CHESS

Double trouble

Raymond Keene

Double round top-level tournaments are becoming the fashion — OHRA Brus- sels 1986 and OHRA Amsterdam 1987, Biel 1987 and now Tilburg. This tourna- ment has reached an Elo average of 2623 (Category 15) and is, on paper, the strongest held this year. Foreign and Colo- nial Hastings, set for December-January 1987-88, is also returning to the double- round format introduced in 1922 (when Alekhine won ahead of Rubinstein, Bogol- jubov and Tarrasch) but never repeated since then. The field of Hastings will include Short, Speelman, Nunn, Chandler, Davies, Psahkis, Larsen and Benjamin, a comfortable Category 13, probably the strongest Hastings since 1922.

At Tilburg, the flying Dutchman, Tim- man, has won with 81/2/14 followed by Nikolic and Hubner 8, Korchnoi 71/2, Yusupov 7, Andersson 61/2. Sokolov 6 and Ljubojevic 41/2. Korchnoi had a terrible start — half a point from his first four games — but proved what a colossal fighter he is by eventually closing to within one point of the winning score. Fide President Campo- manes walked into another minefield here. The organisers invited him to declare the tournament open, but Timman and Hub- ner threatened to boycott the ceremony if he turned up. The organisers caved in and Grandmaster Sosonko made the draw.

Hilbner-Ljubojevic: Sicilian Defence.

1 e4 c5 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Be2 g6 70-0 Bg7 8 f4 0-09 Bf3 e5 10 Nde2 Re8 11 Ng3 exf4 12 Bxf4 Nc6 13 Qxd6 Qb6+ 16 exd5 Rd8 17 Qc7 Rd7 18 Rohl Qxa2 19 Qb6 (Dia-

gram) 19. . . Rxd5 20 Bxd5 Qxd5 21 Rbdl Bd4 22 Qc7 h5 23 c3 h4 24 cxd4 Bh3 25 Rf2 Bxg2+ 26

Position after 19 Qb6

Kg! Bf3 27 Rd3 Nxd4 28 R1d2 hxg3 29 Rxd4 Re8 30 Bxg3 Qb3 31 Rd8 Qe3+ 32 Bf2 Qg5+ 33 Qg3 Black resigns.

Jusupov-Ljubojevic: Queen's Indian Defence. 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 d5 4 Nc3 Be7 5 Bf4 0-0 6 e3 b6 7 Rd l c5 8 dxc5 bxc5 9 Be2 Bb7 10 0-0 Nbd7 11 cxd5 exd5 12 Ne5 Nb6 13 a4 a5 14 Bf3 Re8 15 Nb5 Ra6 16 Nd3 c4 17 Bc7 Qd7 18 Ne5 Qc8 19 b3 Na8 20 bxc4 Nxc7 21 cxd5 8d6 22 Nc4 Bc5 23 Nxa5 Rxa5 24 Rxc5 Qd8 25 Nd6 Qxd6 26 Rxa5 Bxd5 27 Qd4 Qe6 28 Bxd5 Ncxd5 29 Rdl Itc8 30 Rc5 Rxc5 31 Qxc5 h5 32 a5 Qe4 33 h3 g6 34 Qc6 Qb4 35 a6 Qa5 36 Qb7 Qa4 37 Rbl Black resigns.

Hubner-Korchnoi: Ruy Lopez.

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 50-0 Nxe4 6 d4 b5 7 Bb3 d5 8 dxe5 Be6 9 Nbd2 Nc5 10 c3 Be7 11 Bc2 Bg4 12 Rel Qd7 13 Nfl Rd8 14 Ne3 Bh5

Position after 17. . . Na4?

15 Nf5 0-0 16 Nxe7+ Nxe7 17 b4 Na4? (Diagram) 18 Bxh7+! Kxh7 19 e6! Black resigns. 17. . . Na4? was a terrible error; 17 . . . Ne6 or even 17 . . Ne4 would have been much better. If 19. . . fxe6 (or 19. . . Bxf3 20 Qd3+ Be4 21 Qh3+) 20 Ng5+ Kg6 21 g4 winning.

John Nunn has lost his play-off match with Portisch in Budapest by a score of 3-1, so only Nigel Short and Jon Speelman will go forward to the St John Candidates. This, of course, still represents a great triumph for English chess.

The fourth Kasparov-Karpov match starts in Seville on Monday 12 October. I plan to be on the spot for most of the match and to send regular reports from the front. Meanwhile, Gary Kasparov has seized the moment to publish his con- troversial autobiography, Child of Change (Century Hutchinson, £12.95), co- authored with Donald Trelford, editor of the Observer. It tells an alarming story and will be reviewed in detail at some later date.