Chess
Vulgar. fraction
Andrew Whiteley
Acurious little tournament took place in in-
terest last week in which the only n-
terest was in who would come last. In the West European Zonal in Marbella, Spain, earlier this year Mestel, Nunn and Stean (all England) and Van der Wiel (Holland) tied for first place. Only three places in the In- terzonals, the next stage on the road to the world championship, were at stake and so there had to be a play-off. Commonsense suggested that this should be in England, but financial considerations dictated other- wise. After England had failed to obtain sponsorship, the Dutch branch of Heineken secured the event for Van der Wiel's home town, Leiden.
The Gang of Four proved intransigently unschismatic. In a double-round all-play-all Mestel beat Nunn in round one, Van der Wiel beat Mestel in round two, Nunn beat Van der Wiel in round five (on time in a lost position!) and all the other games were cirawn. Fortunately the Fide zonal presi- dent, Kevin O'Connell, had made elaborate
provision for tie-breaking. After Sonneborn-Berger and the results of the games between the individual players had failed to produce a result, the tie was resolv- ed in favour of the players with most wins (one each!). Stean thus had the galling ex- perience of coming last in a tournament in which he was undefeated. All animals are equal, but ...
Mestel and Van der Wiel are two of the strongest players whom the grandmaster ti- tle has so far eluded and both deserved their success. Nunn's performance both at Leiden and earlier at Marbella was rather shaky. I hope that before the Interzonals he will recapture the form which made him the highest-rated English player earlier this year.
There will be three fourteen-player Inter- zonals later this year. The top two from each will join Korchnoi and Hubner in the series of candidates' matches next year to decide who will challenge Karpov in 1984. In section A (Las Palmas, 12 July) Mestel is rated ninth. In section B (Mexico City, 29 July) Nunn is rated fifth. In section C (Moscow, 7 September) Van der Wiel is rated thirteenth. Clearly the West Euro- pean qualifiers will have an uphill struggle to join the candidates. But it should be remembered that only a few years ago it was almost unthinkable for an English player to reach the Interzonals at all.
It might have been expected that at Leiden the three Englishmen would con- serve their energies against each other and concentrate on squeezing out the lone Dutchman. The following first round game shows that this fear was unfounded.
Mestel-Nunn: Zonal Play-off, Leiden, 1982; Sicilian Defence.
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 Nf6 4 Nc3 cxd4 5 Nxd4 a6 6 Be2 e5 7 Nb3 Be7 8 a4 0-0 9 0-0 Be6 10 f4 exf4 11 Bxf4 Nc6 12 Khl A well-known position (often also reached without the moves a4 and ... a6) which theory regards as equal. Mestel, however, considers White has an edge. 12 ... d5 Typical of Nunn, who prefers fluid positions. The alter- native was to use the square e5 as a strongpoint by such moves as 12 ... Ne5. 13 e5 Nd7 14 NxdS N7xe5 15 Nxe7 + Qxe7 16 Qel Rfe8? This rook later has to be restationed and so the immediate 16 Rfd8 was preferable. 17 Qg3 Qb4 18 Bh6 Ng6 19 Bd2. This would have been impossible after 16 ... Rfd8. 19 ... Qe4 20 Bd3 Qe5 21 Qf2 Qxb2 22 Rabl Qf6 An unpleasant move to have to make, but after 22 . . . Qa3 23 Nc5 would have given White a dangerous initiative. 23 Qxf6 gxf6 24 Nc5 NceS 25 Ne4 RedS 26 Nxf6 + Kg7 27 Nh5 + Kg8 28 Ba5 Rdc8 29 Rx137 Nxd3 30 cxd3 The presence of bishops of opposite colour means that White's extra pawn is not too important but his control of the dark squares around Black's king guarantees him a significant advantage. 30 Rc2 31 h3 Rac8 32 Bb6 Rd2 33 d4 Kh8 34 Nf6 Bc4 35 Rcl Nh4? Black could have put up more resistance by 35 Kg7. 36 Bc7! Ba2 If 36 Rxd4, 37 Be5 Rd3 38 Ne4 + Kg8 39 Nd6 Rxh3 + 40 Kg1! wins for White. 37 Ne4 Black resigns. If Black moves his rook on d2 38 Be5 + wins the other rook.
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