CHESS
Mating calls
Raymond Keene
As the British Telecom horror com- petition reaches its climax I can reveal a modest incident connected with the Hast- ings chess tournament earlier this year. The story is amusing rather than horrific, and at the time it caused smiles rather than serious inconvenience.
Hastings 434600 was the number to call if the press or public needed games or results from the Grandmaster tournament. British Telecom had installed this as a special line at the start of the event, and it was constantly attended by Angela Day, then Bulletin Editor and now Secretary of the Grandmaster Association. Strange calls began to come in, which Angela found difficult to answer. They seemed unconnected with chess. Eventually a pat- tern emerged. The calls boiled down to requests for a massage parlour, advertised in various sex magazines, Escort, Razzle (We had trouble believing this one) and Men Only.
We contacted BT. Profuse apologies for doubling up the chess number with that of the massage parlour, but the calls kept coming. Finally, we just unplugged the phone.
At the famous Nottingham tournament of 1936 the world champion, Dr Max Euwe, committed a horrible blunder against his illustrious predecessor in the title, Dr Emanuel Lasker. This blunder cost Euwe possible first prize in the tourna- ment and it went directly into the annals of celebrated chess mistakes. Euwe played 1 . . . Ba5?? stumbling into 2 b4! Bxb4 3Nc2 which cunningly won a piece. The game concluded: 3 . . . Bd2 4 Bxd2 Nb2+ 5 Ke2 Kd5 and, a piece down, Black soon resigned.
This chessboard drama is cleverly com- memorated in a spoof on Nazi Germany from the 18 December 1936 issue of the Spectator pointed out to me by a reader. It was contributed by E.E. Kellett and enti- tled 'Objective Criticism'. He satirises the recent announcement by Goebbels that criticism of artists and performers is to be banned by detailing the subsequent trial of a chess writer who had the presumption to criticise Euwe's play in the above game. The piece can be found in 1936 as Re- corded by the Spectator, edited by Charles Moore and Christopher Hawtree and pub- lished by Michael Joseph.
Dr John Nunn has won the BIS Group inaugural British Speed Chess Cham- pionship for television. No embargo on results this time, and Thames TV are releasing game scores from the pre- quarter-final stage. Here is one of 'The Doctor's' early wins.
Sheila Jackson — John Nunn: Sicilian Defence.
1 e4 c5 2 c3 d5 3 exd5 Qxd5 4 d4 Nf6 5 Nf3 Nc6 6 Bet e6 7 Be3 cxd4 8 cxd4 Be7 9 Nc3 Qd6 10 0-0 0-0 11 a3 b6 12 Nb5 Qd8 13 Ne5 NxeS 14 dxe5 Nd5 15 Bd4 Bbl 16 Bf3 Qd7 17 Nc3 RfdS 18 Nxd5 BxdS 19 Bxd5 Qxd5 20 Bc3 Qc4 21 Qf3 Rac8 22 Rfdl Qb3 23 h3 g6 24 Rxd8+ Rxd8 25 Qb7 Bc5 26 Qf3 Qc2 27 Qf6 Rd5 28 Qf4 11133 29 a4 Rd5 30 a5 b5 31 a6 b4 32 Bel Qxb2 33 Rcl QxeS White resigns.
The BIS Championship was filmed by Thames TV for transmission by Channel 4 in seven episodes starting in October. As with the Kasparov v. Short match I pro- vided the commentary, though this time I was joined on various occasions by guests Sheila Jackson, John Nunn, Nigel Short and Murray Chandler.
The three qualifiers from the Zagreb Interzonal are: Korchnoi (11/16), Seirawan (USA) and Ehlvest (USSR) both with 10. Tony Miles had a complete disaster, scor- ing a miserable 61/2 points and finishing near the bottom.
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