CHESS
Nouveaux riches
Raymond Keene
In an interview conducted in 1966 Mar- cel Duchamp said of chess: 'There is no social purpose. That above all is important . . . the milieu of chessplayers is far more sympathetic than that of artists. These people are completely cloudy, completely blind, wearing blinkers. Madmen of a certain quality, the way the artist is sup- posed to be, and isn't, in general.'
Duchamp was probably acquainted with masters of the old school, bohemian gamb- lers, such as Janowsky or Tartakower. He would, perhaps, have failed to recognise the modern professional breed of Grand- masters, who have established their own trade union, the Grandmaster Association, and their own world cup circuit, from which relative fortunes can be made. The total prize fund available for the six world cup events is £1,200,000, which dwarfs anything on offer for tournaments in the past.
The problem with such vast prizes is that incentives, paradoxically, appear to have been eroded. One would have thought that rich rewards would spur on the players to Stakhanovite exertions. In fact, the oppo- site tends to occur. When everyone is assured of a good prize, short, struggle- free draws proliferate. As I follow the organisers' telex reports of the World Cup currently in progress in Reykjavik, I must sympathise with their pathetic efforts to make round after round sound interesting, when nearly all games end in brief draws.
Fittingly, perhaps, it is the veteran Mikhail Tal, the closest thing to a living chess bohemian, who leads the tournament after 12 rounds. In fact, he shares the top spot (on seven and a half) with Ehlvest and Beliaysky, ahead of Kasparov (who has lost a game to Sokolov) on seven points. Here is Tal's win again Speelman, achieved, however, only after the English- man had turned down a draw offer.
Tal-Speelman: Reykjavik World Cup; Pirc De-
fence.
1 e4 d6 2 d4 g6 3 Nf3 Bg7 4 Bet N16 5 Nc3 0-0 6
0-0 c5 7 d5 Na6 8 Rel Nc7 9 Bf4 b5 10 NxbS Nxe4 Hereabouts Tal offered a draw, but Speelman declined! 11 Nxc7 Qxe7 12 13e4 Nf6 13 h3 Re8 14 Rb1 a5 15 Qd2 Qb6 16 Re3 Ba6 17 Bxa6 Qxa6 18 Rbel Kf8 19 Ng5 Qb7 Sped an's idea looks too provocative. He lures White into playing c4, hoping thereafter to win material, but the entire concept is excessively risky. Black should leave his queen on a6 to stop c4, not encourage it. 20 c4 Qb4 21 Qe2 h6 Black is relying on the tactical nuance 22 Nf3 NxdS 23 cxd5 Qx14, but Tal does
not oblige. 22 Nxf7!! Kxf7 23 Rb3 Qa4 24 Qe6+ Kf8 25 Rb7 Qxc4 26 Bxd6 Ng8 Jon Speelman often survives, and even wins from, such preca- rious situations, but in this case his king is too exposed to attack. 27 Re3 Bf6 28 Rf3 Kg7 29 Bxe7 Rxe7 30 Rxe7+ Nxe7 If 30 . . . Bxe7 31 Rf7+ Kh8 32 Oxg6 wins. 31 Qxf6+ Kg8 32 Qf7+ Kh8 33 Qxe7 QxdS 34 R17 Black resigns.
Continuing my promised comments in the run-up to Christmas on chess compu- ters, I take a look this week at the elite model in the Novag group, which per- formed so well in the 1985 Commonwealth Championship in London. The top of their range is the Super Expert, which retails for around £500. It has achieved a British rating of 191 and a roughly comparable 2164 in the US. Its playing style is very aggressive for a computer. This is a re- markable stylistic development, also in evidence in the Deep Thought game I gave two weeks ago. I showed the Super Expert some tricky positions (including one from the key Kasparov-Karpov 24th match game last year) and what impressed me most was the speed of calculation of variations, displayed on a panel to one side. In the course of 60 seconds, in fact, the SE logged up no fewer than 113,737
separate positions for evaluation. The SE is available in stores such as Harrods, or outside London from the official Novag dealers, Eureka, Castle House, Castle Street, Brighton, Sussex.
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