CHESS
Chaos theory
Raymond Keene
THE MOSCOW OLYMPIAD has been full of spills and upsets, both on and off the chessboard. In the chess-political sphere Kasparov has been actively lobbying for Campomanes, his former arch-enemy, in the Fide presidential election. For support- ers of both the Professional Chess Association and the World Chess Feder- ation, who had previously drawn their bat- tle lines and insisted on no compromise, the Kasparov-Campomanes love-in must have made them feel that the world had been turned upside down. Henceforward, the PCA and Fide will jointly run the world championship, but I imagine that there must be plenty of disgruntled troops on both sides, quite ready to stab their former leaders in the back should anything go wrong. After all, that is the experience they have just gone through. I feel particularly sorry for PCA-sceptics Karpov, Gelfand and Salov, formerly loyal adherents of the Fide line, who steadfastly refused to play in the rival PCA events such as the speed chess world cup and have now seen the very world championship itself delivered bound and gagged by Campomanes into the PCA's hands. The PCA too will find that erstwhile supporters, such as the US grandmaster Larry Evans, will be less vocif- erous now in their support. Many PCA enthusiasts had volunteered for the cause simply and solely to see Campomanes removed from office.
Kasparov himself has invested so much effort in canvassing for Campo that his chess has suffered. Particularly painful for him must have been his demolition by the young Bulgarian Topalov. Although Kas- parov bounced back in the very next round to score a brilliant win against Lautier, the champion's general performance has been lacklustre, with numerous draws. The fol- lowing two games are the exception.
Topalov—Kasparov: Moscow Olympiad, 1994; Sicilian Defence.
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 N16 5 Nc3 a6 6 Be3 Nigel Short virtually invented this system against the Sicilian Najdorf, so it is strange that he utterly avoided it in his title match against Kasparov last year. 6 ... e6 7 g4 h6 8 f4 White's system is hyper-aggressive and appears to be an unusual blend of other methods. 8 ... Nc6 9 Be2 e5 10 Nf5 g6 11 Ng3 exf4 12 Bxf4 Be6 13 NI Rc8 14 h3 Qb6 15 Qd2 Bg7 Kasparov goes for the counter-attack well aware that any attempt to defend his d6 pawn would lead to an ultimately passive position. 16 Bxd6 Nxg4 17 Bxg4 Qxb2 Kasparov plunges in. If instead 17 ... Bxg4 18 Na4 Qb5 19 hxg4 Qxa4 20 Qd5 Qa5+ 21 c3 with an unpleasant continuing initiative for White. Even with queens exchanged, the fact that Black's king is stuck in the centre is a huge dis- advantage for him. 18 e5 (Diagram) A brilliant
Position after 18 e5 idea, reminiscent of the immortal game between Anderssen and Kieseritsky at London 1851, where White similarly offered a rook in the cor- ner to an intrusive black queen. 18 ...Nxe5 Kas- parov may have been relying on 18 ...Qxal+ 19 Kf2 Qb2 but then the simple 20 Rbl nets Black's queen. 19 Rbl Qxc3 Black regains his sacrificed piece but the resultant endgame is horrible for him. 20 Qxc3 Rxc3 21 Bxe6 fxe6 22 Rxb7 Nc4 23 Bb4 Re3+ 24 Net Be5 25 Rff/ The doubled rooks on the seventh rank bind Black hand and foot. 25 ... Rxh3 26 Nd4 If 26 ... Bxd4 27 Rfe7+ Kd8 28 Rb8 checkmate. 26 ...Re3+ 27 Kfl Re4 28 Rfe7+ Kd8 29 Nc6+ Black resigns After 29
Kc8 30 Na7+ Kd8 31 Rbd7 is checkmate.
Kasparov—Lautier: Moscow Olympiad, 1994; Sicilian Defence.
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 Nc6 6 NdbS d6 7 Bf4 e5 8 Bg5 a6 9 Na3 b5 10 NrI5 Bel 11 Bxf6 Bx16 12 c3 0-0 13 Nc2 Rb8 14 h4 Ne7 15 Nxf6+ gxf6 16 Bd3 d5 17 exd5 QxdS 18 Ne3 Qe6 19 Qh5 e4 20 Be2 b4 21 c4 Kh8 22 0.0-0 f5 23 Qg5 Rb6 24 h5 Rc6 25 Kbl Rc5 26 h6 Qe5 27 Rh5 Rg8 28 Ng4 (Diagram) Black resigns Position after 28 Ng4 After 28 ... RxgS 29 Nxe5 Rxh5 30 Rd8+ mates. If 28 ...Qe6 White can deliver checkmate ele- gantly as follows: 29 Rd8 Ng6 30 Rxg8+ Kxg8324 QdS+ Nf8 32 RgS+ Qg6 33 Nf6+
-Qxf8+ Qg8 35 Rxg8 mate.
Meanwhile, the fractious negotiations which preceded Moscow concerning the captaincy and composition of the English team may have been taking their toll. Jon Speelman, ever the optimist, said: 'The team mood is now okay; there are about 12 teams with good chances for a medal, and we are one of them.' This sunnyni terpretar ton was, however, directly contradicted by Tony Miles, who opined: 'There is no tear and the atmosphere is bad.' Miles was Or ported in his assessment by Dr John Nunn who, so far, has had the most disastrous personal result in the English line-"P' Nunn said: 'I'm afraid that the conflicts sv' had about Nigel Short and the captaincy have a lot of influence on our perf°r mantes. In fact, I spent much more time talking by phone about all these problems than in training.'
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