CHESS
Yelena Akhmilovskaya, the Russian defector, came, saw and departed. She had been invited to the Park Hall Grandmaster tournament in Preston, and, indeed, it was her presence which prompted the three Polgar sisters to demand unacceptably high appearance fees to compete in the same event. Presumably, the Hungarian Wun- derkinder were apprehensive at participat- ing in a tournament with a rival female player of great strength. Last year, Yelena, while playing for the Soviet women's team in the Salonika Chess Olympics, eloped with John Donaldson, the captain of the US men's squad. The couple went to live in Seattle, but Yelena pined for her seven- year-old daughter Dana, still stuck in the USSR.
In what seemed like a further act tagged onto the end of the Tim Rice Chess musical, Yelena returned to the USSR to fetch her daughter. Since it is unusual for defectors to return to Russia, and even more unusual for them to re-emerge with their long-lost relatives, it was a reasonable assumption that the Preston tournament would have to renounce her services. Remarkably, after the Foreign Office and the British Embassy in Moscow had work- ed overtime to obtain her exit papers, Yelena plus daughter landed at Heathrow last week. The British Embassy in Moscow deserves particular credit, given that most of their consular staff had just been expel- led and a party of 400 Soviet tourists landed on their doorstep at just the same time as Akhmilovskaya.
Unfortunately, having travelled as far as Preston, Yelena finally decided that she
Got away
Raymond Keene
was so exhausted by her adventures that she was unable to play, and her place in the tournament (a category 10) was taken by the Lancashire champion, Brett Lund.
Nigel Short also has some fish tales to tell. Last week, I predicted that he was on the point of netting Karpov in Rotterdam. Sadly, the former world champion was able to elude the hook and slither into safety. Here is the key portion of the game: Anatoly Karpov — Nigel Short: Rotterdam World Cup.
Position after Black's 40th move . . . QbS.
41 Bd1 Rc8 Nigel surrenders his pawn on h3 in the interests of opening lines for a counter- attack. 42 Qxb3 Qa5 43 Qe3 Rcl 44 Nd7 This has the murderous threat of Qe5+ so Black must plug the `e' file. 44 . . . Be4 45 Nf6 Qal 46 Qb3 Qa5 47 Qe3 Qal Naturally, Karpov could now force a draw with 48 Qb3. It is, however, still justifiable to play for the win. 48 Nxe4 dxe4 49 d5 Nc5 50 Qd4+ Kh7 51 Ke3 Qa6 52 Qf6 Qa7 53 Qd4 Qa6 White's next move is much too optimistic. Black's pieces are now so active that 54 Qf6, with a draw, is the correct course. 54 Rf2 Nd3 55 Bet Rel Karpov now gives up the exchange, though it is not clear that he would fare any worse after 56 Rfl Rxe2+ 57 Kxe2 Nxf4+ + 58 Kd2. 56 Qxe4 Qb6+ 57 Kxd3 Qxf2 58 Kd2 Ral 59 Kc2 Qel 60 Kb3 Qxg3+ This was the adjourned position which I had regarded as a win for Black. He is the exchange ahead, White's king is exposed and Black has a passed 'h' pawn. Karpov now had to seal a move. After 61 Bd3 Rfl 62 d6 White can struggle after 62 . . . Rxf4 but he should be lost in the long run. Karpov chooses another path. 61 Kc2 Qgl I had expected 61 . . . Qel and if 62 Qe7 Rcl+ 63 Kd3 Qg3+ 64 Ke4 Rc4+ 65 Bxc4 Qel+ skewering White's queen. However, White does not need to fall into this trap, so presumably Nigel's 61st move is the best. 62 Qe5 Rcl+ 63 Kd3 h4 64 d6 Rc5 65 Qd4 Qbl+ 66 Ke3 Qcl+ 67 Kf3 Rd5? This is a clever trick, since 68 QxdS fails to . . . Qhl+. Nevertheless, as Nigel pointed out after the game, he could now have won with 67 . . . Qhl+! 68 Kg4 Qg2+ 69 Kxh4 Rcl followed by . . . Rhl mate. Alternatively, 67 . . . Qhl+ 68 Ke3 Rd5 69 Qc4 h3 70 d7 Rxd7 followed by . . . h2. The rest is an anti-climax. 68 Qfl! Qhl+ 69 Kg4 Rd2 70 Bf3 Qcl 71 Qxh4+ Kg8 72 b3 Qc8+ 73 Kg3 Qc5 74 Qhl Qxd6 75 Qel Rd4 76 Qcl Rd3 77 Qc8+ Kg7 78 Qc4 Rd4 79 Qcl f6 80 gxf6+ Kxf6 81 Qc6 Qxc6 82 Bxc6 Kf5 83 Bb5 Rdl If 83 . . . Rxf4 84 Bd3+ Kg5 85 Bxg6 Rg4+ 86 Kf3 with a draw. 84 Kf3 Draw agreed.
Had Nigel won, he would have achieved the sensational feat of beating Karpov, one of the most invincible players in chess history, in two consecutive games. It will be remembered that Nigel had won in their previous encounter from Linares.
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