CHESS

Tolya toppled

Raymond Keene

The Rotterdam World Cup appeared to be running a fairly predictable course. Anatoly Karpov, the former world cham- pion, was racing away with first prize, while most of the other Grandmasters seemed content to fence cautiously with each other. The only major excitement that threatened was Nigel Short's near- miss against Karpov, which I published last week. Then, in the closing straight, all hell broke loose. Timrnan, the top Dutch GM, Regan to win game after game, while Karpov, in most uncharacteristic fashion, logt three in a row. The first to beat him was his compatriot, Salov, then came Ljubojevic and in the last round England's John Nunn also landed a direct hit.

What can explain this sudden and total collapse on the part of a player who is normally impervious to defeat? I believe, once Karpov had reached the outstanding score of 7 wins and 5 draws, with three games to go, that he lost his objectivity, perhaps believing he could record a score of 'plus 10', or something similar. This would have catapulted him into the lead in the World Cup and, perhaps, helped him to overtake Kasparov's rating. But when things started to go wrong, nervous ex- haustion set in.

I give the two crucial last-round games. It will be remembered that when the last round started both Timman and Karpov had 91/2/14 and both were playing Black against dangerous opposition. First, Tim- man's last round victory against Seirawan. White's 17th move is tactically inept and permits the rook on d6 to be trapped. Karpov claimed that Seirawan's feeble play made him so angry that he could not concentrate on his own game against John Nunn.

Seirawan — Timman: Last round, Rotterdam; Queen's Indian Defence.

1d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 NO b6 4 g3 Ba6 5 Qa4 Bb7 6 Bg2 c5 7 dxc5 BxcS 8 0-0 0-0 9 Nc3 Be7 10 Bf4 Na6 11 Rfdl Nc5 12 Qc2 Qc8 13 Nb5 Nce4 14 Nd6 Nxd6 15 Bxd6 Bxd6 16 Rxd6 Qc5 17 Qd3 Bd5 18 Qa3 Qxc4 19 Ne5 Qxe2 20 Nxd7 Ng4 21 Rfl Rfc8 22 Rxd5 exd5 23 Qd6 Rc2 24 Qxd5 Re8 25 h3 Rd2 26 Qg5 Rxd7 27 hxg4 Rdl 28 b4 Rxfl + 29 Bxfl Qxa2 30 b5 h6 31 Qf5 Qe6 32 Qf4 Qe4 33 Qc7 Qxg4 34 Qxa7 Qd4 35 Qb7 g6 36 Qc7 Rel 37 Qc8+ Kg7 38 Qc2 Qal 39 Qd3 Rxf1 + 40 Qxfl Qxfl + 41 Kxf1 Kf6 White resigns.

Nunn — Karpov: Last round, Rotterdam; Ruy Lopez.

1 e4 e5 2 NO Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Rel b5 7 Bb3 d6 8 c3 0-0 9 h3 Nd7 10 d4 Bf6 11 a4 Rb8 12 axb5 axb5 13 Be3 Ne7 14 d5 Nc5 15 Bc2 c6 16 b4 Na6 17 dxc6 Nxc6 18 Na3 Nc7 19 Qe2 Qe8 20 Redl Be7 21 Bd3 Nd8 22 c4 Bd7 Black's position, based as it is on a virtually total retreat to his own back rank, is Steinitzian in the extreme, cramped but resilient. If 22 . . . bxc4 23 Nxc4 Rxb4 24 Nb6 leaves Black's pieces disorganised and exposed to attack. 23 c5 dxc5

24 bxc5 f6 25 Bc2 Be6 26 Rabl Qc6 27 Bd3 b4 28 Rdlcl Kh8 29 Nc4 Bxc4 30 Rxc4 Na6 31 Nd2 Ne6 32 Nb3 RfdS 33 Rbcl Nac7 34 R4c2 Nb5 35 BxbS Qxb5? Why relinquish the blockade? 35 . . . Rxb5 looks defensible. Now White's 'c' pawn pushes through to become a queen. 36 Qxb5 Rxb5 37 c6 Kg8 38 Rat K17 39 Raj KeS 40 Rb7 Rxb7 41 cxb7 Bd6 42 Ba7 Rd7 43 b8=Q+ Bxbfi 44 Bxb8 White is now a piece ahead. Karpov resisted stoically for a further 40 or so moves, but, ultimately, as might be expected, his resistance was futile.

My thanks to chief arbiter Geurt Gijssen for providing much of the above informa- tion.

SWIFT-Telecom World Cup, Rotterdam, 3-24 June 1989

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 II II 12 13 14 15 16 Tot

1 Timman x 0 1/2 1 1/2 1 1 1/2 1 I I 1/2 1/2 I/2 1/2 1 101/2

2 Karpov I x 1/2 0 1/2 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 91/2

3 Vaganian 1/2 1/2 x 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 1 I 0 1 1/2 1/2 1/2 9 4 Nunn 0 1 1/2 x 1/2 1/2 1/2 lh '17 112 th 1/2 1 1/2 1 81/2

5 Ehlvest 1/2 42 1/2 1/2 X 1 1/2 0 0 1/2 0 I 1/2 1 V2 1 8

6 Salov 0 1 1/2 1/2 0 x 1/2 1 I 0 1/2 1 0 'h112 1 8 7 Sokolov 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 x 1h 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 1 1 8 8 v d Wiel 1/2 1/2 0 1/2 1 0 1/2 x 1 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 8 Short 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 0 1 0 x 1 0 V2 1 1/2 1/2 1/2 71/2 it Seirawan 0 0 0 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 1/2 0 x 1/2 1/2 1/2 I 1 1/2 7 II Nogueiras 0 0 0 1/2 1 'h 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 x 1/2 V2 1/2 0 1/2 61/2 12 Sax 1/2 0 1 1/2 0 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 V2 1/2 x 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 13 Yusupov 1/2 0 0 1/2 1/2 1 0 V2 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 x 1 1/2 1/2 61/2 14 Ljubojevic 1/2 1 1/2 0 0 1/2 Y2 1/2 1/2 0 1/2 1/2 0 x V2 1/2 6 15 Porlisch 1/2 0 'h 'h 112 1/2 0 0 1/2 0 1 1/2 1/2 1/2 x 112 6 16 Hjartarson 0 0 1/2 0 0 0 0 '12 112 1/2 1/2 '12 1/21/2 x 41/2

Category 15