CHESS

Arabian knights

Raymond Keene

With Baghdad in the news it is in- teresting to point out that this city was once the world capitalof chess. In the 9th and 10th centuries AD Baghdad was to Shatranj (the old Arabic form of chess) what Mos- cow is to the modern game. It was a cultured flourishing centre, packed with chess grandmasters and chess theoreticians who published volume after volume of critical positions and opening theory. Two key differences between shatranj and chess as we know it were that a win could be achieved by taking all of your opponent's pieces (apart from his king) while the queen (known as a firzan or vizier) was a comparatively helpless piece only able to move one square diagonally in any direc- tion. Both of these points should be borne in mind for the diagram which follows.

The most renowned chess grandmaster in Baghdad was As-Suli (880-946 AD). Just like Kasparov he came from an area bordering the Caspian Sea and, also like Kasparov, he travelled to the capital from his far-flung outpost of empire. As-Suli there became the chess favourite of the Saddam Hussein of his day, theCaliph of Baghdad Al-Muktafi. In 940 AD, according to the Oxford Companion to Chess, As- Suli made an indiscreet political comment and had to flee from Baghdad. He died in poverty in Basra. The study I give demons- trates his remarkable genius.

Study cited by As-Suli.

b a

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Black plays and White wins.

The above position occurs in an ancient chess manuscript from Constantinople

written down in 1140 AD. It is a puzzle cited by As-Suli, who said of it, 'This position is very old and extremely difficult to solve. Nobody, not even Al-Adli, could solve it, or say it is a draw or that White wins. In fact there is no man on earth who can solve it if I have not shown him the solution."

If it is White's move in this position he wins very quickly, as follows: 1 Ka2 Kd3 (Black's defence is always a counter-attack against the white queen whenever the white king sets off to hunt down the black queen.) 2 Qb4 Kc4 3 Qa3 and White wins, since Black's queen is cornered, while White's queen is immune. However, in the diagram it is Black's move, and it is this factor which causes the extreme difficulty of the solution:

1 . . Kd5 If 1 . . . Kd3 then 2 Qb4 and 3 Ka2 will win. If Black plays any other move at the start then 2 Ka2 wins at once. 2 KM Ma 3 Kc4 Not 3 Qd2 Ke5 4 Kc3 Ke4 5 Kc2 Kf3 6 Kbl Keg 7 Qc1 Kdl. 3 . . . Ke6 Plausible but incorrect would be 3 . . . Ke5 4 Qb4 Kd6 5 Kc3 Kc6 6 Kb3 Kb5 7 Qc3 Kc5 8 Kc2 Kc4 9 Qd2 and White wins since he will quickly trap the black queen with his own king, while the black king cannot make contact with the white queen. 4 Kd4 If 4 Qb4 Black defends with 4 . . . Kd711 5 Kb3 Kc6 6 Ka2 Kb5 or if 6 Kc3 Kd6 also with a draw. Black is defending by using the method of corresponding squares, generally regarded as a modern inven-

tion. The point is, for example, that if White's kin& is on b3 Black's should be on c6,or if White's king is on c3, Black's should be on d6. 4 . . Kf6 5 Kd5 Kfl 6 Ke5 Kg7 7 Ke6 Kg8 8 Kf6

g f

e

d b

a

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Kh8 (Diagram) The black king has been forced to h8, the furthest extremity of the board. By playing 9 Kg6 White wins the battle for the corresponding squares. For Black, the chess- board has become too small. The square which corresponds to g6 is i9, but it does not exist on the chessboard. 9 Kg6 Kg8 10 Qd2 Kf8 If Black plays 10 . . . Qb2 to free his queen from its prison on al then the white king will rush back and capture it. Meanwhile the white queen on d2 is well out of range of the black king on f8. 11 Qcl Ke7 12 Kf5 Kd6 13 Ke4 Kc5 14 Kd3 KM 15 Kc2 Ka3 16 Kbl and on the next move the black queen is lost.

The solution to this endgame study is amazing. Both kings run from one corner to the other and then back again. It is a creation of genius. Is there any modern endgame study which has such an advanced idea?

The appalling complexity and filigree subtlety of this wonderful endgame which As-Suli solved in the early 10th century make it impossible for me to believe that the game of chess was invented as late as 500 AD. As-Suli himself calls this a very old problem and mentions that Al-Adli, who lived a century before him, was already aware of it yet unable to solve it. Such sophistication in a game, given the limita- tions of civilised life at that time, especially the lack of printing, could not possibly have arisen so quickly.

Chess was actually fortunate to survive at all under Islam, since the game tended to violate two central prohibitions of the Prophet, that against the making of images and that against gambling. The first objec- tion was ingeniously circumvented by the Arabs' adoption of abstract designs for their chess pieces. The problem of gamb- ling on the result, which was rife, was more serious. The solution was a diversionary counter-gambit. Various chess-loving Caliphs announced that chess was a prepa- ration for war and therefore permissible. The problems connected with chess in- fringing Islamic law are, though, very real. Only recently has the Rafsanjani regime in Iran revoked the Ayatollah Khomeini's prohibition against the playing of chess, while Western chess masters travelling to Saudi Arabia are generally advised against bringing in Western chess sets. The Christ- ian cross surmounting the kings might cause offence to devout customs officials.

I am indebted to Grandmaster Yuri Averbakh of Moscow, the world's leading expert on chess endgames, for having demonstrated the above variations to me.

No one knows whether Saddam Hussein plays chess, but this week The Spectator has a scoop, a game won by a man at the opposite extreme of political popularity, Vaclav Havel. This game was played at the opening ceremony of the Grandmaster Association tournament in Prague against the millionaire financer of the Grandmas- ter Association, Bessel Kok.

White: Vaclav Havel. Black: Besse! Kok. Queen's Pawn Opening.

1 d4 d5 2 e3 Nf6 3 Nf3 Bg4 4 h3 Bxf3 5 gxf3 Nc6 6 Nc3 e6 7 Qe2 BM 8 Bd2 0-0 9 0-0-0 e5 10 dxe5 NxeS 11 f4 Ned7 12 Rgl c6 13 a3 Ba5 14 e4 dxe4 15 Nxe4 Nxe4 16 BxaS QxaS 17 Qxe4 Nf6 18 Qe7 Rab8 19 Bc4 Qf5 20 Rd4 c5 21 Rg5 Black resigns.

There is no defence to Qxf6 which could in fact have been played a couple of moves earlier.