CHESS
SPINS FRII
I'01D(ligi1 PTOLEMY OR COPERNICUS? Fide or the PCA? The chess world now faces a dilemma comparable to that which con- fronted 17th-century science, when Galileo wrote his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World. The difficulty facing church and science in the 17th centu- ry was, does the earth revolve around the sun, or the sun around the earth? For chess players nowadays, the question is, around whom does the chess globe rotate, Campomanes or Kasparov?
We have just seen the results of the PCA quarter-finals for their version of the world championship in New York. ICramnik, Romanishin, Gulko and Tiviakov have been knocked out, while Anand, Short, Adams and Kamsky will now fight amongst themselves to determine Kasparov's chal- lenger. Meanwhile, one of the losers (as well as those who refused to compete in the PCA cycle) has a second bite at the cherry. Running from 24 July to 9 August with a prize fund of 210,000 Swiss francs Fide will organise its own world championship quarter-finals at Sanghi Nagar, in the Range Reddi district of the state of Andhra Pradesh, near Hyderabad in India. Anand and Kamslcy play each other, but these are the only two who have survived in both cycles. A victory by either of these could lead to the potential reunification of Fide and the PCA with one champion holding both titles. The other Fide matches pit ICramnik against Gelfand and Salov against Tinunan.
The three winners will be joined by the reigning Fide champion, ICarpov, in the semi-finals, which are also scheduled for Sanghi Nagar. The final of the Fide qualify- ing cycle will also function as the Fide world title match itself, so the novel possi- bility exists that the Fide champion may not even make it through to the Fide final.
liSLE OF
Due massimi sistemi
Raymond Keene It is my belief that if any one player can unify the two chief systems it is Anand, in this case playing on his home territory. The following game shows his strategic breadth, as well as his devastating sight of the board.
Ljubojevic—Anand: Monaco, 1994; Sicilian Defence.
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 g3 The main line is 3 d4, of course, but Ljubojevic likes off-beat systems. Nevertheless, a corpus of knowledge is growing up with this somewhat rare move. 3 ... N16 4 d3 g6 5 Bg2 Bg7 6 0-0 0-0 7 Rel Nc6 8 c3 Bg4 Black plans to surrender bishop for knight in order to orchestrate a strike along the central and queen. side dark squares. 9 h3 Bxf3 10 Bxf3 Nd7 11 Bg2 Rb8 12 Be3 (Diagram) White is hoping for 12
b5 which appears thematic but after 13 e5 Ncxe5 14 f4 or 13 ...Ndxe5 14 f4 White wins material. Anand's next move is better, since it protects his knight. 12 ...Qc7 13 Na3 White would like to play 13 d4 and expand in the centre but the response 13 ...Qb6 hits too many sensi- tive points in the white camp. The text only serves to encourage Black's attack, so best would have been 13 f4 b5 14 a3 a5 15 d4 with the inten- tion of eventually playing e5 to blast open a path for the white king's bishop. 13 ...b5 14 Nc2 b4 15 d4 a5 16 Qd2 a4 Black's plan is clear and consis- tent: assail White's central and queenside pawn chain and then break open and invade via the 'b' file. 17 Bfl bxc3 18 bxc3 0a5 19 Qd3 Rb2 20 Na3 If 20 Bel to drive away the rook 20 ...Rxe2 21 Qxc2 cxd4 with excellent compensation. That would, however, have been preferable to the text, which misses a devastating tactical point.
Position after 21 . . . Nde5
20 ... cxd4 21 cxd4 Nde5!! (Diagram) The move that White had overlooked, which exploits a number of fascinating tactical opportunities. The move seems paradoxical, giving up a knight for no immediate recompense, but the point is to exploit the weakness of the f3 square. 22 dxe5 Nxe5 23 Nc4 What Ljubojevic had not seen was that 23 Qdl loses to 23 ...Qxel 24 Qxel Nf3+ 25 Kg2 Nxel + 26 Ritel Rxa2 when Black's passed 'a' pawn will guarantee him victory. 23 Nxd3 24 Nxa5 Nxel 25 Rxel Rxa2 26 Nc6 Re8 27 Bb5 a3 28 NM Rb2 29 Bxe8 Rxb4 30 Bg5 a2 White resigns Once again the 'a' pawn triumphs, since the clean sweep of Black's bishop along the dark square diagonal, combined with the threat of ... Rbl, ensures its promotion at heavy mate- rial cost to White.
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