CHESS

Russian roulette

Raymond Keene

The strongest tournament to be held regularly in the United Kingdom is the Foreign & Colonial grandmaster section at Hastings. This year the competition gained the added distinction of being the very first event to be staged after the official collapse of the Soviet Union. The result was that three former USSR players, scattered through the lists in first, last and third positions, were variously playing under the red, white and blue of the Russian trico- lour or the crimson and white of the new Latvian flag.

Bareev dominated, repeating his feat of last year, while the English players collec- tively failed to cover themselves with glory, although Michael Adams' achievement in winning no fewer than five games at this level certainly bodes well for the future.

Bareev — Adams: Foreign & Colonial Hastings Premier; Benko Gambit.

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 d5 b5 4 Nf3 It is no longer fashionable to accept the gambit pawn with the intention of hanging on to it after 4 cxb5 a6 5 bxa6 Bxa6 since Black obtains a fluid position, easy to play. 4 . . . bxc4 5 Nc3 g6 6 e4 d6 7 Bxc4 Bg7 8 0-0 0-0 9 h3 9 e5 is the most vigorous move here, but Bareev's choice is also quite sensible since it denies Black's pieces the use of g4. 9 . . . Nbd7 Another way of handling the position is 9 . . . Ba6 trying to relieve Black's slight cramp by exchanging pieces. 10 a4 Nb6 11 Bb5 Rb8 12 Rel a6 In order to gain counterplay Black has to drive away White's annoying bishop but henceforth the pawn at a6 will be a

Foreign & Colonial Hastings Premier

1122334455667788 1 Bareev E XX1/21 1 0 11/21 11/211/211/21 101/2

2 Agdestein S 1/20 XX 1 I/211/21/21 1 0 1/21 I/21 9

3 Shirov A 0 1 0 1/2XX1/21/21/21 11/211/21/21 81/2 4 Speelman J 01/201/21/21/2XXO1/21/21 1 11/21/2 7 5 Adams M 0 01/20V20 11/2XX 1 01/21 1 1 7 6 Chandler M 1/20 0 1 01/21/20 0 1 XXI/21 1/21 61/2

7 Hodgson J 1/201/20 01/20 01/201/20XX11/2 4

8 Suetin A 1/201/201/201/21/2001/2001/2XX 31/2

Category 14 on the World Chess Federation scale.

slight target. 13 sn Na8 An unfortunate move, since the knight stays out of play for a long time to come, but Black has to clear the 'b' file in order to gain some activity. 14 e5 The long- awaited central advance. 14 . . . Nd7 15 exd6

Position after 17 Nd2

exd6 16 lif4 Nf6 17 Nd2 (Diagram) As Black now plays in the game he soon drifts into a passive situation where all the disadvantages of his position become speedily manifest. If he wanted to stir up trouble the best way is 17 . . . Rxb2, though after 18 Nc4 Rb4 19 Na2 Black has nothing better than 19 . . . Rxc4 20 Bxc4 Nh5 21 Bh2 Bxal 22 Qxal. In this position Black is a pawn ahead but White's two bishops and dark square control give him fine compensation. Alternatives for White are worse e.g. 17 . . . Rxb2 18 Bxd6 Qxd6 19 Nc4 Qb8 defend- ing the rook or 17 . . . Rxb2 18 Nc4 Rb4 19 Bxd6 Rxc4 20 Bxf8 Rxc3 21 Bxg7 Kxg7. Finally, in this last variation if 20 Bel Rxc3 21 Bxd8 Rxd8. 17 . . . Nh5 18 Bh2 Rxb2 19 Nce4 f5 An interesting possibility at this moment is 19 . . . Bxh3 20 Bxh3 f5 21 Nxd6 QgS+ regain- ing the knight on d2. If 21 Ng3 then -both 21 . . . Nf4 and 21 . . . Nxg3 22 fxg3 Bc3 give counterplay. However, the whole idea of play- ing 19 . . . Bxh3 founders on 20 Bxd6, when White's preponderance in the centre and the looseness of Black's pieces combine to give White the advantage. The move chosen, though, is not much better. 20 Nxd6 Bd4 Perhaps immediately 20 . . . f4 to crowd out White's bishop on h2. 21 NxcS QxcS 22 Rbl Rxbl 23 Qxbl f4 24 Nf3 Gaining a tempo against Black's bishop which must now withdraw. 24 . . . Bf6 25

Position after 25 Re6

Re6 (Diagram) This move makes Black's posi- tion desperate since his position is riddled with weak pawns and he has no antidote to White's giant passed 'd' pawn. 25 . . . Qd7 26 Qe4 Nc7 27 Rc6 Kh8 27 . . . Nxd5 evidently fails to 28 Bc4 Rd8 29 Rxc5. 28 Rxc5 Bg7 29 Qc4 Ne8 30 Qxa6 Nd6 31 Qc6 Qd8 32 Qc7 Ne4 33 Qxd8 Rxd8 34 Rc4 Nd6 35 Rc6 M5 36 Ng5 Rb8 37 d6 Nd4 38 Rc7 Bf6 39 Rxh7+ Kg8 40 Bc4+ Kf8 41 Rf7+ Black resigns.

The bulletin of the Foreign & Colonial Hastings tournament contains all the Pre- mier games, many of them annotated, and provides a feast of interesting chess. It is available for £6.00 from B. B. Enterprises, 23 Ditchling Rise, Brighton, Sussex BN1 4QL.

Correction: The solution as published to the Short v Timman position in the Christ- mas quiz contained an error. The variation should have read: 1 g4 hxg4 2 Ng5 not 2 h5. This makes no difference to the names of the competition winners which stand. The position is an interesting one to which I shall be returning in a future article.