CHESS
Out to Graz
Raymond Keene
The prevailing atmosphere of the Fide Congress at Graz which finished on 31 August, a few days before the start of the world championship, was one of exhaus- tion and demoralisation. The irregularities committed by the Federation's leadership over the past eight months have had an enervating effect on the delegates, many of whom seemed to have lost their enthu- siasm for voluntary service to Fide.
Fide's main blunders this year have been the termination of the 1984-85 world cham- pionship; the appalling complications of the hasty new Candidates' regulations from Tunisia and the suspect reselection of Gligoric and Kinzel as match officials. Fortunately, the more sensible elements of the Graz congress did succeed in unravell- ing the Candidates' confusion, and Gligor- ic did resign as Chief Arbiter. This paved the way for the choice of Malchev and Mikenas as joint umpires with Prins and an unpronounceable Estonian as deputies.
Nevertheless, the Arbiter situation was only resolved in the final minutes of the last full session. Meanwhile, the following telex was speeding from Gary Kasparov and it arrived just too late for general distribution. I hope Gary is now reason- ably satisfied with the choice of personali- ties, even though he was evidently in- censed about the delay:
Statement to all delegates of Fide: Once more I'm forced to protest against the numer- ous errors and obvious provocations commit- ted by Campomanes and his people in arrang- ing the forthcoming title match between me and Karpov. To have no chief arbiter just three days before such an event is another unprecedented scandal. Since Mr S. Gligoric has withdrawn, as is well known, in early July, there was plenty of time to replace him, for instance by Mr Lothar Schmid who was in both players' lists. He was ready to take the job too, only needing a written invitation in good time, being a businessman. Instead, Campomanes phoned him only a few days before the Congress on 19 August. At that time he knew perfectly well that Mr Schmid would no longer be able to accept the invita- tion. This is Campomanes's false alibi, so he might have another so-called 'extraordinary case', when he can use his presidential power to act as a dictator. Campomanes's general approach is wrong in many ways. He is violating moral principles and written rules daily. By the way, I have replied to all letters from the President, but, apparently, my re- plies get mysteriously lost. Isn't it strange?
His ignoring of all my requests puts me in a handicapped situation. Serving however opposite to the President — the chess world's best interest, I feel obliged to play even under such conditions. I only hope that the fate of the world championship title will be decided on the chessboard — this time.
We go to press before the first game in Moscow is played, so this week I have selected two of the best of the 700-odd games played in the world championship since its inauguration in 1886: Steinitz — Zukertort: 18th game, World Cham- pionship match, New Orleans 1886; Ruy Lopez. 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 4 d3 d6 5 c3 g6 6 d4 Bd7 7 Nbd2 Bg7 8 dxe5 Nxe5 9 Nxe5 dxe5 10 Qe2 0-011 f3 a512 Bd3 Qe7 13 Nfl Be6 14 g4 Rfd8 14 h4 Qd7 15 Bc2 h5 17 g5 Ne8 18 Ne3 Qc6 19 CA Nd6 20 Bd3 Rabb 21 Nd5 BxdS 22 cxd5 Qd7 23 Bd2 Ra8 24 Rcl c6 25 Rc5 cxd5 26 RxdS Qa4 27 a3 b6 28 Bc3 Qe8 29 Qf2 Nc8 30 Bh5 Qe7 31 RxdS+ Qxd8 32 0-0 Na7 33 Bc4 Nc6 34 Bd5
35 f4 Qd7 36 f5 Ne7 37 Bat! gxf5 38 exf5 Bf8 39 Qf3 e4 40 QxhS Black resigns
Tat — Botvinnik: First game, World Cham- pionship match, Moscow 1960; French Defence. 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 e5 c5 5 a3 Bxc3+ 6 bxc3 Qc7 7 Qg4 f5 8 Qg3 Ne7 9 Qxg7 Re; 10 Qxh7 cxd4 11 Kdl Bd7 12 Qh5+ Ng6 13 Net d3 14 cxd3 Ba4+ 15 Ke1 Qxe5 16 Bg5 Nc6 17 d4 Qc7 18 h4 e5 19 Rh3 Qf7 20 dxe5 Ncxe5 21 Re3 Kd7 22 Rbl b6 23 Nf4 RaeS 24 Rb4 Bch 25 Qdl Nxf4 26 Rxf4 Ng6 27 Rd4 Rxe3+ 28 fxe3 Kc7 29 c4 dxc4 30 Bxc4 Qg7 31 Bxg8 QxgS 32 h5 Black resigns.
From 6 to 17 September the Candidates' reserve play-off match between Speelman, Gavrikov and van der Wiel will run at the London Docklands Museum. Play is dur ing the afternoon and early evening and there will also be lectures on the world championship games as they come through, simuls, blitz chess etc. . . All welcome and no entry fees. Nigel Short will be there.
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