SPANI'S FINEST CAVA
I CHESS .C.ODO an 33
SPAIN'S FINEST CAVA
Beauties and the Beasts
Raymond Keene
AS THE SWISS MAGAZINE Schach- woche somewhat unkindly notes, 'Youth and beauty have triumphed over experi- ence'. The Swiss were referring to the Walzer-Turnier in Vienna which pitted a team of top female players against veteran men, in some cases rather gnarled and mildewed veteran men. The girls, with an average rating of 2473.3, overwhelmed the higher-rated veterans (average 2498.3) by the score of 401/2 points to 311/2.
With such great names as Larsen, Smys- loy and Geller in the defeated men's team, this looks like a mighty blow struck for the chess amazons. As a note of caution, though, it should be observed that the ratings of one or two of the men are prehistoric. Fridrik Olafsson, for example, has hardly played a serious game of chess since 1980, while Duckstein never made it to true grandmaster status and his current- ly rather modest rating of 2375 is, in any case, probably overstated.
Nevertheless, this was obviously a su- perb result for the girls and vindication of the Professional Chess Association's new stance that from now on they will issue a unified rating list and that the PCA World Championship will invite both men and women to play for one and the same title. Chiburdanidze's score of 9/12 was particu- Chiburdanidze Polgar, Zsu Xie Jun Polgar, Zso Arakhamia Galliamova Larsen Smyslow Geller Ivkov Olafsson Duckstein Women Country Georgia Hungary China Hungary Georgia Ukraine Men Denmark Russia Russia Yugoslavia Iceland Austria
Rating Score 2510 9 2560 71/2 2470 7 2415 6 2440 51/2 2445 51/2 2540 71/2 2530 61/2 2515 6 2505 5 2525 4 2375 21/2
larly outstanding. Her finish against Bent Larsen was the jewel of the tournament.
Chiburdanidze — Larsen With so many white pieces clustered around the black king it is obvious that something is afoot, but Chiburdanidze finished off with a sensa- tionally beautiful queen sacrifice to force mate with three minor pieces: 31 Qxh6+! gxh6 32 Nf7+ + Kg8 33 Nxh6 mate.
In another sharp contest Geller was tactically outplayed by Zsuzsa Polgar.
Zsuzsa Polgar — Geller Here Geller, fearing the consequences of 16 . . . Bxb4 17 Qa4! played the over-optimistic 16 . . . Rc4 when there followed 17 Bxc4 dxc4 18 Qa4 Bd7 Geller had been speculating with his sacri- fice on the exposed state of White's pieces on the queen's flank and had doubtless been hoping for 19 Ra5, when White's pieces suffer from major constipation. Instead there came 19 Qa5! when Geller realised that 19 . . . QxbS 20 QxbS BxbS 21 Rxb7 nets material. For example 21 . . . Bd7 22 Bg5 Rd8 23 Bxf6 followed by 24 Rdl. The finish was rather pathetic. 19 . . . Qc6 20 Nd4 Qc8 21 Qb6 c3 22 Qxb7 Qc4 23 Be5 Rd8 24 Bxf6 Bxf6 25 Ra8 Re8 26 RxeS+ BxeS 27 Qb8 Kf8 28 Nf5 Black resigns.
Olafsson — Zsofia Polgar
This is a complicated position in which White has the material disadvantage of rook against bishop and knight. However, two of Black's pieces are attacked and Olafsson was probably feeling quite optimistic. If so Black's next move brought him down to earth with a bump. 19 . . . Nxf2 If now 20 Rxf2 Nd4!! 21 Nxd4 Bxd4 with extra material and a dominating position. Alter- natively 20 Rxf2 Nd4 21 Qxc3 Nxe2 + and the pin against White's rook means that White loses the queen. 20 e3 Ng4 21 Qxc3 Nxe3 22 Khl 0-0 Black prefers to stay the exchange down for immense compensation rather than play 22 . . . Nxf1 allowing 23 Qxg7. 23 Rfel Nxg2 24 Kxg2 Bbl 25 Rbdl Rd8 26 Rxd8+ Qxd8 27 Kgl Qd5 This kind of position is almost always impossible to defend. The extra pawns and diagonal press- ure give Black more than enough for White's rook. 28 Qe5 Qd8 29 Qe3 h6 30 Rfl Qd5 31 h4 f6 32 Kh2 e5 33 Qe2 Nd4 34 Nxd4 exd4 35 h5 Kh7 36 g4 d3 37 Qf2 Bch 38 QfS+ QxfS 39 gxf5 Bxa4 40 Rf2 Bdl 41 Rd2 BxhS 42 b3 Bf7 43 bxc4 Bxc4 44 Kg3 a5 45 Kf4 a4 46 Ke3 a3 47 Rdl a2 48 Rgl Bb5 White resigns There are far too many black pawns.
Previous page
