Chess
Europa Cup
Raymond Keene
Moscow The Final of the VI European Team Championship ended in Moscow last Saturday '(23 April) with the expected massive victory of the Russian team, containing not only the World Champion, Karpov, but also two ex-champions in Tal and Petrosian. Scores (out of a possible 56) were: USSR 411/2 (in the process taking individual prizes on 8 boards and sharing on one other); Hungary 31; Yugoslavia 30; Rumania 29; Bulgaria 25; W. Germany 25; Czechoslovakia 21i; and England 21.
As I feared (see my article of 9 April) the absence of Tony Miles proved an immense handicap for an England side struggling against a field where Grandmasters were the rule rather than the exception. Although our position represented something of a setback after our sixth place in the, admittedly slightly weaker, V Championship Final at Bath 1973, we should not forget that it would have been unthinkable, before Bath, for an English team even to have qualified for an event largely dominated by the chess 'mechanics' of Eastern Europe.
Individual scores for England, in board order, were: Keene 2/6; Hartston 2/7; Stean 2i/6; Nunn 3I/7; Mestel 2/6; Whiteley 1/6; Webb 4/7 (narrowly missing a board prize l); Bellin 21/6; Speelman 1/3; Goodman 1/2. My own opposition on top board constituted a Fide category14 tournament (two categories up on Bad Lauterberg!) and Karpov excelled once again by scoring 100 per cent from the five games he troubled to play. Here is his rapid demolition of Lajos Portisch, currently rated at 2625 and one of the four survivors to the semi-final of the Candidates' Tournament. That an obviously nervous Portisch should last a mere twenty-three moves does not hold out much hope for his personal chances of a successful challenge against Karpov in 1978.
Portisch (Hungary) — Karpov (USSR); Europa Cup, Moscow April 1977; King's Indian Attack. 1 N-KB3 N-1(133 2 P-KN3 P-QN3 3 B-N2 B-N2 4 0-0 P-K35 P-Q3 It is a matter of taste, butt think 5 P-B4 is more active. 5 . . . P-Q4 6 QN-Q2 QN-Q2 7 R-K1? This shows that Portisch had been driven into a passive frame of mind by the prospect of facing the World Champion. Correct is the active 7 P4K4! PxP 8 PxP and if 8. NxP 9 N-K5. 7. . . B-84! Fluid development is typical of Karpov'S style but one cannot deny the originality of developing the KB at QB4 in a closed opening. 8 P-B4 Inconsistent with his previous striving for an advance of the KP. 8. . 0-0 9 PxP PxP 10 N-N3 B-N5 11 B-02 P-QR4 More ambitious than 11. . BxB 12 QxB P-QB4 which would have been good enough for equality. 12 QN-Q4 R-K1 13 QR-BI P-114 14 N-B5 15 P-Q4? Provoking a sharp struggle at the wrong moment. 15 . . N-K516 PxP? White's position is already bad but this is a blunder losing material, 16 . . . NxB 17 NxN Q-N4! Forking White's knights. If now 18 N-K3 RxN 19 PxR OxPch wins. 18 N-Q6 BxN 19 Nx B BxR(KS) 20 Qxii RAP 21 QxR QxRch 22 Q-B1 Q-Q7 23 PxP R-QB1 White Resigns.
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