CHESS

Tick-tock

Raymond Keene

S

Leningrad ince my last report from Neva-Neva- Land events have moved dramatically. When I wrote before, Kasparov had bril- liantly won game 16 and shot into what appeared to be an absolutely decisive three point lead. Then, between Wednesday and Saturday, Kasparov succeeded in losing two games in a row. Game 17 can be ascribed to overconfident and inaccurate opening preparation, much like game 5 in London. This loss in itself did Kasparov's overall chances negligible harm. He re- mained two points ahead with seven games to go, he had a majority of whites in the residual games and he kept the odds of the draw, i.e. a 12-12 tie was sufficient to retain his title.

But then disaster hit in game 18. Kaspar- ov lost with the white pieces in a game of high drama. This was the first Black win in the match so far. Kasparov launched a wild attack which brought him to the verge of victory and resuscitation of his near- decisive three point lead. Declining several draws (which would have kept him two points ahead) he trod a tightrope of hideous complications. But then in terrible clock trouble Kasparov overlooked two clear wins and adjourned in what appeared to be a hopeless situation. Next day, Kasparov survived a second time trouble minefield, only to commit the decisive error on move 58 when he had almost an hour in hand — a tragic example of the devastating effect time-trouble can inflict on a player's nervous system.

Karpov himself had been running into serious clock problems for his losses in games 14 and 16. For game 18 I noticed that he was reviving an ancient ploy from his 1978 match with Korchnoi. This in- volved making moves which may not be the best, but making them quickly. If readers study the clock times I have added for game 18 it will be seen that Karpov's position may have been dubious at critical moments, but he always had plenty of time in reserve.

Here is game 18 and I have given, after each player's moves, the cumulative time (in minutes) he has taken up to that point. For the first 40 moves a player has 150 minutes total. So you will see that Kaspar- ov had only four minutes to surmount the fearsome complications from moves 31 to 40. For the first 56 moves a player has 210 minutes total, so again, by using up 209 minutes Kasparov came close to losing on time forfeit at move 56. For the first 72 moves a player has a total of 270 minutes. From this one notes that when Kasparov came close to losing on time forfeit at move 58, he only used 4 minutes. He should have spent much longer on this to spot 58 c7!! which draws. He was obviously nervous and mentally shattered at the close of the game.

Kasparov-Karpov: Game 18, 19-20 September; Nimzo-Indian.

1 d4 (0) Nf6 (1) 2 c4 (0) e6 (1) 3 Nf3 (0) b6 (2) 4 Nc3 (1) Bb4 (3) 5 Bg5 (1) Bb7 (4) 6 e3 (2) h6(6) 7 Bh4 (2) Bxc3+ (6) 8 bxc3 (2) d6 (6) 9 Nd2 (3) g5 (7) 10 Bg3 (3) Qe7 (7) 11 a4 (29) a5 (11) 12 h4 04) Rg8 (11) 13 hxg5 (35) luLg5 (11) 14 Qb3 (36) Na6 (41) 15 Rbl (59) Kf8 (61) 16 Qd1(83) Bc6 (67) 17 Rh2 (94) Kg7 (97) 18 c5 (97) bxc5 (98) 19 Bb5 (98) Nb8 (108) 20 dxc5 (114) d5 (112) 21 Bey 121 1(18 (112) 22 Rh6 (128) Ne8( 1141 23 Qh5 133 f6 (115) 24 Rh7 (134) Ng7 (122 25 Qf3 134 107 (122) 26 Qh5+ (142) 1(18 (12 ) 27 Qf3 142 Kf7 (122) 28 Rh6 (142) Ne8 (122) 29 e4 141 g4 (127) 30 Qf4 (144) BxbS (127) 31 Rxb5 146 Nd7 (132) 32 Bxc7 (147) NxcS (137) 33 Qe3 147 Nxe4 (140) 34 Nxe4 (147) dxe4 (140) 35 BxaS (147) f5 (143) 36 Bb4 (147) Qd7 (145) 37 Qd4 (147) Ra7 (146) 38 Rh7+ (148) Ng7 146 39 at5 (148) Kg6 (146) 40 Qxd7 (149) Rxd7 146 41 Rh4 (162) RgdS (154) 42 c4 (162) Rdl + 154 43 Ke2 (162) Rcl (154) 44 a6 (174) Rc2+ 155 45 Kel (175) Ra2+ (156) 46 Rb6 (180) Rd3( 47 c5 (201) Ral+ (190) 48 Ke2 (202) Ra2+ (191 49 Kel (203) g3 (192) 50 fxg3 (203) Rxg3 (193 51 kfl (206) Rgxg2(193) 52 Be! (206) Rgxc2 (194) 53 c6 (207) Ral (194) 54 Rh3 208) f4 200) 55 Rb4 (208) Kf5 (201) 56 RbS+ (209) e5 202) 57 Ra5 (212) Rcl (222) 58 a7 (21) e3(224)) White resigns.

I add notes on some of the moves:

16 Qdl: In connection with 17 Rh2 this consti- tutes a most remarkable attacking plan and one quite unforeseen by all the Grandmasters in Leningrad.

28 Rh6: Here 28 Qh5+ draws by repetition. This would have kept Kasparov two points ahead and more or less made his match victory certain. It was brave but foolhardy to try for more with so little time on his clock.

38 Rh7+?: On move 38 and 39 Bc5 would win easily.

58 a7?: 58 c7 draws, viz. 58. . . e3 59 Rh2! Rxc7 60 a7 f3 61 Re2!! fxe2+ 62 Kxe2 with a drawn ending.

58. . . e3: White resigns. If 59 Rf3 Nh5 60 a8 = Q Ng3+ 61 Rxg3 Rf2+ etc.

Game 18 reminded me strongly of game 17 from the 1978 Korchnoi–Karpov match a brilliant attack, wrecked by time pressure.

After Karpov's dramatic comeback with two wins in succession Kasparov now leads by only one point — 91/2 to 81/2 — with six games still to play. Everything is set, as last year, for a cliff-hanger finish. It seems to me that the games in the Leningrad half are taking on a much wilder and more extreme aspect than in London. Perhaps both players are becoming tired and resort- ing to the broadsword rather than the rapier.