Two-faced
Raymond Keene
Last week I reported on an historic event — victory by 16-year-old Kasparov at Banja Luka. This tournament had, in fact, earned itself publicity of a much less savoury variety, before a game was played, by retracting its invitation for Korchnoi to participate. Korchnoi has now appointed Ludek Pachman as his representative, and a petition, masterminded by Pachman, duly arrived at the FIDE headquarters raising a hue and cry at Korchnoi's exclusion from the tournament. Included in the text of the petition were the memorable lines: 'We protest strongly against this deplorable method of boycotting because we see it as our duty to defend the principles of sportsmanship and of our motto Gens una sumus. To keep silent means to be as guilty as those reponsible for the boycott.' Great stuff, and a fine outstanding moral statement. At a press conference in Amsterdam on 26 April FIDE President Olafsson replied to the petition by condemning any form of boycott against individual players, He had, however, a shock for the assembled journalists, evidence of an identical withdrawal of an invitation by H. Sun, the organiser of the Biel International Tournament, directed at ... the Spectator correspondent. I had received this note from Biel, which I submitted to FIDE in the interests of 'sportsmanship': 'Dear Mr Keene, In Buenos Aires I informed you that I would invite you to Biel. I deeply regret that I have to go bAck on this decision. As a consequence of the circumstance that you and V. Korchnoi (member of the Chess Club Biel) are not on the best of terms any more, I see.myself forced to withdraw your participation.'
It is no secret that I was exasperated by many of the absurd goings-on at Baguio, with parapsychologists on one side and gurus and mystics on the other, and that my relations with Korchnoi deteriorated when he finally lost the match. I am, however, appalled that his own club (S.G. Biel) has sunk to the practice of boycotting, from which Korch noi has suffered so badly himself, and against which this column has frequently spoken out on his behalf.
The press conference came at the close of the sessions of the FIDE World Chpmpionship Rules Commission, of which I am a member. Our main innova tion has been to abolish the ill-starred 'match jury' and thrust final responsibility for the resolution of disputes firmly onto the shoulders of the FIDE President. In addition, protests, of which there was a veritable plague in Baguio, will now have to be accompanied by a deposit of 500 Swiss Francs, forfeit to FIDE if the protest is judged to be frivolous. Our recommendations, which seek to centralise and streamline authority, will be ratified (or modified) by the FIDE Assembly in Puerto Rico in August. One player who would, in the past, have been affected by world championship legislation, is 68-year-old ex-prodigy Sammy Reshevsky. Although no longer performing at world championship level he is still in action and at Lone Pine he made 51d9, drawing with Korchnoi and winning the following instructive brevity.
Miles — Reshevsky, Lone Pine 1979: Queen's Indian Defence. 1 P-Q4 N-KB3 2 N-KB3 P-QN3 3 P-B4 P-K3 4 B-B4 The Miles patent, with which he inflicted two crushing defeats on Spassky last year. 4 . . . B-N2 5 P-K3 B-K2 6 P-KR3 0-0 7 N-B3 P-Q4 8 PxP NxP 9 NxN BxN 10B-Q3 B-N5ch 11 K-K2 B-Q3 12 BxB PxB Miles-Rivas (Amsterdam Zonal 1978) witnessed curious advantures after 12 . . . BxNch 13 KxB!? 13 Q-B2 P-KR3 A new move: 13 . . . P-B4 14 B-B4 led to White's advantage in Miles-Browne, IBM 1978. 14 KR-QB1 B-B3 It is essential to prevent penetration to the 7th rank by 0-B 7. Black's best chance is to stay in a middle game, where White's centralised king may prove a handicap. 15 Q-N3? There are three better moved. 15 P-K4, 15 B-K4 and 15 K-B1. The queen move seems aimless. 15 . . . B-N2 In order to develop the ON. 16 R-B3 Perhaps 16 0-132!? threatening Q-B7. If Black repeated with 16 . . . B-B3 then White could revert to one of the lines recommended above. 16 . . . N-Q2 17 QR-QB1 P-K4! Suddenly White is involved in a full-scale battle with his king stuck in the middle of the board. 18 PxP N-B4! 19 Q-B2 PxP 20 B-N5 If 20 NxP Q-N4 is unpleasant 20 . . . P-QR3 21 P-QN4 PxB 22 PxN P-N5 23 R-N3 PxP 24 QxP? R-BI White resigns.
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