Chess
Bionic?
Raymond Keene
Gary Kasparov (ex-Weinstein) of the USSR celebrated his 16th birthday by winning the Banja Luka International Tournament, held during April in Yugoslavia. His score was the barely credible 1H/15, outdistancing second-placed Andersson and Smejkal by two points. Ex-World Champion Petrosian made 9, while lower down in an eminent field were Grandmasters Adorjan, G. Garcia, Matanovic, Kurajica and Browne. Kasparov's score was at least one and a half points in excess of the new FIDE Grandmaster norm and it seems that it represented a rating performance of 2700 plus. Badly qualified as I am to pass judgment on all this, since I usually give all child prodigies as wide a berth as possible, I would still have thought that Kasparov's showing here is superior to results by Capablanca and Fischer at a comparable age, or even anything Hodgson or Short might produce in the foreseeable future.
There has been much moaning about the unattainability of the new FIDE Grandmaster norms, and I confess that I have also added my voice to criticism of the new title legislation. It seems, however, that raising the target has had the effect of lifting performance, and no less than three junior players have recently gained GM norms: Kasparov above, Rohde, in a New York Swiss held in March, and Yasser Seirawan at Lone Pine, where he defeated Miles and Larsen. If this trend continues the players at Montreal will soon be seen as the old guard.
Although British juniors have scored some outstanding in-depth successes, we have nothing to compare with the emergence of Kasparov. In fact, Short and Hodgson have not obtained a single IM norm between them in the various Swisses in which they have participated. Perhaps we are still deficient in England in not being able to provide large numbers of top-class trainers for our really promising juniors. Perhaps, too, our strong juniors miss the tough competition engendered by all-playall events. Hard to say. In any case, I am planning, with the co-operation of the Brighton chess club, to organise a category 7 international tournament at Brighton in December of this year. The likes of Short and Hodgson will thus be able to pit their skills against Grandmasters in an all-play all format. Amongst the participants will be ex-World Champion Dr Max Euwe and British Champion Jon Speelman. FIDE President, Fridrik Olafsson, has also expressed an interest. Anyone who thinks he can help this event in any way whatsoever should contact me c/o The Spectator. Meanwhile, here is one of Kasparov's wins from Banja Luka. I am indebted to Bob Wade for the score of this game.
Kasparov — Browne, Banja Luka, April 1979. Oueen's Indian Defence. 1 P-04 N-KB3 2 P-0B4 P-K3 3 N-KB3 P-QN3 4 P-QR3 P-84?! Browne probably wanted to sharpen things up against ms inexperienced opponent. Nevertheless, the solid
4 . B-N2 5 N-B3 P-04 is definitely preferable.
5 P-Q5 Also strong is 5 P-K3. 5. . . B-R3 6 Q-B2 PxP? Dubious. Theory recommends 6:. 0-K2! as in Olafsson — Timman, Reykjavik 1976. 7 PxP P-Q3 Not 7. NxP? 8 0-K4ch. 8 N-B3 QN-Q2 9 B-B4 B-K2 10 P-KN3 0-0 11 B-N2 R-K1 Now White enjoys a space advantage for which Black has no visible compensation. 12 0-0 N-R4 13 B-Q2 N(R4)-B3 The aimless manoevres of this knight are suspiciously reminiscent of the final game of the Karpov-Korchnoi match, where Black also found it difficult to form a coherent plan when lacking in space. 14 KR-K1 B-KB1 15 P-QR4 N-N5 16 N-QN5 B-N2 17 P-K4 P-QR3 18 N-R3 R-N1 19 P-R3 N(N5)-113 20 B-B3 Q-B2 21 N-Q2 B-B1 22 B-B! P-KN4? A ludicrous weakening of his K-side, after which White has no trouble in forcing a win; 22 . . . P-N3 must be better. It looks to me as if Browne lost hisnerve.23N-B3 P-R324N-B4 P-N425 PxP PxP 26P-K5! NxQP 27 NxQP BxN 28 PxB Q-Q1 29N-K5 N-K5 30 Q-Q2 NxN 31 RxN RxR 32 BxR N-B3 33 Q-K3 NxB 34 QxN P-B5 35 B-N2 B-K 336 R-R7 P-N5 37 B-K 4P-B6 38 B-R7ch! KxB39QxB Exploiting the pin along the 7th rank. Black resigns. In view of the signficance of developments at Banj a Luka I have postponed my discussion of the FIDE decisions until next week.
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