Chess no. 388

PHILIDOR

P. F. Blake (1st Prize, The House, 1898). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week.

Solution to no. 387 (Guidelli): B - K 5, threat Kt - B 6. 1 . . . B (K 3) any, dis. ch; 2 Kt - Q 6. 1 . . . Kt - K 5 ch; 2 Kt- K 3. 1 . . . Kt (4) else, ch; 2 Kt - Q 2. First-rate crosschecker.

The clock

No chess player needs to be told what Faust's feelings were as he watched the last minutes go; he knows, from painful experience repeated many times at the chess board; just what it is to want time to stand still. In the following game, from the Spassky/Geller match you can see how the players used their precious minutes in a particular case. Each player must make forty moves in 150 minutes; the figures in brackets show the time (to the nearest tenth of a minute) for each move.

White, Spassky. Black, Geller. Opening, Sicilian. (Sixth game of the match.) 1 P - K 4 [0.0] P - Q B 4 [0.1] 2 Kt - Q B 3 [0.3] P- Q 3 [0.1]

3 P- K Kt 3 [0.2] Kt -Q B 3 [0.1]. White has adopted (as he did in the second and fourth games, both of which he also won) the closed variation against the Sicilian: in this, White

builds up an attack based on a king's side pawn advance-Black counters on the queen's wing.

4 B - Kt 2 [0.0] P - K Kt 3 [0.0] 5 P -Q 3 [0.0] B - Kt 2 [0.0] 6 P-B4 [0.1] Kt - B 3 [0.0] 7 Kt-B 3 [0.1] 0-0[0.1] 8 0 - 0 [0.0] R - Kt 1 [0.0] 9 P - K R 3 [2.8] ... The first pause. All three games went the same to this point; in game two Spassky played Kt -K R 4 and, although he won ultimately, was in some difficulties. In game four he changed to P -K R 3.

P-QKt 4 [0.1] 10 P-QR 3 [0.2] P-QR 4 [0.1] 11 B - K 3 [0.3] P-Kt 5 [0.1] 12 P X P [0.0] RP x P [0.0] 13 Kt -K 2 [0.1] B- Kt 2 [0.1] 14 P - Kt 3 [3.0] . . . Here game 4 con- tinued 14 Q-Q 2, R-R 1; 15 Q R -Kt 1 and later Spassky played Q R=Q B 1. He now adopts a slightly different plan.

14 . . . R - R 1 [2.3] 15 R - B 1 [0.2] R - R 7 [5.3] 16 P - Kt 4 [2.3] Q - R 1 [38.8]. Here, and on the next move, Geller is weighing up both whether he dare take his queen over to the queen's side in view of the coming king's side storm and just where he should go. It is prob- ably in moves 16-20 that he adopts the wrong plan-by a hair's breadth; I do not know what is correct.

17 Q - K 1 [5.4] Q - R 3 [22.2]. Over an hour for Black's last two moves-total time to date 1 hour 9.5 minutes.

18 Q - B 2 [20.5] Kt - R 2 [0.4] 19 P - B 5 [5.5] Kt - Kt 4 [16.0] 20 P x P [27.2] RP XP [7.1]. Half of the forty moves played; White has taken 1 hoar 8.2 minutes, Black 1 hour 33 minutes.

21 Kt-Kt 5 [1.4] Kt -R 6 [19.0] 22 Q- R 4 [4.0] R- B 1 [0.5]. White threat-

ened 23 R x Kt, P x R; 24 Q- R 7 mate.

23 R X Kt! [12.6] P X R [0.0] 24 Q - R 7 ch [0.1] K - B 1 [0.0]

25 Kt x P! [3.5] R x P [26.0]. After this long think, Black has only 11+ minutes left for his next fourteen moves. My guels is that Spassky foresaw 25 Kt x P when he played 20 P X P.

If Black replies 25 K x Kt then 26 B - R 6, R-K Kt 1; 27 Kt- B 4 with a winning attack, e.g. 27 ... B-B 1; 28 Q x P ch, K-B 1; 29 Q P eh!

26 B- R 6 [13.2] R x R ch [2.4]

27 Kt x R [0.4] K x Kt [6.6] 27 . . .B x B;

-28 Kt x B is equally useless. Black now has 2# minutes for the next twelve moves.

28 Q X B ch [02] K- K 1 [0.0] 29 P - Kt 5! [0.4] P - B 4 [1.1] 30 Q x P ch [1.4] K - Q 2 [0.3] 31 Q - B 7 ch [0.4] K - B 3 [0.4] 32 P X P ch [0.7] Resigns. After 32 . . K moves; 33 Q x B ch, Q x Q; 34 B X Q ch. K x B; 35 P - B 6. Black has a completely hopeless ending, the White king's side pawns going throUgh.