CHESS
Myomancy
Raymond Keene
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men.
(Burns)
TSt John, New Brunswick hose practising the art of divination before the start of the Candidates' tourna- ment believed they had no trouble predict- ing the result of at least two of the matches. The great veteran Victor Korchnoi, hero of two championship matches against ' Kar- pov, would have no difficulty against the inexperienced Icelander, Johann Hjartar- son. Similarly, Andrei Sokolov, who had placed third in the last world title cycle, would certainly overwhelm the home- grown Canadian product, Kevin Spraggett.
Yet even elementary prognostications gang a-gley. Sokolov simply could not achieve lift-off against the former Com- monwealth Champion, Kevin Spraggett. Spraggett did not even qualify for the Candidates' but was awarded a place as representative of Canada, the host coun- try. After a long series of draws their match went into a hair-raising play-off involving 15-minute speed games. Sprag- gett finally won the fourth of these when Sokolov blundered his Queen away to an obvious Knight fork. Hjartarson created the sensation of the tournament by winning twice against Kor- chnoi in games 1 and 4 witIrdraws in 2 and 3. At this point the veteran struck back to win games 5 and 6, but he eventually succumbed to the alert youngster in their second play-off game. Icelandic Television spent $75,000 on three live satellite broad- casts to Reykjavik covering games which could have been decisive for Hjartarson's qualification. Twice they were unfortunate and came on air just as their hero was in the act of resigning, but the Icelanders struck lucky third time and thereby achieved a national record audience.
Iceland of course is a chess-crazy coun- try, particularly since the Fischer-Spassky match of 1972. There was singing, dancing and drinking in the streets when Hjartar- son shot into the lead and almost national mourning when he fell back. The match also exhibited some acrimony, in which the Icelander is a novice and Korchnoi an expert. There were disputes over the plac- ing of the playing table on the stage, complaints about Korchnoi leaning over his opponent to stub out his cigarette and general dissatisfaction on the part of the Icelandic delegation (headed by the famous Fridrik Olafsson) that Korchnoi was turning the stage into an authentic replica of an. Icelandic volcano with his chain smoking.
At St John there was not only the Candidates' tournament but also a chess festival of international stature. Joel Ben- jamin, reigning US champion, won the first international ahead of such prominent Grandmasters as Max Dlugy and Boris Gulko. This success confirms the outstand- ing strength of the latest Hastings tourna- ment where Benjamin finished well down the field. Towards the middle of February the world blitz championship will also be held in St John with the participation of Kasparov, Karpov and England's own Jon Speelman.
Jon Speelman is to meet Nigel Short in the quarter-final of the world cham- pionship. The incentive for victory has been dramatically increased — at least financially — by the news this week that a West German computer company will give lm Swiss Francs (about £400,000) to the first Western player to qualify for a match against the World Champion. The other pairings for the quarter-finals are: Karpov v. Spraggett; Timman v. Portisch; Yusupov v. Hjartarson.
Korchnoi-Hjartarson: Catalan Opening, Final Play-off game.
1 c4 Nf6 2 d4 e6 3 g3 d5 4 Bg2 Be7 5 Ni3 0-0 6 0-0 dxc4 7 Qc2 a6 8 a4 Bd7 9 Qxc4 Bc6 10 Bf4 a5 11 Nc3 Na6 12 Rael Nb4 13 e4 Nd7 14 Ral Bd6 15 Be3 Nc2 16 Bg5 Nb6 17 Qd3 Nb4 18 Qe2 Qe8 19 b3 f5 20 Racl h6 21 Be3 Qh5 22 d5 fxe4 23 dxc6 exf3 24 Qdl bxc6 25 Bxb6 cxb6 26 Qxd6 fxg2 27 Rfdl Qf5 28 Qd2 Nd3 29 Rc2 Ne5 30 Qe2 RadS 31 Kxg2 Nf3 32 Rxd8 Rxd8 33 Rcl Nd4 34 Qe3 c5 35 Rdl Qc2 36 h4 Rf8 37 Rd Rxf2+ 38 Qxf2 Qxcl White resigns.
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