CHESS
Crystal balls
Raymond Keene
Last week I predicted a very high placing for England in the Olympics cur- rently being held in Greece. As I write, however, their performance has been erra- tic and they must now kiss the gold goodbye. Having lost to the USSR by 3-1 and India by 21/2-11/2 they proceeded to inflict severe defeats on Switzerland by 31/2-1/2 and Sweden by 3-1. They are now engaged in a struggle for silver with East Germany, Hungary and the United States. Meanwhile, the USSR are vanishing over the horizon, with Kasparov having scored 61/2 points from his 7 games.
Here are two of his games which are particularly worthy of study.
Kasparov-Short: Olympics, USSR v England; Queen's Gambit Declined.
1 c4 e6 2 Nc3 d5 3 d4 Be7 4 cxd5 exd5 5 Bf4 c6 6 Position after 21 gxf5
Qc2 g6 7 e3 Bf5 8 Qc12 Nf6 This, in conjunction with Black's 9th move, represents an attempt to improve on the 8 . . . Nd7 9 f3 Nb6 10 e4 of Karpov-Kasparov, Game 7, world cham- pionship, London 1986. 9 f3 c5 All this was prepared by the English team before the game, but they had underestimated the force of Kas- parov's next move which leaves Black's king permanently pinned down in the centre. 10 Bh6 cxd4 11 exd4 a6 12 g4 Be6 13 Nge2 Nbd7 14 Bg2 Nb6 15 b3 Rc8 16 0-0 Rc6 17 h3 Nfd7 Unable to castle, Black is virtually bereft of reasonable moves. 18 Ndl Rg8 19 Nf2 f5 20 Rael g,5 21 gxf5 (Diagram) 21 . . . Bt7 Black's strategy since his 16th move has been based on an attempt to trap White's far-flung bishop on h6. Now that the moment has come, however, Short sees that the plan is unworkable, since after 21 . . Bxf5 22 Ng4 Bxg4 23 fxg4 Rxh6 24 Ng3 White would have a devastating attack for his sacrificed piece. Amongst several attractive variations, I might cite 24 . Rhg6 25 Nf5 Rg8-g7 26 Qxg5 Rxg5 27 Nd6 checkmate. 22 Ng4 Bh5 23 Ng3 Black resigns. After 23 . . . Bxg4 24 Bxg5 is absolutely crushing.
Gheorghiu-Kasparov: Olympics, Romania v USSR; King's Indian Defence.
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 f3 0-0 6 Be3 e5 7 d5 c6 8 Qd2 cxd5 9 cxd5 Nbd7 10 Nge2 a6 11 Ncl This looks to me like a feeble plan which merely squanders two tempi, since the Roma- nian Grandmaster returns this knight to e2 in a couple of moves. Much more combative is 11 g4 inaugurating play on the king's side. 11 . . . Nh5 12 Bd3 f513 Ncle2 Ndf6 14 exf5 gxf5 15 Ng3 e4 16 Nxh5 Nxh5 17 fxe4 f4 Kasparov has offered a standard pawn sacrifice to gain control of the dark squares. White can hardly castle on the king's wing and when he commits his king to the queen's side, Black's bishop on g7 will become exceptionally powerful. 18 Bf2 Bg4 19 h3 Bd7 20 0-0-0 Be5 21 Kbl Qf6 22 Be2 Ng3 23 Bxg3 fxg3 24 Bf3 Rac8 25 Net Qg6 26 Rcl Rxcl + 27 Qxcl RcS 28 Qe3 Qf6 The dominant feature of the position is now Black's pressure against b2. 29 Qd2 Rc5 30 Ncl Bf4 31 Qb4 Bb5 32 Nb3 Bd3+ 33 Kal Rc2 34 Rbl Be5 35 Ncl (Diagram) 35 . . . Bxb2+ Kasparov finishes with a neat and thematic combination exploiting his dark-square control and the weakness of b2. 36 Qxb2 Qxb2+ White resigns. After 37 Rxb2 Rxcl+ 38 Rbl Rxbl is checkmate.
Position after 35 Ncl
Previous page
