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SPAIN'S FINEST CAVA

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SPAIN'S FINEST CAVA

Cui Bono

Raymond Keene

THE NEWS THAT U2 singer Bono (who reputedly contributes more than the EEC does to the Irish economy) has bid £15,000 to play a charity game against Kasparov and has bet a further £10,000 that he will win, has set me thinking about past celebri- ties who have fancied their chances on the chessboard. Haroun al-Raschid, the Abba- sid Caliph of Islam (AD 786-809) idealised in the Arabian Nights, was the first of his dynasty to play chess. The 11th-century Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus was allegedly playing chess when surprised by a murderous conspiracy which, being a good chessplayer, he naturally eluded. The Aladdin of children's stories was, in fact, a chessplayer, a lawyer from Samarkand in the court of Tamberlaine. His full name was Aladdin at-Tabrizi. Tamberlaine him- self (when not engaged in locking up defeated Turkish sultans in iron cages) played chess and named his son Shah Rukh, since Tamberlaine was said to be moving a rook at the time the birth was announced. Benjamin Franklin was an enthusiastic chessplayer. Indeed, the first chess publication in America was his Mor- als of Chess from 1786. Chess was men- tioned by Shakespeare, Goethe, Leibnitz and Einstein, while Ivan the Terrible, Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great all played chess or owned beautiful chess sets.

Napoleon was said to have played chess and in Abel Gance's film epic Bonaparte is seen playing chess against General Hoche. Several brilliant games by Napoleon have come down to us, but their origins are apocryphal. The one which follows is, I believe, the only genuine game by the French emperor to have survived. The reason I am convinced is that White's moves are so feeble that they look like those of a man who spent most of his time conquering Europe rather than studying chess theory. Napoleon's vanquisher was the Viennese master Allgaier, cunningly concealed in the Turk automaton.

Napoleon Bonaparte — The Turk: Schonbrunn Castle 1809; Scholar's Mate Manqué.

1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 Nc6 3 Qf3 A naive attempt to deliver Scholar's Mate. 3 . . . Nf6 4 Ne2 Bc5 5 a3 It would be better to play 5 h3 to prevent what happens. 5 . . . d6 6 0-0 Bg4 7 Qd3 Nh5 8 h3

Position after 11 . . . Nxh3+

Bxe2 9 Qxe2 Nf4 10 Qel Nd4 11 Bb3 Nxh3+ (Diagram) This finishes White's resistance since 12 gxh3 fails to 12 . . . Nf3+ forking king and queen. 12 Kh2 Qh4 13 g3 Nf3+ 14 Kg2 Nxel+ 15 Rxel Qg4 16 d3 Bxf2 17 Rhl Qxg3+ 18 Kfl Bd4 19 Ke2 Qg2+ 20 Kdl @hi + 21 Kd2 Qg2+ 22 Kel Ngl 23 Nc3 Bxc3+ 24 bxc3 Qe2 checkmate A total rout for the victor of Auster- litz, Ulm and Wagram.

Nearer our own day, Prime Minister Bonar Law was a competent player, who once came close to drawing with Capablan- ca in a consultation game, while of current politicians Lord Archer and, in the lower House, Jeremy Hanley MP and Tam Dalyell MP have made their mark on the 64 squares. Ossie Ardiles, now the mana- ger of Tottenham Hotspur, once gave me a fright in a simultaneous display, while Professor Tim Congdon, Daniel Johnson, literary editor of the Times and a contribu- tor to The Spectator, as well as our editor Dominic Lawson, could all have been master players had they concentrated on chess from early youth.

In the world of the arts, Marcel Duchamp played on second board for France in the chess Olympics behind only Alekhine, Tim Rice has the musical Chess to his credit, while Prokofiev, whose score for Romeo and Juliet can currently be heard at the Kirov Ballet performances in London, contested this sharp near- miniature with Grandmaster Tartakower.

Savielly Tartakower — Sergei Prokofiev: Paris 1934; Evans Gambit.

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 b4 Bb6 5 a4 a6 6 Bbl d6 7 b5 axb5 8 axb5 Rxal 9 Bxal Nb8 10 d4 f6 Much safer is 10 . . . exd4. 11 dxe5 dxe5 12 Qe2 Nh6 13 Nxe5 A neat sacrifice which exploits the weakened diagonals around the black king.

Position after 15 . . . Bxf2+

13 . . . fxe5 14 Qh5+ K18 15 QxeS Bxf2+ (Diagram) Clever but dangerous. White cannot play 16 Kxf2 on account of 16 . . . Ng4+ but by declining this sacrifice White is able to rush his reserves to the main field of battle. 16 Ke2 Qd7 17 Rdl Qg4+ 18 Kxf2 Nd7 19 Qxc7 Ke7 20 Nc3 R18+ 21 Kgl Rd8 22 Qd6+ Ke8 23 Be6 Qh5 24 Rd5 Nf7 25 Bxd7+ Bxd7 26 Qxd7+ Rxd7 27 Rxh5 Rd2 28 Rd5 Rxc2 29 Ndl Black resigns According to Tartakower: 'Light orchestration in the folklore style just like the musical work of my opponent'.