CHESS
Ups and downs
Raymond Keene
Pilkington Glass made its mark in chess by sponsoring the world championship Candidates' quartet- and semi-finals in London. It was also firmly announced, both by Pilkington and the British Chess Federation, that they had bid for, and acquired, the final of the world qualifying competition, which would be held in Lon- don next March. Now, quite without notice, Pilkington has pulled the rug. A press release quoting Pilkington Glass chairman, Alan Judge, stated last week,
• . the considerable investment required to stage the Candidates' final cannot be Justified in the present economic climate.' This is very sad news indeed, though in compensation Pilkington will sponsor the British Zonal tournament (the first stage of the world championship, as opposed to the penultimate one) next year. I do feel, though, that if the BCF and Pilkington had a firm contract to stage the final, which will determine whether Timman or Karpov challenges Kasparov, then it should have been honoured. If no contract exists, then It was premature to announce that the final would be in London, thus disappointing so many British chess enthusiasts. As it is, Amsterdam — no surprise, given that Timman is a Dutch national hero — will probably step in to plug the dyke. In the category 15 tournament in Bel- grade, currently in progress, Nigel Short shared the lead with Kasparov after four rounds, but then hit a bumpy patch. Here is one triumph, and one disaster.
Short — Ljubojevic: Investbanka '89, Belgrade; Sicilian Defence. 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 e6 6 g4 h6 7 h4 Nc6 8 Rgl h5 White's next move sets the tone for the whole game. White cares much less about structure than about opening up the position and keeping Black's king in the centre as a potential target. 9 gxh5 Nxh5 10 Be3 Nf6 11 NO a6 12 Qe2 Qc7 13 0-0-0 b5 14 Ng5 Qa5 Short's treatment of the opening has been relatively unusual. In particular, 10 Bg5 is more common than 10 Be3. The point of Nigel's procedure is to keep the g5 square open either for White's rook (should Black have
played . Qa5, intending . . . b4, on move 12) or, as in the game, for White's knight. The white knight on g5 evidently stops Black from castling into relative safety on the queen's wing. As an indication of his difficulties, Ljubojevic thought for 45 minutes over his 14th move. 15 f4 b4 16 Nbl Qxa2 17 e5 dxe5 18 fxe5 Nd5 If 18 . . . NxeS 19 Bd4 with a tremendous attack. 19 Bg2 Bel 20 Nxf7!! Kx17 White's 20th and 21st moves arc the key to the attack, wrecking the protection around Black's king. 21 Be4 Ke8 22 Rxg7 Bd7? This is the losing move. Black had to try . . Rb8 planning to defend laterally with . Rb5. 23 Qg4 Kd8 If instead 23 . . Nxe3 24 Rg8+ Rxg8 25 Qxg8+ Bf8 26 Bg6+ Kd8 27 Qxf8+ Kc7 28 Rd7+ Rxd7 29 Qd6+ Kc8 30 Qxc6+ Kb8 31 Qb6+ wins easily. 24 Bxd5 exd5 25 e6 Be8 26 Bb6+ Kc8 27 Qf4 Raj 28 Bxa7 Rxh4 29 Qg3 Qc4 Better is 29 . . . Bd8
though 30 e7 wins easily enough. 30 Rxe7 Black resigns. The last few moves had been conducted in a terrible time scramble. Nigel had two minutes left to reach move 40 when Ljubojevic resigned. Ljubojevic, incidentally, had one mi- nute. The generous Yugoslav crowd greeted Nigel's victory with prolonged and stormy ap- plause. I am grateful to Nigel for phoning through his own comments to The Spectator, on which the above notes are based.
Short — Kozul: Sicilian Defence. 1 e4 c5 2 NO d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 Nc6 6 Bg5 e6 7 Qd2 a6 8 0-0-0 Bd7 9 f4 b5 10 Bxf6 gxf6 11 Kbl Qb6 12 Nxc6 Bxc6 13 Bd3 b4 14 Ne2 h5 15 Rhfl a5 16 15 e5 17 Ng! Qc5 18 Qe2 a4 19 Bc4 Ke7 20 Nh3 Bh6 21 Rf3 Rhc8 Short's next move baffles me. Why open the 'a' file for Black's attack? Surely, 22 Bd5 deserves consid- eration. 22 b3 axb3 23 cxb3 Ra3 24 Rfd3 RcaS 25 Rel Qa7 26 Qxh5 Be8 It will be seen that Nigel's king's side diversion represents a fatal deflection of defensive resources from his king. 27 Qxh6 Rxa2 28 Rd2 Rxd2 29 Qxd2 Qal+ 30 Kc2 Ra2+ 31 Kd3 Qd4+ White resigns.
After seven rounds the scores in the Investbanka tournament in Belgrade are: Kasparov 6; Yusupov 4+1 adj.; Short, Hjartarson, Ehlvest 4; Timman 31/2+1; Nikolic 31/2; Agdestein 3+1; Ljubojevic 3; Damljanovic 21/2; Popovic 11/2+1; and Kozul 1.
Bad news for chess coverage: the BBC Ceefax pages which have reported chess faithfully for many years have just been discontinued. I urge all readers to com- plain as strongly as possible to the BBC. Fortunately, there is no sign that the
Oracle chess coverage on Channel 4 tele- text is in danger.
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