Chess 508
PHILIDOR
.1. Kiss (1st Prize, Hungary, 1942). White to play and mate in two moves: Solution next week.
Solution to No. 507 (Ellerman —6nB/R7/ RK2k3/1pQlpp2/p3rp2/3b2PB/3qp3/6b1): P-Kt4, threat P x P. 1 . . . R-Kt5; 2 K-R5. 1 . . . R-B5; 2 K x P. 1 . . . R-Q5; 2 Q x KP. 1 . . . R-K6; 2 Q-B6. 1 . Kt-K2 or R3; 2 R-K7. 1 P xP; 2 B x P. Good example of rook interference by the great South American composer.
Olympiad 2: Opening shots
Most of the first morning is spent on a congrega- tion of the captains of the sixty countries with the FIDE organising committee—primarily to settle the allocation into groups of the countries, but also to settle such matters as, should the late entrants be allowed to play, including Venezuela who had travelled over in hopes of getting in (answer—hard-hearted but correct—no) and what to do about the Philippines who were a day late because of floods in Manilla.
England, seeded fourteenth, got into a reason- ably favourable group composed of Yugoslavia, Canada, England, Switzerland, Mongolia, In- donesia, Iran, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, AndOna, this being the seeding committee's estimate of the finishing order with a hard struggle for second place expected between Canada and England, Switzerland and Mongolia being capable of springing a surprise and only the last three teams being really weak. First round results went with the seeding: Yugoslavia 4-0 v Mongolia, Canada 21--11 v. Switzerland, England 3-1 v. Indonesia, Iran 33--} v. Hong Kong, Luxembourg 3-1 v. Andorra. A reasonable result for us, but no more; its best feature was that Penrose, in winning, played like . . . Penrose.
Elsewhere there were some of the usual first round surprises. Australia put up a splendid fight against the ussa—all four games were still going at the adjournment after five hours play and the final result, 3-1 for USSR, was a very fine performance by Australia. As Scotland beat Portugal 3-1 and Ireland held Denmark 11-11 (one game unfinished at time of writing) and New Zealand won an All Blacks/Springbok preview against South Africa 24-11. The us (favourites for second place in the finals) only beat a weak Belgian side 21-1-1, a poor result—even allowing for the fact that neither Fischer nor Reshevsky could play on religious grounds. Everyone is hoping that Fischer will play today (Sunday) but one never knows until the game is actually in progress whether he will appear or not.
The complete new boys to the competition made a very creditable start. Rhodesia (should one treat Rhodesian players as invisible?) only lost 1-1-25 to Cuba, an excellent result; Japan made a 2-2 draw with Mexico and Faroe Islands 2-2 with Dominican Republic—admittedly the opposition was not too strong but (especially for Farce Islands) this was good.
Playing conditions are excellent; even the players—and I know no more expert group of grumblers than chess players—could find nothing worse to say than that the lavatories were too far off. But it's early days; I shall be surprised if some better complaints aren't thought up before long.
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