Chess

Timman triumphs

David Goodman

The four qualifiers into the Candidates' tournament from the 2nd Interzonal held at Taxco, Mexico, from 8 June to 1 July are Jan Timman of Holland, Jesus Nogueiras of Cuba, Mikhail Tal of the USSR and Kevin Spraggett of Canada. The tourna- ment will be best remembered for Tim- man's eight wins and crushing one and a half point victory margin. Another result still being celebrated is that of Spraggett, who becomes the first Commonwealth player ever to qualify for the Candidates and will receive the Grandmaster title by virtue of his performance.

With his fifth place Jon Speelman (ably aided by his second, William Watson), made the best result by any British player in any Interzonal since the tournaments began. Speelman fought back after starting _ with only three out of eight and finally broke away from the chasing pack with a win in the last round. It must also be noted that Speelman might still find himself playing in the Candidates'. The winner of a match between the fifth-placed players in each of the Interzonals will qualify as the reserve should any candidates drop out. In contrast Yuri Balashov, Karpov's chief second, suffered severe stomach problems during the event and finished last. He was forced to default his last four games (shown as `+' in his opponents' scores in the results table), and even had to be fed on an intravenous drip.

The owner of the five-star Monte Taxco Hotel where the event was played, Alfred Checa, is known to be a close friend of Bobby Fischer. In fact Fischer stayed at the hotel for six months in 1984. During the tournament Fischer is said to have tele- phoned the owner and berated him for staging a tournament organised by Fide. Another extremely unusual incident occurred in the third round game between Tal and Sayeed of the United Arab Emi- rates. Jan Speelman tells me that in Tal's victory post-mortem Sayeed blurted out: 'How could I have played Rb6 when I already had a pawn there?' The two players then realised that before play resumed for the adjournment session Sayeed's queen-side pawns had been mis- takenly placed on a6 and b7 instead of the correct a7 and b6. The arbiter was called, but such a situation isn't covered in the Fide rule book. Surprisingly Tal agreed to replay the game from the correct ad- journed position on condition that play started the same night. At 3 a.m. he won again, even though Sayeed had tried a better defence which Tal had shown him in the earlier post-mortem! The bulletin only contais the score of the 'second finish.'

Interzonal, Taxco, Mexico, 8 June-I July 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Total 1 Tinunan x1/21/21/211111/21/211111/2+ 12 2 Nogueiras 1/2x1/211/21/21/2111/21/211/21/21+ 101/2 3 Tal

1/214x 1/21/21/21/21/21/211/21/2111 + 10

4 Spraggeu 1/201/2x 11/21/211/21/21/21/21/2111/2 9 5 Speelman 01/21/20041/2111/201/211/211/2 8 6 Agdestein

01/21/21/2112x 1/21/21/21/211/211/201/z

71/2 7 Cebalo 0½½½½½x0011½0½11 71/2 8 Albert

001/2001/21x1/21/21/21/214111/2

7 9 Browne 1/201/21/201/211/20411/2001/21/2 61/2 10 Pinter 1/21/201/21/21/201/21/2x 01/21011/2 61/2 11 Ci 01/21/21/21001/201 x 1001/21 61/2 12 Romanishin 001/21/21/21/21/21/21/21/20 x 1/2110 61/2 13 Sisniega 01/201/20011/2101;0(1/20+ 61/2 14 Prandstetter 01/2001/21/21/2011101/2x01/2 6 15 Sayeed 1/200001001/201/2011 x 1 51/2 16 Balashov - - - 1/21/21/201/21/21/201 .1/20x 41/2

Here is Timman's fine win from round 11 against the Mexican IM Marcel Sisniega,

Tinunan — Sisniega: Tazco Interzonal; Sicilian Najdorf.

1 e4 c5 2 N13 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Bg5 e6 7 f4 Qb6 8 a3 Timman avoids the complications of the main line Poisoned Pawn variation which follow after 8 Qd2 Qxb2 9 Rbl Qa3. Of course, after the text 8. . . Qxb2 loses the queen to 9 Na4. 8 . . . Nc6 Probably an error. The knight usually belongs on d7 in this variation. 9 Nb3 Be7 10 Qd2 0-0 11 0-0-0 Rd8 12 Bxf6! Bxf6 13 g4 Bd7 14 g5 Be7 15 h4 Timman continues with his unsubtle but extremely effec- tive plan of busting open Black's king with a pawn avalanche. In response, Sisniega attempts to do the same for the white king. 15. . Na5 16 Nxa5 Qxa5 17 Kbl Qc5 18 h5 b5 19 g6 a5 20 h6 White gets there first. 20 . . . fxg6 21 hxg7 1316 Necessary to defend the king. 21 . . . b4 fails to 22 f5 h5 23 Oh6 or 22 . . . g5 23 Oh2 22 e5! dxe5

23 Ne4 Qe7 Sisniega appears to have survived the initial onslaught but Timman now unleashes a really devastating Queen sacrifice that leaves Black tied up in knots. 24 Qxd7! Rxd7 25 Rxd7 exf4 If 25 . . . Qxd7 then 26 Nxf6+. 26 Bxb5 Coolly picking off a pawn and waiting for the right moment to recapture the Queen. 26 . . . Rb8 27 a4 h5 28 Rgl Qxg7 If 28 . . . Kxg7 29 Nxf6 Kxf6 30 Rxe7 and the 'g' pawn falls. 29 Rxg7+ Kxg7 30 c3 Be7 31 Bd3 e5 32 Kc2 Rb6 33 b4! Before the king-side pawns can get moving White sees a way to activate his own pawn majority and marshal home the 'a' pawn using his extra minor piece. 33. . . axb4 34 a5 Rb8 35 a6 bxc3 36 Rbl Ra8 37 Rb7 1(18 38 a7 Bd8 39 Bc4 g5 40 Nxg5 Bb6 41 Nh7+ and Black resigns. It is mate after 41 . . . Ke8 42 Nf6+ Kd8 43 Rd7+ Kc8 44 Ba6.

The Times National Schools Cham- pionship finals take place at St Ermine's Hotel on Thursday and Friday, and the National Club Championship finals on Saturday and Sunday at the Great Eastern Hotel, rounds beginning at 10.30. Specta- tors are most welcome at both.