CHESS
Old guard
Raymond Keene
ONE of the stalwarts of the English team at Lucerne (see last week's report) was grandmaster Jon Speelman, at 41 the old- est member of the main team. Speelman is a curious paradox, a player with immense calculating ability and huge tactical insight who nevertheless prefers to avoid the com- plex tactical highways of modern opening theory. He often handicaps himself, partic- ularly as White, with anodyne opening sys- tems and then has to utilise his superb tac- tical and attacking vision to hack his way out of self-inflicted difficulties.
At Lucerne Speelman made the excel- lent score of 4/6, two wins, four draws and no losses, and many observers might have considered it a sad omission that David Norwood, the team captain, only chose to play him in the modest total of six of the possible nine rounds.
Speelman has just brought out a long- awaited book of his best games. Here is one of his more violent efforts, one typical of his somewhat lackadaisical approach to the opening and his gigantic talent in wrig- gling out of subsequent problems he has fashioned for himself.
Speelman—Stean: London 1980; Queen's Indian Defence.
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 Speelman dislikes weak- nesses in his pawn structure. He would almost prefer to lose a pawn than to have a weak one. Although he has played 3 Nc3, inviting the Nimzo-Indian Defence with 3 ...Bb4, he tends to favour the text, which avoids the possibility of a doubled pawn on c3. 3 ...b6 4 Nc3 Bbl In view of my previous comment Stean might have con- sidered 4 ...Bb4 at this point. 5 Bg5 h6 6 Bh4 g5 7 Bg3 Nh5 Black goes ruthlessly for the bishop pair, even though some holes now arise in his kingside and he will more or less be committed to castling on the other side of the board. 8 e3 Nxg3 9 fxg3 It looks more natural to capture with the h-pawn, but experience has dictated that the open h-file, although optically impres- sive, brings White very little benefit. Although the text really makes White's pawn structure look repulsive (thus demonstrating that Speelman is quite capable of overcoming his prejudices when he has to) White realises that the f-file in fact provides a more fruitful target of operations than the h-file. 9 ...Bg7 10 Bd3 Nc6 11 0-0 Qe7 12 Rd 0-0-0 13 Qa4 Kb8 In his own notes to this game Stean suggests the obstructive 13 ... Qb4 14 Qc2 Qe7 when 15 a3 would lose a valuable tempo, while 15 c5 Nb4 exchanges the bishop and 15 Qa4 Qb4 only repeats. 14 c5 g4 15 Nh4 Bf6 16 Ba6 Bg5 (Diagram) Hitting e3.
17 Bxb7 This is too blunt. Correct is 17 Rfe 1 Bxh4 18 gxh4 Qxh4 19 cxb6 axb6 20 Nb5 g3! 21 h3 when White's practical chances for attack are quite considerable. 17 ...Bxe3+ 18 Khl Kxb7 Quite rightly, Stean avoided the appalling com- plications which would have arisen after 18 Bxcl 19 Bxc6 Bxb2 (19 ... dxc6 20 Rxcl is simply good for White) 20 Qa6! dxc6 21 Nb5! This is clearly extremely dangerous for Black. 19 Rcdl Bg5 The common-sense line was 19 Bxd4! 20 Rxd4 Nxd4 21 Qxd4 (if 21 cxb6 Nc6 the black king is too well protected) 21 ... Qxc5 22 Qxg4 when the knights lack good squares and Black's king is safe. 20 d5 exd5 21 b4 d4 22 Nf5 Qe6 23 Nb5 Be3 23 Ra8! was strong, since if either knight captures on d4, then 24 ... Qc4 is enormously powerful; while the attempt to whip up an attack with 24 Nxc7 Kxc7 25 b5 can be met either by the pragmatic 25 ... bxc5 26 bxc6 Qxc6 or even the greedier 25 ... Na5. It should be impossible to land a decisive blow against such a well co-ordinated position; particularly given that the black bishop is covering cl. 24 Rdel Qd5 (Diagram) After just four minutes' thought
Position after 24 . . . Qd5
Stean blundered, allowing Speelman an immedi- ate haymaker. An alternative was 24 ... a6. But 25 Nbxd4 Nxd4 26 Nxe3!, to be followed after most replies by 27 Qdl!, leaves White with sub- stantial attacking chances. 25 Ne7 Nxe7 Allowing mate with checks. Given Speelman's time short- age, 25 Qe6 would have been more sensible, though it is also quite hopeless after 26 Nxc6 Qxc6 27 Qxa7+ Kc8 28 cxb6 cxb6 (or 28 ... Qb7 29 Nd6+! cxd6 30 Rcl + Bxcl 31 Rxcl + Qc6 32 Qa8 mate) 29 Qa6+ Kb8 when White has to find just one more good move: 30 Rf6! d6 31 Qa7+ Kc8 32 Rxf7 Rd7 33 Rxd7 Qxd7 34 Qa8 mate. 26 Qxa7+ Kc6 27 Qxc7+ KxbS 28 Qxb6+ Kc4 29 Qa6+ Kxb4 30 Rbl+ Kxc5 31 Qb6+ Kc4 32 Qb3+ Kc5 33 Qb4+ Kc6 34 Qb6 check- mate.
Next week I will give a more considered opinion on Speelman's book, a seminal document on the successes of English chess in the 1980s and 1990s, and one which deserves serious attention as a possible winner of the British Chess Federation's Book of the Year award.
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