CHESS
Eponymous
Raymond Keene
News of the world championship, Montpellier and Lucerne has crowded out coverage of one of the most important tournament of 1985, the Nimzowitsch Memorial, organised by the Danish Chess Union. I previewed this interesting event in my article of 10 August. There I also gave a little-known game by Nimzowitsch himself — the name-giver and ideologue of so many variations and strategic concepts in modern chess. Nimzowitsch's theories were grandly recognised in games 16 and 24 of the most recent Kasparov-Karpov match, in particular, by Kasparov's `myste- rious' doubling of his rooks on the closed `e' file in the decisive game, while his own defence to Id4 was used in six games of that match.
Paradoxically, the play at Naestved was closer in style to the fast-moving dynamism Nimzowitsch Memorial, Naestved: 14-28 September 1985
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 I 9 10 11 12 Total
7 Vaganian
2625 x 1/2 1 0 1/2 1 0 1/2 1 1 1 0 61/2 2 Browne 2510
½x½1½1½½0½1½
61/2 3 Larsen 2565
0 1/2 x 1 1/2 1 1/2 1/2 1/2 0 1 1
61/2 4 &6on 2575
1 0 0 x1/21/21/21/2 1 1 1/21/2
6
5 Tal
2565
1/27/21/21/2x1/21/20 1 1/21/21
6 6 HIM 2565
0 0 0 1/2 1/2 x 1 1/2 1/2 1 1 1
6
7 Anderson
1590
1 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 0 x 1/2 1/2 Yr 1/2 1/2
51/2
8 Nunn
2600
1/21/21/21/2 1 1/21/2x 01/20 1
51/2 9 Fsatnik 2500 0 1 1/2 0 0 1/2 1/2 1 x 1/2 1 1/2 51/2
10 Agdegein
2515
0 42 1 0 1/2 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 x Y2 1/2
41/2
77 Cbandkr
2525
0 0 I) 1/2 I/2 0 Y2 I 0 1/2 x 1
4 12 Hansen 2500
1½0½00½0½½0X 31/2
of Nimzowitsch's rival, Alekhine: Short — Larsen: Sicilian Defence.
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4Nxd4 g6 5 c4 Bg7 6 Be3 Nf6 Nc3 0-0 8 Be2 d6 9 0-0 Re8 10 a3 Bd7 11 f3 a6 12 b4 Rc8 13 Rcl Nxd4 14 Bxd4 Bh6 15 Rc2 Be6 16 Bd5 NxdS 17 exd5 Bd7 18 Rc3 e6 19 dxe6 Rxe6 20 c5? 20 Bd3 is equal. 20 . . . Ba4!! 21 Qxa4 dxc5 22 bxc5 Or 22 Bxc5 Rxe2 23 Rdl Rd2. 22 . . . Rxe2 23 Qc4? b5! White resigns (24 Qxe2 Qxd4+ or 24 Qd3 Rd2).
Vaganian — Nikolic: Queen's Gambit Accepted. 1 Nf3 d5 2 d4 Nf6 3 c4 dxc4 4Nc3 a6 5 e4 b5 6 e5 Nd5 7 a4 Nxc3 8 bxc3 Qd5 8 . . . Bb7 is also dangerous e.g. Beliaysky-Dlugy, Gammarth 1985: 9 e6 f6 10 Be2! Qd5 11 0-0 Qxe6 12 Rel Qd7 13 Nh4 g6 14 Bg4! f5 15 Bf3 Nc6 16 Bg5! h6 and now 17 Nxg6! hxg5 18 d5! Nd8 19 Ne5 etc. 9 g3 Be6 10 Bg2 Qb7 11 0-0 Bd5 12 e6 Bxe6 Alternatively, 12 . . . fxe6 13 Rel. 13 axb5 13 Ng5 Bd5 14 Bxd5 Qxd5 15 axb5 axb5? 16 Rxa8 Qxa8 17 Qg4 Nc6 18 0f3 f6 19 Ne6 Qb7 20 Qd5! g5 21 Bf4! was Balashov — Miles, Bugojno 1978. 13 . . . axb5 Perhaps 13 . . Bd5. 14 Ne5 Bd5 14 . . . Qxg2+ 15 Kxg2 Bd5+ 16 Kgl Rxal is interesting. If 14 . . . c6 15 RxaS Qxa8 16 Qh5! g6 17 Nxg6 fxg6 18 Qe5. 15 Bxd5 Qxd5 16 RxaS Qxa8 17 Qg4! e6 18 Qh5 g6 19 Nxg6! If now 19 . . . fxg6 20 Qe5 Rg8 21 Qxe6+ . 19 . . . hxg6 20 Qxh8 Nd7 21 Bf4 Qa3 22 d5! exd5 23 Rel+ Kd8 24 Bg5+ Black resigns. Vaganian only spent 39 minutes (of a permitted 150) on this game. How about a chess book for Christmas? The new, revised and enlarged edition of Fighting Chess (Kasparov/Wade, Batsford; £6.58 from the British Chess Magazine, 9 Market St, St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex) is highly topical and tackles the new cham- pion's career right up to the threshold of his victorious second match with Karpov. Highly recommended for Kasparov fans.
Chessmen for Collectors by Victor Keats (Batsford, hardback £35), will be of value to collectors, established and would-be alike. Country by country, each chapter charts the development of chess sets in chronological order. The accompanying illustrations (50 colour and 274 black and white) detail the diverse materials used ivory, wood, porcelain, bronze — precise heights of pawns and pieces, their prove- nance and date. The text and illustrations together highlight the variation in English Staunton sets, Indian ivory sets, Spanish 'pulpit' chessmen and delicate French 18th- century sets, as well as the highly unusual 'one-off sets from Africa and America. The whole amounts to a highly authorita- tive, wide-ranging reference and extremely beautiful work for any kind of chess collector or, indeed, an impressive coffee- table book of superb visual quality for anyone interested in chess.
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