CHESS
Baltic bonanza
Rayrriond Keene
It is a happy coincidence that just as Latvia has regained its independence Olms, the prestigious Swiss-based chess publishers, have reprinted the superb tournament book. of pre-war Latvia'S strongest tournament, Kemeri 1937. The full title of this brilliantly produced book is Das Grosse Internationale Schach- meisterturnier Zu Kemeri In Lettland 1937. The British Chess Magazine (the book, price £21, is available from the BCM at 9 Market Street, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex TN38 ODQ) indicates that although no single author is credited, many of the notes were written by that outstandingly promising player Vladimir Petrov, poten- tially one of Latvia's greatest geniuses, to rank with Nimzowitsch, Tal and Shirov. Petrov shared first place in the tournament with Flohr and Reshevsky, just ahead of Alekhine and Keres. Further grandmasters competing were Stahlberg, Tartakower and Fine, while the Baltic contingent con- tinued with Mikenas, Apscheneek, Berg, Feigin, Hasenfuss and Ozols. Petrov went on to make the second highest score representing Latvia on top board in the 1939 Olympics at Buenos Aires, behind only Capablanca but again ahead of Alekhine and Keres. Tragically, as Domi- nic Lawson pointing out in his Diary a couple of weeks ago, Petrov was liquidated by the KGB during the war, The tournament book contains notes in German to all of the games, and a history of Latvian chess. As the BCM once again points out, this is the sort of product that gained such a high reputation for German language tournament books before 1940. Alekhine — Reshevsky: Kemeri 1937; Alekhine's Defence. 1 e4 Nf6 2 e5 Nd5 3 Nf3 d6 4 d4 Bg4 5 ed lybiS 6 dxe5 7 Nxe5 fixe2 8 Qxe2 Qxd4 9 0-0 N8d7 10 Nxd7 Nxd7 Alekhine's risky pawn sacrifice has given him nebulous chances for a pawn, but after this recapture Black's queen becomes subject to molestation and White succeeds in building up a promising attacking formation. A better recapture would have been 10 . Qxd7 though after 11 a4.Qc6 12 Na3 e6 13 a5 Nd7 14 Nb5 White still maintains prospects of aggres- sion. 11 Nc3 c6 12 Be3 Qe5 13 Radl e6 14 Q13 0-0-0 15 Bxa7 Qa5 16 Bd4 Qf5 17 Qg3 17 Qxf5 exf5 18 Rfel would have made life extremely difficult for Black but White would probably have had to try to win a long endgame based on his better pawn structure. Alekhine wrote about this: The final attack of this game gave me much more pleasure than a scientifically correct but purely technical exploitation of a pawn majority on the queenside would do. After all, chess is not only knowledge and logic!' 17 . . . e518 Be3 Bb4 19 Na4 Ba5 20 f4 Bc7 21 b3 f6 22 fxe5 Qe6 23 h3 There is a tendency for lesser players to deify the champions and Alekhine wrote a humorous debunking of this notion in his book of best
Position after 34 . . Rd2
games: 'A good positional move which is, however, neither, particularly deep nor difficult to find. I was, therefore, not a little surprised to read all the compliments addressed by the critics to the modest text move and alSo to be questioned in all seriousness after the game was over, whether by 23 h3 I already planned to plaY my queen to h2 on the 33rd move.' 23 . . 12.148 24 Bd4 Nxe5 25 Qc3 Nd7 26 c5 Rge8 27 b4 Launching a blitzkrieg against the black kirig. 27 . . Nb8 28 Nb6+ Bxb6 29 cxb6 Qxa2 30 Qg3 Rd7 31 11c5 Q17 32 Ral Qg6 33 Qh2 Re5 34 Rag Rd2 (Diagram) From the diagram position Alekhine launches one of my favourite combina- tions. One of the impressive elements is that Black's pieces seem so powerfully centralised while White's are strewn around the edge of the board and yet they suddenly come tbgethei with cataclysmic fury. 35 RxbS+ Kxbg 36 QxeS+ Black resigns After 36 . . . fxe5 37 R18-F Black mhaasteto. give up all his pieces but still cannot avert ReU• stab — Petrov: Kemeri 1937; .Colle Attack 1 d4 d5 2 Nr3 c5 3 e3 Nf6 4 Bd3 g6 5 Nbd2 Nbd7 6 b3 Bg7 7 Bbl 0-0 8 h3 cxd4 9 exd4 Nh5 10 g3 tc7 11 Qe2 Nc5 12 Ne5 Nxd3+ 13 Nxd3 BS 14 Racl Rac8 15 Qe3 Qd6 16 c3 Rfe8 17 f4 g5.18 0-0 gxf4 19 Nxf4 Bh6 20 Qf3 Nxf4 21 gxf4 Kh8 22 Rf2
Position after 25 cxd5
Rg8+ 2 Kh2 Rg6 24 c4 RcgS 25 cxd5 (Diagram)
25 . . . Bxf4+ 26 Qxf4 Rg3 White resigns.
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