CHESS

Ater spending nearly three months in his world championship match against Gary Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov might have been expected to take a well-earned rest from chess. Far from it. In fact, he travelled almost immediately to a category 16 tournament in the Italian town of Reggio Emilia, which started early in the new year. Here Karpov coasted to a narrow victory, ahead of an illustrious field which included Kasparov's second, Mikhail Gurevich, and the young hopeful, 16-year-old Gata Kamsky. Reggio Emilia, as can be seen from the tournament line-up, was an important event, and a further iridescent feather in Karpov's cap, even though the draw quota was considerably higher than, for example, at Hastings. By general consent the most brilliant finish came in Karpov's win against the analyst of his great rival.

Karpov — Gurevich: Reggio Emilia 1991.

1 Qf7+ 106 2 Qf8+ Kh5 3 Qh8+ Bh6 4 Qe5+ Black resigns. A superb finish. 4 . . . Qxe5 5 g4 is mate!

Chessman's holiday

Raymond Keene

Reggio Emilia Tournament 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 Ill

Karpov * • 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 1 1 1/2 71/2 Polugaevsky 1/2 1/2 • * 1/2 V2 1/2 V2 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 1 1/2 7 Ehlvest V2 1/2 1/2 1/2 * •1/2 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 1/2 1/2 16'h Ribli 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2• • 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 0 51/2

M.Gurevich V2 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 0 1/2 V2 1/2 V2 1 1/2 51/2

Andersson 1/2 0 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 * 'h 'h5

Kamsky 0 1/2 0 1/2 1'h 1/2 1 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 *• 5

What also distinguished Reggio Emilia was the presence of an almost equally powerful B group, where the results were: Ljubojevic 7/12, Vaganian 61/2, Gulko 61/2, Romanishin 6, Beliaysky 6, Epishin 6, Portisch 4. In this section the almost unknown Epishin, who nevertheless boasts a 2620 rating, was responsible for the most coruscating game.

Beliaysky — Epishin: Reggio Emilia 1991; Budapest Defence.

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e5 3 dxe5 Ng4 4 Qd4 A suspect method of clinging to the extra pawn. 4 Nf3 is more sensible. 4 . . . d6 Black decides to make a real gambit of the opening in the interests of hounding White's exposed queen. 5 exd6 Bxd6 6 Qe4+ The queen's peregrinations continue. If 6 Qxg7? Be5 wins. 6 . . . Be6 7 Nc3 The glutto- nous 7 Qxb7 would grant Black an overwhelm- ing advantage in development after 7 . . . Nd7. 7 . . . 0-0 8 Nf3 Qd7 9 Nd4 In this position 9 Qxb7 would now be parried by 9 . . . Nc6 10 a3 Bxc4 followed by . . . Rfb8. 9 . . . Bxc4 10 Nf5 Be6 11 Nxd6 exd6 12 g3 White is seeking to complete his development with Bg2 and 0-0 but Black's active forces harry White to such an extent that he can never complete this man- oeuvre. 12 . . . d5 13 Qf4 d4 14 Ne4 Bd5 15 f3 f5 16 Nc5 Qe7 17 Nd3 Nc6 18 h3 More or less admitting that he cannot fulfil normal develop- ment conditions, for if 18 Bg2 Rae8 19 0-0 Qxe2 20 Rel Qxd3 21 Rxe8 Rxe8 22 fxg4 Rel+ 23 Bfl Bc4. 18 . . . NgeS 19 NxeS NxeS 20 Kf2 d3 21 Bd2 dxe2 22 Bxe2 Bxf3! This sacrifice definitive- ly exposes the artificiality of the white set-up. Of course White cannot capture on f3 with his bishop on account of . . . Nd3+. However, Black's calculations had to go somewhat deeper than that. 23 Bb4 Qe6 If now 24 Bxf8 Bxe2 25 Kxe2 Qa6+ 26 Kd2 Rd8+ 27 Kc3 Qd3+ 28 Kb4 Nc6+ mates. Alternatively, if 26 Ke3 Re8 wins. 24 Rhel Bxe2 25 Qe3 There is no way out, thus 25 Rxe2 Nd3+ 26 Kfl Nxf4 27 Rxe6 Nxe6 28 Bxf8 Kxf8 winning. 25 . . . f4 White resigns Demoralised. Beliaysky resigned, but his posi- tion is quite hopeless after 26 gxf4 Rxf4+ 27 Kg2 0d5+ or 26 Qxe2 Qb6+ 27 Kfl fxg3+ 28 Kg2 Rf2+ .

The Candidates pairings are now known, with all matches set for the SAS Hotel, Brussels, in August. They are: Karpov- Anand, Gelfand-Short, Timman-Korchnoi and Ivanchuk-Yusupov.

Meanwhile, there has been a sensation at Linares where in the first round Ivan- chuk has beaten Kasparov: Vassily Ivanchuk-Gary Kasparov: Linares 1991; Sicilian Defence.

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 Bb5+ Nd7 4 d4 Ngf6 5 0-0 cxd4 6 Qxd4 a6 7 Bxd7+ Bxd7 8 Bg5 h6 9 Bxf6 gxf6 10 c4 e6 11 Nc3 Rc8 12 Khl h5 13 a4 h4 14 h3 Be7 15 b4 a5 16 b5 Qc7 17 Nd2 Qc5 18 Qd3 Rg8 19 Rael Qg5 20 Rgl Qf4 21 Refl b6 22 Net Qh6 23 c5 RxcS 24 Nc4 KIS 25 Nxb6 Be8 26 f4 f5 27 exf5 RxfS 28 Rcl Kg7 29 g4 Rc5 30 RxcS dxe5 31 Nc8 Bf8 32 Qd8 Qg6 33 f5 Qh6 34 g5 Qh5 35 Rg4 exf5 36 Nf4 Qh8 37 Qf6+ Kh7 38 Rxh4+ Black resigns.