CHESS

Brussels bouts

Raymond Keene

On Sunday (11 August) the quarter- finals of the world championship candi- dates competition start up in the SAS Royal Hotel in Brussels. The matches are for the best of eight games with provision for two days of extra time quick-play games if a tie is reached. The pairings are as follows.

Anand (India) 2650 v Karpov (USSR) 2730 Timman (Holland) 2630 v Korchnoi (Switzerland) 2610 Short (England) 2660 v Gelfand (USSR) 2665 Ivanchuk (USSR) 2735 v Yusupov (USSR) 2625 In spite of his loss against Anand in the Linares tournament earlier this year Kar- pov must still be the firm favourite to defeat the young Indian, while Korchnoi, Karpov's old rival, also, in my opinion has better chances against Timman. The Dutchman's life-time record against the veteran is extraordinarily feeble. Nigel Short also has good chances against Gel- fand, although it will be a titanic struggle. Nigel's rating is somewhat lower but he is on colossal form, as can be seen from his victory in Amsterdam ahead of Kasparov and Karpov, while Gelfand has been some- what unconvincing this year. Finally there is the match between Yusupov and Ivan- chuk. When Ivanchuk won at Linares ahead of most of the world's top grandmas- ters, defeating Kasparov and Karpov en route, I sensed that he was going to be the next world champion. Since then, he has blotted his copybook with a poor result at Terrassa in Spain. Ivanchuk used to be dreadfully nervous and it was sometimes painful to watch him in play. For Linares he appeared to have cured this old fault but at Terrassa it re-surfaced, as can be seen from his game against Ehlvest which fol- lows. In the ordinary run of events I would expect Ivanchuk to demolish Yusupov, a player of great solidity rather than great genius, but the combination of Ivanchuk's nerves and Yusupov's self-evident form, as witnessed by his superlative victory in Hamburg, may yet produced an upset.

Ehlvest — Ivanchuk: Terrassa 1991; Sicilian Defence.

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 Nc6 6 Bg5 e6 7 Qd2 a6 8 0-0-0 h6 9 Be3 Bd7 10 f4 Be7 11 Kbl b5 12 Bd3 0-0 13 Rhel Qc7 14 h3 Na5 15 Qf2 b4 16 Nce2 Nc4 17 Bcl a5 18 Ng3 Rfc8 19 Qe2 Rabb 20 Kat a4 21 e5 dxe5 22 fxe5 Nd5 23 Qh5 Be8 24 Bxc4 Qxc4 25 Qg4 b3 26 cxb3 axb3

Hamburg Tournament, July 1991

I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 T11

I Yusupov A X 1/2 1/2 I 1 1 1/2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 111/2

2 Wallis M 1/2 X 1 1 1½½½½1½1 I 1 10 3 Hansen C ½0X½1½1½½1 1 1 1 1 91/2 4 Lobron E 0 0 1/2 X 1/2 1 1/2 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 81/2

S Piket 3 0 0 0 1/2 X 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 1/2 1 1 1 1 71/2 6 Muller K 0 1/2 1/2 0 1/2 X I 1 1/2 1 V2 0 1k 1 7 7 Khalifman A 1/2 1/2 0 1/2 1h 0 X 112 0 1 1/2 1 I 1 7

8 Coaling P 0 1/2 I/2 0 0 0 1/2 X 1 1 1 1/2 1 1 7

9 Kindermann S 0/ 1/2 112 1/2 1 0 X 1/2 1h 0 1/2 1 61/2 10 Maus S 0 0 0 0 1/2 0 0 0 1/2 X 1/2 1 1 1 41/2 11 Bischoff K 0 1/2 0 0 0 1/2 1/2 0 1h 1h X 1/2 1/2 1/2 4

12 Knaak R 0000010½10½X½½ 4

13 Wegner H 0 0 0 0 0 1h 0 0 V2 0 1/2 1h X 1/2 21/2 14 Wirtensohn H 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1h V2 1h X I% 27 Nxb3 Qa6 28 RxdS Rxb3 29 Nh5 g6 30 Rd6 Bxd6 31 exd6 Ra8 32 a3 Qd3 33 Rdl (Diagram)

Here Black can deliver checkmate with the rather obvious 33 . . . Itaxa3+ 34 bxa3 Qb1 mate. This is a single line variation which anybody should see, even in desperate time

trouble. In fact there followed 33 . . . Rbxa3+?? 34 bxa3 Rxa3+ 35 Bxa3 Qxa3+ 36 Kbl Qb3+ Draw agreed. As Europe Echecs puts it, Ivanchuk seemed for this game 'repris par ses vieux demons'.

Yusupov — Piket: Hamburg 1991; King's Indian Defence.

I d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 f3 0-0 6 Bg5 a6 7 Qd2 Nbd7 8 Nh3 c6 9 Nf2 b5 10 Ra Bbl 11 b3 Qa5 12 Bet bxc4 13 bxc4 Rfb8 14 0-0 13c8 15 f4 c5 16 d5 Rb4 17 Qe3 Qc7 18 Qg3 h6 19 Bh4 Rab8 20 Khl Nf8 21 e5 N6h7 22 e6 fxe6 23 Bd3 e5 24 Bxg6 exf4 25 Bxh7+ Kxh7 26 Qxf4 Ng6 27 Qe4 Rxe4 28 Qxc4 Rb4 29 Qd3 Rxh4 31) Nfe4 Qd7 31 Rf7 Qg4 32 g3 Rh5 33 Rxe7 Kg8 34 Re8+ Kh7 35 Rfl Bf5 36 Qe2 Bxe4+ 37 Rxe4 Qg5 38 Rf7 Qcl+ 39 Kg2 Rg5 40 h4 Nxh4+ 41 Rxh4 Qxc3 42 Rg4 Rxg4 43 Qxg4 Qb2+ 44 Kh3 Qe5 45 Qe6 Qg5 46 Raj Black resigns.

There will be nightly reports of the quarter-final matches Monday to Thursday on Thames and Harlech TV from 12 to 22 August with a wrap-up programme on Tuesday 27 August covering the day's play in the Candidates matches in Brussels.

Position after 33 Rdl