CHESS
Adventures of Nigel
Raymond Keene
Readers will remember that last week we left Nigel Short's bid to qualify from the quarter-finals of the world championship candidates tournament in a somewhat rag- ged state. Nigel was ripped apart in the first game with White, thus continuing the tradition that had started in their games before Brussels that all games between Short and Gelfand, his Soviet opponent, end in wins, and wins for Black at that.
Nigel struck back in the very next game. Gelfand — Short: Candidates Quarter-Final, Brussels, 1991, Game 2.
This looks like a fairly harmless position from a Queen's Gambit Declined and Gelfand, White to play, did not suspect any Black skulduggery afoot. In fact, White must now play 11 Bxf6. Instead, he incautiously played 11 Bh4 when there followed 11 . . cxd4 12 exd4 Forced, otherwise Black plays . . . Nc5. 12 . . . Nh5! This is a wonderful move which gives White real problems. If now 13 Bxe7 Qxe7+ 14 Be2 Nf4 or 14 Ne2 Bxa6 15 Qxa6 Rfe8. In both cases White's king is pinned down in the centre. 13 Bg3 Bxa6 14 Qxa6 Bg5! Now White cannot avoid an inconvenient check in the 'e' file. 15 Rdl ReS+ 16 Kfl Unfortunately for Gelfand he has now lost the right to castle and has to play the middlegame without the services of his king's rook. Nigel goes on to exploit this fact in brilliant fashion. 16 . . . Ndf6 17 Nxg5 hxg5 18 f3 b5 19 Qxb5 Nxg3+ 20 hxg3 Rb8 21 Qd3 Rxb2 22 Rd2 Qb6 23 g4 Qb8 24 Ndl Qg3 25 Nf2 Not 25 Nxb2 on account of 25 . . . Rel mate. 25 . . . Rb6 26 Rh3 Rbe6 27 Rdl Not 27 Rxg3 Rel mate. A neat point echoing the variation on move 25. 27 . . . Qc7 28 Qd2 Re3 29 Rcl Qf4 30 Rdl g6 31 Kgl Kg7 32 Qcl Re2 33 Qxf4 gxf4 34 Nd3 g5 35 a4 Ra2 36 g3 fxg3 37 Nc5 g2 38 Rg3 Ree2 39 Nb3 Reb2 40Ncl Rxa4 41 Nd3 Rba2 42 Rxg2 Rxg2+ 43 Kxg2 Rxd4 and with two extra pawns Black won easily.
With the third game Nigel moved into the lead, surprisingly with White, with a dashing attack. Short — Gelfand: Candidates Quarter-Final, Brussels, 1991, Game 3; Sicilian Defence. 1 e4 c5 2 Nc3 d6 3 f4 Nc6 4 Nf3 g6 Bc4 Bg7 6 0-0 e6 7 d3 Nge7 8 Qel Nd4 9 Nxd4 cxd4 10 Net 0-0 11 Bb3 Nc6 12 Bd2 d5 13 e5 f6 14 exf6 Bxf6 15 Khla5 16 a4 Qd6 17 Ngl Bd7 18 Nf3 Nb4 19 Qf2 Qc5 20 Bc3 Nc6 21 Rael b6 22 Bd2 Nb4 23 Qg3 Stormclouds are gathering around the black king but Gelfand seems curiously oblivious to the coming tempest. His next move, a continuation of his own attack on the queenside, is unpardon- ably careless. It is high time to think of defence, for example by ferrying over an extra piece to the kingside by means of 23 . . . Rae8. 23 . . b5 24 f5! (Diagram) This blow comes with all the greater force for having been delayed. Black's position is now so disorganised that White's attack almost plays itself. 24 . . . exf5 25 Ne5 Be8 Abject retreat, but if 25 . . . BxeS 26 Qxe5 Rae8 27 Bxb4! and whichever way Black recaptures he is doomed to suffer intolerable levels of material loss, 26 axb5 Qxb5 27 Rxf5 Kh8 28 Rxf6 Rxf6 29 Ng4 Rf5 30 Nh6 Rh5 31 Qf4 Threatening checkmate on d4, e5, f6 and f8. That is really too much. Black resigns. The fourth game was a hard-fought draw, while game 5 saw a blood-curdling race between rival armadas of pawns. For most of the game Nigel was winning easily but a hiccup nearly occurred on move 58.
Here, in mutual time trouble, Nigel had to take a critical decision. Should he play 59 Rxa3 Bxa3 60 g5 or 59 Ra6 Na4 60 Rc6 intending Rcl to stopBlack's pawns? Instead Nigel opted for 58 Re8 when Gelfand missed 58 . . . a2 59 Rxe7 al/Q and although White's position looks devas- tating, there is in fact nothing he can achieve. However, also pressed for time Gelfand con- tinued with 58 . . . Nc4 59 Kxe7 b4 60 g5 Kg7 61 E and then resigned. Just as we were all hoping that Nigel might even wrap up the match with game 6 Gelfand struck back.
Gelfand — Short: Candidates Quarter-Final, Brussels, 1991, Game 6; Queen's Indian De- fence. 1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Nf3 Nbd7 5 e3 Be7 6 b3 0-0 7 Bd3 b6 8 0-0 Bbl 9 Bd2 a6 10 Ref Ne4 11 Qc2 f5 12 Ne2 Bd6 13 Ne5 BxeS 14 dxe5 NdcS 15 cxd5 Nxd3 16 Qxd3 BxdS 17 Nf4 Nc5 18 Qc3 Rf7 19 Ba3 Ne4 20 Qc2 Rd7 21 f3 Ng5 22 Nxd5 RxdS 23 Qxc7 Nf7 24 f4 g5 25 Be7 Qe8 26 Bf6 Rd2 27 fxg5 Qb5 28 Qc6 Rf8 29 Qxb5 aib5 30 Rc6 Rxa2 31 Rfc1 Re2 32 Rxe6 Rri8 33 Re7 Kf8 34 e6 Nd8 35 Rxh7 Black resigns.
As we go to press Timman has qualified against Korchnoi, Ivanchuk has the upper hand against Yusupov, and the Karpov — Anand match is totally opaque, while Nigel, after drawing game 7, needs half a point from game 8 to qualify.
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