Chess
Raymond Keene
This autumn the annual Master Game has been replaced by the inaugural TV World Cap, a co-production by the BBC lict German TV, with much the strongest line-up ever featured in a television chess stournament. The contestants are Karpov, Torre, Timman, Seirawan, Lobron, orre, Bouaziz and John Nunn, while com- eents are provided by the now traditional parll of Jeremy James and Bill Hartston. ,rclgrammes are shown on Sunday after- "cions on BBC2. , I have one suggestion for the future. The Players are basically allowed one hour each C2°. the clock to play all their moves, and
'allure to achieve this results in loss of the gam L
ik -e by time-forfeit. We hear a lot from He Players about 'time-trouble', 'no time Eno think' etc, but surely this important time !actor could be made more dramatic by the Introduction of an electronic countdown clock (starting at 60 minutes) for each Player, Portraying exactly how much time
they have left. I am sure this step would give the viewer a deeper insight into the kind of tension facing the players during combat. Although the game scores have already been published in various continental magazines, the overall results are not yet public knowledge in England, so I will not spoil your fun by publishing further details other than the following brilliant game, televised last Sunday. Apologies to those who have seen it already, and for those who have not, I should point out that this duel was typical of the interesting fighting chess from the event.
I have reproduced some direct comments from the players, mainly Seirawan, who tends to be more amusing as he alternates between wild optimism and black despair. Some explanatory pre-history: the moves of this game, up to and including White's 13th, had already occurred between the same two players in London earlier this year. This was the famous game which Seirawan won after preparation with Victor Korchnoi, who actually had the satisfaction of watching his second defeat the world champion. It does seem naïve, though, for Seirawan to try to win the same game twice.
Seirawan — Karpov: BBC World Cup 1982; Queen's Gambit Declined.
1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 d5 4 d4 Be7 5 Bg5 h6 6 Bh4 0-0 7 Rcil b6 8 cxd5 Nxd5 9 Nxd5 exd5 10 Bxe7 Qxe7 11 g3 Re8. Seirawan: 'Wonderful, is he going to allow me to continue my preparation that 1 worked out with Victor?' 12 Re3 Na6 13 Qa4 Karpov: 'I was surprised by this move in London but now I am more surprised because I have prepared something strong against it.' 13... b5 14 Qa5 Qe4! Seirawan: 'Oh gee so sim- ple, oh no!' I fell into his preparation, the dirty guy. He didn't fall into mine. Oh, this is blatant- ly unfair.' 15 Kd2 Re6 Seirawan: 'I shouldn't listen to Victor, stupid, stupid, stupid. How am I going to save this?' 16 b3 b4 17 Re3 Qbl 18 Rxe6 Qb2+ 19 Kdl Bxe6 20 Qxa6 Qal + 21 Kd2 Qc3 + 22 Kdl Bf5 23 Nel Rb8 24 Qxa7 Rb6 25 e3 Rc6 26 Bc4 Qa1 + 27 Ke2 Qb2+ 28 Kdl dxc4 Seirawan: 'This is disgusting, there's nothing 1 can do. Now this will go into his next memoirs.' 29 Qa8 + Kh7 30 Qxc6 c3 White resigns.
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