CHESS
Brevi manu
Raymond Keene
HAVING BEEN berated in the correspon- dence columns of The Spectator for trans- lating mens sana in corpore sano into English, I shall resolutely refuse to explain the meaning of the above title. For those familiar with Latin tags, enlightenment will be instant. The rest of you can look it up!
Nigel Short (clue) has won the British Chess Championship at Torquay. The struggle devolved into a race between Short and the defending co-champion, grandmaster Matthew Sadler. However, Short stumbled near the final hurdle with a rare loss to his old rival Tony Miles. This enabled Sadler to catch him up with a win against Peter Wells. With both Short and Sadler having scored 81/2 out of 11, the title was eventually resolved in Short's favour in a two-game mini-match, which he won by 11/2-1/2.
Leading scores in the championship, with its £10,000 first prize, sponsored by Smith and Williamson, were as follows: Nigel Short and Matthew Sadler 81/2; Tony Miles 8; Jon Speelman and Chris Ward 71/2; Danny Gormally, Mark Hebden, Miroslav Houska, Gary Lane, Andrew Ledger, Andrew Martin, Nicholas Pert, Krishnan Sasikiran, Aaron Summerscale and Peter Wells 7. Here is the decisive game from the play-off.
Short–Sadler: British Championship Play- off 1998; Sicilian Defence.
1 e4 c5 2 NO Nc6 3 Bb5 Unusual: Short usually enters the main lines of the Sicilian with 3 d4. 3 ...e6 4 c3 Nf6 Defying White to smash Black's pawn structure. Alternatives are 4 ... d5 or 4 ... Nge7. 5 e5 Nd5 6 Bxc6 bxc6 7 d3 Be7 8 c4 Nc7 9 Nc3 0-0 10 0-0 f6 Black's only possibility for counterplay. 11 Ne4 Ne8 12 Be3 fxe5 13 NxeS Qc7 14 f4 d6 15 NO Nf6 16 Qe2 Bd7 17 Bd2 Rae8 Black has emerged from the opening with a cramped but solid position. Nevertheless, his doubled pawns signify a certain rigidity in his structure, while the pawn on e6 can also become a future target. 18 Rael Nxe4 19 dxe4 d5 Trying to blast his way out of trouble. 20 Qd3 Bf6 21 b3 Rd8 22 Be3 Qa5 23 Qc2 (Diagram) Black could Position after 23 Qc2 now play 23 ... d4 avoiding loss of material and creating a passed pawn. In the long term, though, his prospects would be bleak. White could manoeuvre his bishop to a3, after due preparation, and reposition his knight on the superb blockading square d3. Black would have no counterplay at all, once that manoeuvre had been completed. Instead, Sadler prefers to sacri- fice a pawn to activate his bishops and create counterplay. 23 ...Be8 24 cxd5 cxd5 25 QxcS QxcS 26 Bxc5 dxe4 27 Ng5 Also possible is 27 Rxe4, but the text is more ambitious. Note that 27 Bxf8 exf3 would really enliven Black's bishops in spite of the slight loss of material Black has suffered. 27 ... BxgS 28 Bx18 Bh4 29 g3 Kxf8 30 gxh4 Bb5 31 Rdl Bd3 32 Kf2 Rd5 33 Rgl Rh5 34 Rg5 Rxh4 35 Kg3 Rh6 36 Rcl e3 Although White has won material, Black's bishop is well placed and his advanced pawn is a constant dan- ger. 37 Rc8+ Ke7 38 Rc7+ Kf6 39 Rgxg7 Bg6 40 Rg8 e5 41 Rf8+ Ke6 42 f5+ Kd6 If 42 ... Bxf5 43 Rc6+. 43 Rfc8 e2 44 Rcl (Diagram) In this posi- tion Black appears to be completely lost since 44 Position after 44 Rcl ...Thcf5 fails to 45 R8c6+ winning a rook. Faced with this difficulty, Sadler comes up with an amazing resource. 44 ...Rh3+ 45 Kg4 If 45 Kxh3 BxfS+ and ... Bxc8 when Black can still resist. 45 ... BxfS+ 46 KxfS Rf3 + 47 Ke4 Rfl 48 R8c6+ Kd7 49 Rc7+ With the neat point, 49 ...
Kd6 50 R1c6 checkmate. Therefore, Black's king is driven back. 49 ...Kd8 50 Kd3 elQ 51 Rxel Rxel 52 Rxh7 Immediately creating a passed pawn and leaving Black's a7-pawn as a weak- ness. 52 a6 53 Ra7 Rhl 54 Rxa6 Rxh2 55 Ra7 Rh4 56 Rb7 (Diagram) This is a technical win. 56
Kc8 57 Re7 Rh3+ 58 Kc4 Re3 59 Kd5 Re2 60 a4 Rb2 61 Kc4 Re2 62 a5 e4 63 b4 Kd8 64 Re5 Kc7 65 b5 Ra2 66 Kb4 Rb2+ 67 Kc5 Rc2+ 68 Kd5 Rd2+ 69 Kxe4 Ra2 70 b6+ Kc6 71 Re6+ Kd7 72 b7 Ra4+ 73 Kd3 Kc7 74 a6 Rb4 75 Re7+ Black resigns.
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