3 FEBRUARY 1990, Page 44

CHESS

Second first

Raymond Keene

In the past couple of years Dr John Nunn has been somewhat overshadowed by the glamorous exploits of Nigel Short and Jonathan Speelmati. Nevertheless, recent signs have indicated that Nunn has been unobtrusively working his way back to the very forefront of British Chess. Perhaps the slight deceleration in Nunn's career can be traced to his generous decision to support Nigel Short as his second in the Candidates stage of the current world championship cycle. In the World CO series, however, Nunn finished ahead of both Short and Speelman and now in the traditional annual tournament in the Dutch town of Wijk aan Zee, Nunn has scored the greatest triumph of his life by gaining clear first prize in a stellar field. Initially it Was Short and Korchnoi who shot into the lead but both suffered a rash of losses in the concluding rounds. Meanwhile Nunn Wijk aan Zee Tournament 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 I 2 3 4111 INunn England * 1/21/21 1/21/2 1 0 1 0 1/2 1 1½5 2Portisch Hungary 1/2 " 1/21 1/21/2 I 1 1/21/21/21/2 0 1/271/2 3Andersson Sweden 1/21/2 * 1/21/21/21/21/2. 0 1/2 1 1/2 1 171/2 4Dlugy USA 0 0 1/2* 1/21/21/21/2 1 1/21/2 1 1/2 I 7 56urevich USSR 1/21/21/21/2 * 1/21/2 1 0 1/21 1/21/21/27 6Petursson Iceland 1/21/21/21/21/2 * 1/21/21/21/21/21/21/21 7 7Anand India 0 0 1/21/21/21/2 * 1/2 0 1/21 1/2 1 161/2 8Korchnoi Switzerland 1 0 ½½0 1/21/2 " 1/21/21/2 I 106½ 9Short England 01/21 0 1 1/211/2* 1/2 0 1/2 106½ 10Dokhoian USSR 1 1/21h 1/21/21/21/21/21/2 * 1/2 0 0 161/2 Ilyan der Wiel Holland 1/21/2 0 1/2 0 1/20 1/21 ½* 1/21/21 6 12Piket Holland 0 1/21/20 1/2 1/2 1/2 0½ 1 1/2 * 1/2 16 13Kuijf Holland 0 1 0 1/21/21/20 0 0 11/21/2* 1/25 14Nijboer Holland 1/21/2 0 0 1/2 0 0 1 I 0 0 0 1/2 *4

finished the closing straight in spirited style, notching up win after win. In particu- lar, he remained faithful to his favourite King's Itidian Defence, with which he garnered the well deserved brilliancy prize with the following splendidly energetic victory. The notes to this game are based on those which John Nunn kindly supplied to our deputy editor Dominic Lawson.

Worthy of note is Icelandic Grandmaster Petursson's score which gets the prize for maximum economy of effort. Also in- teresting is the fact that the Dutch players finished in a clump at the bottom of the table.

Piket — Nunn: King's Indian Defence.

1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 g6 3 c4 Bg7 4 Nc3 0-0 5 e4 d6 6 h3 e5 7 d5 Nbd7 8 BO Nc5 9 Nd2 a5 10 g4 Ne8 II Qc2 15 Piket has himself been seen on the black side of this variation. In the game Larsen - Piket, Lugano 1989 the continuation was 11 . . . Kh8 12 Be2 15. It looks more natural to play 11 . . . 15 immediately. 12 gxf5 gxf5 13 Rgl 14 14 Bxc5 dxc5 15 Nf3 Kh8 16 0-0-0 Ra6 An imaginative way to airlift the rook to the zone of real action. It might appear that it was White who enjoyed more prospects on the king's wing but in fact his 'h' pawn is weak and Nunn exploits this fact to create useful squares for his pieces. 17 Nb5 Qe7 18 Qc3 Rh6 19 h4 If 19 Oxii5 then 19 . . . Ra6 cunningly switching back to the original flank followed by R.xa2. 19. . . b6 20 Bd3 Bf6 21 8c2 Nd6 22 Na7 Ild7 Of course, White's 'h' pawn is currently immune to capture since the black Pawn on e5 would hang. 23 Rg2 Rgs 24 Rxg8+ Kxg8 25 á3 Rg6 Preparing a powerful penetra- tion with White's T and 'If pawns as targets. 26 Rhl Rg2 27 Qe1 Qg7 28 Bd3 Qg4 The prelude to the queen sacrifice which won the brilliancy prize. White had evidently been relying on his next move to fend off the Black attack. but Nunn had seen further. 29 Bfl Qxf3 30 Bxg2 Qxg2 31 Rgl 13 32 Nb5 Nxb5 33 Rxg2+ fxg2 34 cxb5 The best defence is 34 Qgl when Black could of course simply play 34. . . Nd4 with three minor pieces for the queen. More incisive however would be 34 „ . Bh3 35 cxb5 a4 followed by manoeuvring the black bishop to the f4 square and an advance of the black king to capture White's 'h' pawn when Black's two connected passed pawns will ultimately triumph. 34 . . .

Position after 35. . . Bfl

Bxb5 35 Qg1 Bfl (Diagram) 36 Qh2 Bxh4 37 Qxh4 g1=Q 38 Qd8+ Kg7 39 Qxc7+ Kh6 40 Qxb6+ Kh5 41 b4 Bd3+ 42 Kd2 Qxf2+ White resigns If 43 Kxd3 c4+ wins the queen.