CHESS
Private enterprise
Raymond Keene
Ihave formed a theory about the relative failure of the English team at the recently concluded chess Olympiad in Manila. It is this. In former times the top English players worked together particularly well as a team. Indeed, for important events our leading grandmasters and masters were often to be seen seconding each other. Thus, in the past John Nunn had served as Nigel Short's assistant while grandmaster William Watson had performed the same service for Jon Speelman.
Recently, however, with increasing per- sonal success, the English players have fragmented into a scattering of individual- ists. They are becoming increasingly dangerous in individual tournaments as their team successes appear to evaporate. The most stunning example of this trend, of course, has been Nigel Short's victory against Karpov in the world championship cycle. Another triumph was that achieved by Michael Adams last week in the Swift Rapid Chess Challenge in Brussels.
Adams, a 20-year-old from Truro, who won the British championship in 1989 at the record young age of 17, has always been noted as an expert practitioner of speed chess. In the Brussels knock-out, though, he excelled himself, eliminating Dr John Nunn, Nigel Short, Jon Speelman and Viswanathan Anand before trouncing the German grandmaster Lobron in the final. Adams's reward was an amazing $50,000 first prize. Other luminaries who fell by the wayside included Anatoly Kar- pov and Viktor Korchnoi. Sadly, the stan- dard of play was not commensurate with the magnitude of the prize, as the following decisive game from the final reveals. Lob- ron's loss, the most costly of his career, was essentially determined by a one-move blunder on move 29 which shed a rook.
Adams Lobron: Swift Rapid Chess Challenge, 1992; Pirc Defence.
1 d4 g6 2 e4 Bg7 3 Nc3 d6 4 Be3 a6 5 Qd2 b5 6 a4 b4 7 Nce2 a5 8 c3 N16 9 f3 Nc6 10 Ng3 0-0 11 Bb5 bxc3 12 bxc3 Bd7 13 Nle2 Na7 14 Bd3 Nc8 15 0-0 Nb6 16 Bh6 Nxa4 17 Bxg7 Kxg7 18 e5 Ng8 19 f4 e6 20 Ne4 Qe7 21 c4 Nb6 22 Rxa5 Rxa5 23 QxaS Position after 29 . . Bxe6 Ra8 24 Qc3 f5 25 exd6 cxd6 26 d5+ Nf6 27 Nxf6 Qxf6 28 Qb4 Nc8 29 dxe6 Bxe6 (Diagram) 30 Qb7+ Black resigns.
Another British success in the same week has been that of eight-year-old Luke McShane. By winning the World Under-10 Championship sponsored by Coca-Cola at Duisberg in Germany he became the youngest-ever master player in chess his- tory. He thereby created a storm of media coverage in the UK with his photograph appearing in all the major newspapers. The game which follows is an astounding achievement for an eight-year-old.
Kuliev — McShane: World Under-10 Cham- pionship, Duisberg 1992; King's Indian Defence.
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 f3 0-0 6 Be3 c5 7 dxc5 dxc5 8 BxcS Nc6 9 Be2 This move is the root cause of all White's further troubles. If anything, it hinders his own development. The correct procedure — 9 Qxd8 — was seen in this column in the game Kramnik-Nunn on 11 July. 9 . . . Qa5 10 Be3 NM 11 a3 Rd8 12 Qbl Nc6 13
Position after 17 Nf3 102 Qe5 14 f4 Qb8 15 h3 e5 16 fxe5 Nxe5 17 Nf3 (Diagram) 17 . . . Neg4+ Capablanca would have called this une petite combinaison. Black wins back his pawn by this temporary sacrifice and wrecks White's position into the bargain. 18 hxg4 Nxg4+ 19 Kgl Nxe3 20 Qcl Ng4 21 Nd5 Bf8 22 Qg5 Qd6 23 Qh4 h5 24 Rdl QcS+ 25 101 Rxd5 In the style of Kasparov. If White recap- tures on d5, 26 . . . Ne3+ is fatal. 26 b4 Rxd1+ 27 Bxdl Qxc4+ 28 Be2 Qxe4 29 Nel Be6 30 lif3 Qe3 31 Bxb7 Bc4+ White resigns.
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