Chess
Brotherly love
Raymond Keene
T f two relatives are paired to face each "other in the final round of a tournament, and a high prize depends on the result, my expectation would be that the two would bend over backwards to produce a sporting game, to avoid the slightest accusation of collusion. Not always so. I have just return- ed from a tournament in Dubai where the 15-year-old International Master, Saeed Saeed, was due to play his elder brother, Nasser Saeed, in such circumstances. On the outcome of this game first place could, and in fact did, depend. A win for Saeed Saeed would bring him, at worst, shared se- cond, and possibly first.
Far from putting up a good fight, Saeed's brother did not even put in an appearance, and after the statutory hour, the game was declared forfeit against him. Murmurings from other players persuaded tournament officials to track down the errant Nasser, and drag him to the board. The game was duly rescheduled, but finished in a matter of minutes, the result a foregone conclu- sion. I reproduce the final score here. It is not worthy of comment except for the in- genious way in which Black contrives to destroy his own position.
Saeed Saeed — Nasser Saeed: Dubai, January 1984.
1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 e6 3 Bg5 b6 4 e4 Bb7? Losing material and inviting his K-side to be shattered. 5 e5 h6 6 Bh4 g5 7 NxgS hxg5 8 BxgS Bel 9 exf6 Bxf6 10 Be3 Nc6 11 Nc3 Qe7 12 Qd2 0-0?? Ob- viously, 12 ... 0-0-0 is much better. 13 h4 Position after 13 h4
(Diagram) Bxh4? 14 g3 Bf6 15 Qd3 Rfd8 16 Qh7 + Kf8 17 Bh6 + Keg 18 Qg8 + Black
resigns.
After this the tournament committee convened and considered declaring the game totally void, but eventually opted for a more lenient course and decided the game should be regarded as a 'draw'. This deci- sion was ignored by the organisation and in the bulletin we read that Saeed Saeed did, after all, win 'by default'. So, the result was: Tatai, Karaklaic and Saeed 7 1/2/11; Balinas, Keene and Fernandez 7; followed by Nikolac, Calvo and others, including the infamous Nasser. It is sad when Fide, national federations and foreign Grandmasters invest efforts to promote chess in chess-developing areas, but are rewarded by irresponsible actions on the part of players. Such do nothing to increase their chess strength and evidently bring them only empty laurels which will not be regarded with respect by the world chess fraternity. It is particularly unfor- tunate in the case of the Saeeds, since the younger brother is an extremely talented player who finished ahead of Nigel Short in the 1983 junior world championship. The stupid thing is that he would have stood an excellent chance of winning if the game against his brother had been conducted under normal conditions.
In spite of this unfortunate incident, most of the tournament consisted of ex- cellent fighting chess. Here is one example:
Calvo — Adel Mohad Jassem: King's Indian Defence,
1 d4 N16 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 Nf3 0-0 6 Bet e5 7 0-0 Nc6 8 d5 Ne7 9 Nel Nd7 10 Nd3 f5 11 f3 N16 12 Bd2 f4 13 c5 g5 14 cxd6 cxd6 15 g4 I have never seen this move played here before. The idea is to block Black's K-side offensive. 15 Ng6 The most typical King's Indian counter is the sacrifice 15 ... fxg3 ep 16 hxg3 Nh5 17 Kg2 Nf4 + !? trying to expose White's K. 16 Rcl Rf7 17 Nf2 h5 18 h3 Bf8 19 Qc2 hxg4 20 fxg4 Rh7 21 Nb5 Ne8 22 a4 Bd7 23 Qb3 Kh8 24 Rc2 a6 25 Na3 b6 26 Rfcl Raj 27 Rc3 Nf6 28 Qb4 Ne7 29 Bel Nexd5 A desperate throw, but otherwise he is ab- solutely devoid of active play. 30 exd5 NxdS 31 Qe4 Nxc3 32 Bxc3 Bg7 33 Rdl Rh6 34 Nc4 Qc7 35 a5 bxa5 36 Bxa5 Qb8 37 Bf3 Bc8 38 Nb6 Bb7 39 Nd5 BxdS 40 RxdS Qxb2 41 Bb4 Rd7 42 Bxd6 Rhxd6 43 Rxd6 Rxd6 44 Qa8 + Kh7 45 Be4+ Kh6 46 QeS Black resigns.
Previous page
