiad, now starting in Dubai. A few countries, notably Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, are re- ported to be absenting themselves in pro- test. Despite various objections raised in the States, the Americans will be there. The British Chess Federation has sent a team, but intends to make its displeasure known.
It is, it should go without saying, wrong for an Olympiad to be held and one country excluded on racial grounds. Fide, the international chess federation, is re- sponsible for this act of betrayal of its motto, Gens una sumus.
The circumstances which allowed it to happen are not entirely clear. During his election campaign for the presidency back in 1982, Florencio Campomanes — who modelled himself on his principal backer, the (now exiled) Philippines President Marcos — is said to have canvassed sup- port among Arab delegations, with the pledge that he would recommend that the next Olympiad should be held in an Arab country.
There is no direct evidence for this, but the general mood of the assembly may be gauged by the fact that it chose to elect the `Palestine Chess Federation', by any other name the PLO. In any case, even if Campomanes did make such an offer, it might be considered legitimate tactics. There are many attractions in holding the
Olympiad in that part of the world which, during the Middle Ages, did so much to promote the art and study of chess. Pro- vided it was made clear, at the same time, that there could be no exclusion of Israel. Dubai, after all, is not Syria.
That did not happen. When it came to a vote in Fide — as is the way with all such political issues — Israel stood no chance. In that sense Fide is exactly like the United Nations. Realising this, the Israeli delega- tion (which perhaps was too passive in its first reaction to the proposal) took the 'sporting view' that it would not stand in the way of the games, and gave way. When Israel hosted an Olympiad in Haifa, the Arab countries, and the Soviet Union, stayed away. But that was their own decision, so the precedent is not exact.. This time, Fide has itself excluded a member country, which wanted and was entitled to compete. (The long and ex- traordinary Jewish contribution to chess is beside the point, though it gives Israel's exclusion a certain irony.) Will anyone care? Will the issue cloud the coming election campaign in Fide? Brazilian Lincoln Lucena is standing for President against Campomanes and, as
many readers will know, the Spectator's regular chess correspondent is standing
with him, for the post of Secretary. Raymond Keene, for one, can be relied upon to air the issue properly. But in the UN moral questions do not count for very much.
On the other hand the new world cham- pion has expressed his unequivocal support for the new ticket. Kasparov is still bitter at the way his first world championship tilt against Karpov was aborted; he has re- peatedly denounced what he sees as the dictatorial and overly personal style of the incumbent President. It may be too much to expect Gary to extend his censure to the exclusion of Israel — in any case it is too late; but he will spearhead the campaign for change in Fide.
If Israel were playing, its top board would no doubt be Boris Gulko, who survived so many years of persecution in the Soviet Union before being allowed to emigrate. Though the ordeal has aged him, his form at the chessboard seems, happily, unimpaired. Here is how he demolished an opponent at the Marseille tournament in July.
Gulko-Renet: Benko Gambit.
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4Nf3 g6? Risky. Safest is 4 . . . b4 5cxb5 a6 6Nc3 axb5 7d6!? Qa5 8 e3 exd6 9 BxbS d5 10 0-0 Bbl 11 e4!! Powerful stuff. 11
dxe4 12 Ne5 Qc7 13 Bf4 Nh5 14 Nd5! Qd6 15 Nxd7! Nxf4 16 Nxc5+ Bc6 17 Nxe4! Qe5 18 Bxc6+ Nxc6 19 Ndf6+ Resigns.
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