Chess 482

PHILIDOR

Z. and S. Maslar (1st Prize, Partisan, 1958). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week.

Solution to No. 481 (Giegold 2K4R/5p2/ 4pNpl/IpIpPlk1/3Np3/2RIP1p1/1P4P1/8): 1 R- QR3!, P-Kt5; 2 R-QR4i, P-Kt6; 3 R-KR41. K xR; 4 Kt-B3 mate. A most ingenious puzzle.

CC and OTB

A curious thing about correspondence chess is that most—not all—of its leading exponents are not well known in over-the-board play; and those that do play on are not—by top international stan- dards—outstanding. The present cc world cham- pion—and a very fine cc player indeed—Hans Berliner, is ranked somewhere about fifteenth in the us; and the former cc world champion, the Belgian O'Kelly de Galway, although an OTB grandmaster, was never in the top twelve in world on.

There are two possible reasons for this: one is that the games are so different that there is no reason to suppose that the same players will excel at both; the other, that the best (i.e. the most talented) chess players play OTB in preference to cc. As someone who has played a lot of international 0113 chess in the past and is now an ardent cc fan I must be as near a neutral as possible; from my experience I think that there is something in both explanations but that the second contains most of the truth. I believe, in short, that if Spassky and Petrosian took seriously to cc they would beat the present leading cc practitioners. Here is a game to prove me wrong; in it the Swedish cc master Eric Arnlind trounces the Dutch ore master van ScheItinea Wh te, E. Amlind: Black T. D. van Scheltinga. Opening. Sicilian. (World Champ,onship Pre- liminaries 1953-55).

1 P-K4 P-QB4 2 Kt-KB3 P-Q3

3 P-53 It i.c inierestin,g that interior lines can be successfully adopted in CC—where the element of surprise is much less important— as well as in OTB.

3 Kt-KB3 4 Q-B2 K1 The best move is probable 4 . . Q-B2 so that if 5 P-Q4, PxP White cannot retake with the pawn.

5 P-Q4 P.-Q4 And here 5 P- 1(3; is more natural anti preferable 6 P-K5 Kt-Q2? Afte, this Black has a bad game; lie nuts: try Ki-K5.

7 P-K6! P x P He would do rather better to decline the sacrifice br 7 . 1(1-83 though after 8 PxPch (8 Kt- K5 Bx P White has the advantage.

8 B-Q3 Kt-83 White actually threatened mate in two with 9 11-K16 rh.

9 Kt-K5! Kt x Kt Again mate was threatened 10 P x Kt P-B5 . . Necessary. but furthering weakening Black's pawn formation 11 B-K2 Kt- K5 12 B-K3 Q-B2

13 B-Q4 P-KKi3 14 Kt-Q2 Kt x Kt 15 Qx Kt B-Kt2 16 Q-K3 B-Q2

17 P-B4 P-Kt3 18 P-KR4! . . An excellent move. First, it prepares to break up Black's king's side should he play 0-0; second it makes it still harder lor the Black KB to get into the game 18 . . . 0-0-0 In spite of the risk involved! prefer 0-0: when White breaks up the Black king's wing he will at least have to allow the KB into the game—as it is Black plays a piece down from now on

19 0-0 K-Ktl 20 P-R4 QR-KBI No doubt hoping tor time to play P- KR3 and P-KKI4 with counter-attack—but he doesn't get near it. Black is lost

21 P-OKt4! K-Kt2 . 21 PxP ep; 22 KR-Kul makes things easier for White.

22 P-Kt5 R-R1 23 KR-Kt! KR-QKt1 24 P-QR5 Q-Q1 . Or 24 . PxP; 25 P-Kt6. PxP. 26 BxK,P and 27 B-R7ch

winning. However 24 B-Kl doing nothing would he relatively better; the text accelerates the end.

25 BxBP! PxB 26 Q-131ch K-B1 27 PxP R -Kt2 28 R x P Resigns.

28 R(1)x R: 29 Px R loses at once—and 28 . R(1)-1(11; 29 R-Kt4 is equally hopeless. Well played by Arnlind hut. I'm bound to say, a poor effort by van Scheltinga.