Chess
Near miss?
Raymond Keene
The English team has had a good run recently. In mid-March a decisive 91/2-61/2 victory was inflicted on Sweden in the qualifying round of the European Championship, while last Saturday we came close to toppling the USSR in the semi-final of the World Telex Cup. For both matches Duncan Lawrie were the sponsors, while Phillips and Drew kindly made their spacious offices available for the telex clash.
Individual results in the important USSR match were: Miles-Balashov, for adjudica- tion by Fide, but Miles is winning easily; Speelman-Psahis, also for adjudication but Speelman is lost; Keene-Jusupov 1/2-1/2; Mestel-Tukmakov, for adjudication; Chandler-Romanishin 1-0; Short- Kupreichik 0-1; P. Littlewood-Sveshnikov 0-1; Taulbut-Vasyukov 1/2-1/2. The score is thus 2-3 to the Soviets, with one prospective win each, and Mestel's game, in which our player is two pawns ahead, but has technical difficulties in converting them in- to a win. Here is the position, and if any
reader can find a win for Black (which would give us the match on board count) please contact the BCF at 9a Grand Parade, St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex.
If Black could arrange to bring his K to f5 without losing his pawn on f4, he should win, but this is difficult to achieve, e.g. 1 Kc3 Kd6 2 13a7! Key 3 Bb8 + . Although Black has an imposing mass of centre pawns, the presence of opposite-coloured bishops makes their advance almost im- possible. The BCF has to provide analysis of this position for Fide within the next few days.
Kupreichik-Short: Pirc Defence.
1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 g6 4 Be3 c6 5 Qd2 Nbd7 6 Nf3 Qa5 7 Bd3 e5 8 0-0-0 b5 9 Kbl Qc7 10 Bg5 Be7 11 h4 a6 Short's opening play is extremely provocative. Here I 1 ...hS5peloctoakks)r 10 Aprilpsorillid 19,8212 dxe5 dxe5 13 h5! Launching a massive sacrificial attack. 13 ... Nxh5 14 Bxe7 Kxe7 15 Rxh5 16 Qg5 + Nf6 17 NxeS Rg8 18 Qf4 Threatening Ng6+ and Qxc7. 18 ... Ra7 19 Nd5 + ! Anothnt brilliant stroke. 19 ... cxd5 20 exd5 Ng6+ Kd7 and Black resigns. 22 Qf5 easily.
Chandler-Romanishin: Ruy Lopez. 16 Be1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Rb5 a6 4 Ra4 Nf6 5 0-0 - 10Rel d6 7 Bxc6 + bxc6 8 d4 exd4 9 No14 Bd7 Q13 0-0 11 Nc3 Rb8 12 b3 Re8 13 h3 1U8 14118, h6 15 Bh4 g5 Too weakening. He should retract with 15 Be7. 16 Bg3 Rg7 17 e5 Nd5 IS 7'17Ad dxe5 It looks as if Black will regain his piece wils advantage but White has a neat coup which gairl control of f5. 19 Nxc7 Qxc7 20 Nf5 Bx15 21 Oxi„ RbdS 22 RadI Qa5 23 Kh2 Rd5 24 c4 lid2 Rxd2 Qxd2 26 Re3 Qxa2 27 Qd7 Re6 28 Qd8+ Kh7 29 Rf3 Rg6 30 Rxf7 g4 31 Bxe5 gxh3 32 Qt13 Black lost on time.
As can be seen, Murray Chandler has red nounced his allegiance to New Zealand all now represents England. A major forthcoming attraction will be the Phillips and Drew Kings Grandmaster tournament to be held at County Hall fril, 15-30 April. It has the strongest line-uP ° any tournament ever to be held in London, and includes world champion Anatoly }Or' pov, ex-champion Spassky, plus Timtuari' Miles, Nunn etc. I shall be responsible for the bulletin, while Bill Hartston will be giv ing daily game commentaries.
Previous page
