CHESS

Overflow

Raymond Keene

or weeks, nothing of great importance has been taking place. This calm has given

me the chance to proceed with my historic- al analysis of great tournaments. Suddenly, though, I am inundated with reports from all sides; much like Olivier in his film

Richard III, where messengers flood from all sides into the circular throne room.

Richard's only solace was that the Duke of Buckingham had been taken; fortunately, our tiding are more promising. British champion Jon Speelman and Nigel Short are both performing splendidly in the Subotica Interzonal. With three rounds to play, Short leads with 9/12, followed by Speelman 81/2/12, Ribli 8/12 and Tal 71/2/12. In round 12 Short beat Ribli and Speelman drew with Smyslov.

Remember that the top three qualify for the Candidates' tournament.

. Here is a selection of the most interest- ing games: .

Tal — Speelman: Caro-Kann. I e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Nd7 5 Bc4 Ngf6 6 Ng5 e6 7 Qe2 Nb6 Bb3 h6 9 N513 a5 10 a3 Be7 11 Bd2 Nbd5 12 c4 Nc7 13 Bc2 0-0 14 Ne5 Qxd4 15 Bc3 Qd8 16 Ngf3 Nce8 17 g4 b5 18 g5 hxg5 19 Nxg5 Ra6 20 Qf3 b4 21 Qh3 g6 22 Bxg6 bxc3 23 Nexf7+ Qd2+ 24 Kfl Rx17 25 Bxf7+ Kg7 26 Rgl Qxg5 27 Rxg5+ Kxf7 28 bxc3 e5? and Black resigns in view of 29 Qxc8. A ferocious game in Which Black's 10th and 13th looked too passive. Before his blunder on move 28 Black has the unusual material configuration of four minor pieces for White's queen and rook, but Black's forces are not well co-ordinated.

Short — Rodriguez (Cuba): 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 Be7 10 14 Nxd4 11 Bxd4 b5 12 Be2 b4 13 Na4 Nxe4 14 Qe3 N16 15 Bf3 d5 16 Kb! 0-0 17 Nb6 Rb8 18 g4 Bd6 19 g5 hxg5 20 fxg5 Nd7 21 Nxc8 Rxc8 22 g6 Qe7 23 Bg4 R1e8 24 gxf7+ Qxf7 25 Rdfl Qg6 26 Rhgl Bf8 27 Bf5 exf5 28 Rxg6 Rxe3 29 Bxe3 Ne5 30 Rxa6 g6 31 Re6 Black resigns. Amazingly, Short's preparation for this game extended to move 20!

Meanwhile, Fide has issued the 1 July world ranking list. At the top is Kasparov with 2740; then follow Karpov 2700; Yusu- pov and Sokolov 2635 (all USSR); Kor- chnoi (Switzerland), Timman (Holland) and Beliavsky (USSR) 2630; Tal (USSR) and Ljubojevic (Yugoslavia) 2625; Short and Nikolic (Yugoslavia) 2620; and Speel- man 2615. (Short's total, though not his position, is a British record.) I have disco- vered, however, that Fide did not rate Kasparov's great win at Brussels last De- cember and his rating should be 2750.

Simultaneously news has come in of an interesting category 12 tournament in Bil- bao: Karpov 7/9; Andersson 61/2; Chibur- danidze and Ljubojevic 51/2; Polgar and Sokolov 41/2 and then four relatively un- known Spaniards. The tournament was remarkable for the success of the two female players, Chiburdanidze (the women's world champion) and Polgar, the Hungarian teenager. Both of them beat Ljubojevic, Polgar drew with Sokolov and Andersson, while Chib held Karpov in a long fight.

Chiburdanidze — Ljubojevic: Sicilian Defence.

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 Bb5+ Bd7 4 Bxd7+ Qxd7 50-0 Nc6 6 c3 Nf6 7 d4 cxd4 8 cxd4 d5 9 e5 Ne4 10 Nel 16 1113 Ng5 12 Be3 e6 13 Nc3 Be7 14 Qd2 0-0 15 exf6 gx16 16 Nd3 Nf7 17 Nf4 Nd6 18 1312 Rae8 19 Rael Bd8 20 Re2 Nf5 21 Na4 Ba5 22 Qdl Qd6 23 g3 Nh4 24 Qb3 b6 25 a3 Kh8 26 Rd l Rg8 27 Kfl Nf5 28 Qd3 Nfxd4 29 Bxd4 e5 30 Be3 exf4 31 Bxf4 Ne5 32 Bxe5 fxe5 33 b4 b5 34 Qxb5 Bd8 35 Rdl d4 36 Nc5 Rgf8 37 Kg2 Qd5 38 Qb7 Qxb7 39 Nxb7 Bb6 40 Nd6 Re6 41 Nc4 Bc7 42 Rxd4 Black resigns.

Finally, results and a game from this year's tournament celebrating 70 years of the Russian Revolution (all players USSR unless otherwise stated): Vaganian 8/11; Gurevich 7; Georgiev (Bulgaria), Nikolic (Yugoslavia), Salov and Romanishin 61/2; Sokolov 6; Andersson (Sweden), Chandler (England), Yusupov and Tukmakov 51/2; Nogueiras (Cuba) and Torre (Philippines) 41/2.

Salov — Vpganian: Leningrad, June 1987; Nimzo-Indian.

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Nf3 b6 5 Bg5 Bb7 6 e3 Bxc3+ 7 bxc3 Qe7 8 Nd2 e5 9 Be2 exd4 10 cxd4 Bxg2 11 Rgl Bb7 12 Bh4 Rg8 13 Rbl Nc6 14 c5 Kf8 15 d5 Ne5 16 d6 cxd6 17 cxb6 axb6 18 Rxb6 Bc6 19 Qb1 Qe6 20 Nb3 Ne8 21 Nd4 Qxa2 22 Qxa2 Rxa2 2314 Ng6 24 Bg3 Ne7 25 Rb8 g6 26 B1i4 Nd5 27 Rg3 Ra8 28 Nc6 Rai+ 29 Kf2 dxc6 30 Bc4 15 31 Rc8 Rg7 32 Rxe6 Rb7 33 K13 Rb2 34 Rh3 Nb6 35 Be2 Raa2 36 fill Ra3 37 Rd Nd5 38 Rd l Nc3 39 Bc4 d5 40 13d3 Ne4 White resigns.