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SIMPSON'S
IN-THE-STRAND
CHESS
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IN-THE-STRAND
Bottom line
Raymond Keene
YOU MAY think that Jeffrey Bernard would have had little to do with The Spectator's chess column, but you would be wrong. He was once my king's knight in a game of living chess. In 1977 I played a game with live pieces against grandmaster Tony Miles in a match between The Spec- tator and the New Statesman. The players were all suitably attired, The Spectator's staff and writers on the one side and those from the New Statesman on the other. With his giant horse's head Jeffrey resembled nothing so much as a nightmarish appari- tion from A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Living chess has a long and colourful his- tory, even older than the Shakespeare play. The earliest reliable records date back to 1408, when Sultan Mohammed I played a game of living chess in Granada. A later game, played in 1455 in Marostica, Italy, is still re-enacted on a board large enough for the knights to be mounted on real horses. As a farewell tribute to Jeffrey, here is the game in which he was my chess piece.
Raymond Keene (The Spectator)–Tony Miles (New Statesman): Lincoln's Inn Fields, 16 June 1977, Sicilian Defence.
1 e4 c5 Knowing Miles to be a Dragon expert, I decided to try something offbeat. 2 Nf3 d6 3 Nc3 Nc6 4 Bb5 Bd7 5 0-0 Nf6 6 Rel e6 Hereabouts Jeff, clutching a bottle of something, informed me unequivocally that he now needed to leave to write an article on the Gold Cup, so I had to find some way to exchange him from the board as quickly as possible. That explains my next few moves which, from a chess point of view, are not particularly intelligible, since they strengthen Black's pawn Centre. 7 Bxc6 Bxc6 8 d4 cxd4 9 Nxd4 Bel 10 Nxc6 (Diagram) The knight on c6 is Jeffrey Bernard. After Black's next move he van- ishes both from this game and the chess environ- ment as a whole. 10 ... bxc6 Farewell, Jeffrey. 11 Bg5 0-0 If immediately 11 ... d5, trying to exploit Position after 10 Nxc6 Black's central pawn majority, then 12 exd5 cxd5 13 Bxf6 Bxf6 14 Nxd5 is good for White. Stronger would be the recapture 13 ...gxf6 but Black would still find it difficult to shelter his king. 12 e5 To splinter Black's pawns before he plays ... d5 in safety. 12 ... dxe5 13 RxeS h6 14 Bh4 (Diagram) 14 ...Qc7 This allowed me to Position after 14 Bh4 gain a slight initiative. After the game Tony sug- gested 14 ... Qb8 15 Re3 Nd5 but then 16 Bxe7 Nxe7 is approximately equal. Note that 14 ... Qb8 15 Re3 Qxb2? 16 Rbl Qa3 17 Nd5 is much
too dangerous for Black. 15 Qe2 Rad8 16 Rel Nd5 17 Bxe7 Qxe7 If 17 ... Nxc3 18 Qf3 Qxc7 19 Qxc3 preserves White's pawn structure. 18 Qc4 Nxc3 19 Qxc3 Rd6 20 g3 Rfd8 21 Kg2 Qf6 22 Rc5 Qxc3 23 Rxc3 Kf8 Black's isolated pawns on the queenside are a disadvantage, but not a fatal one. 24 Re4 Ke7 25 Ra4 R8d7 26 Rac4 The criti- cal line is 26 Rca3 Rd2 27 Rxa7 and not now 27
Rxc2 28 Rxd7+ Kxd7 29 Ra7+ Ke8 30 b4, when White has a clear advantage, but 27 ... Rxa7 28 Rxa7+ Kf6 when White cannot defend the c2 pawn in a satisfactory manner and Black's king is sufficiently well placed to hold the draw. 26 ...Rc7 (Diagram) Draw agreed White still has Position after 26 . . . Rc7
an optical advantage but there is nothing forced, for example 27 b4 a6 28 a4 Rb7I and holds.
After Black accepted my offer of a draw the crowd invaded the board. Not great chess, but in some ways an historic occa- sion, and both players avoided any heckling from the pieces, who might have spotted stronger moves. I am reminded of a scene in the Welsh epic The Mabinogion, where the hero helps one side in a game played by live gwyddbwyll (an ancient Welsh board game) pieces in the Fortress of Marvels. After the other side had won, the hero's pieces shouted abuse at him — not advis- able in the middle of Lincoln's Inn Fields.
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