Chess
Round up
Raymond Keene
Last week I promised news of the English assault on the Mexico Interzonal and the Junior World Championship in Den- mark. There is no lack of results from either event, but it has proved difficult to obtain a selection of games. In Mexico after 10 rounds the surprise leader is Torre (Philip- pines) with 7 points, having taken over from Portisch (61/2) who lost to Yusupov in the tenth round. Equal third with 6 points are Seirawan, Spassky and Yusupov. John Nunn lies half a point behind them. Of course, there can be significant changes in the last three rounds, but evidence is emerg- ing that the present system of qualification from the Interzonal (14 players, with only two going through to the Candidates) per- mits an excessive intrusion of chance fac- tors.
Nigel Short is faring none too well in the Junior World Championship. This is his third crack at the title, and his results have been getting steadily worse, declining from the high point of second place behind Kasparov in 1980. The Soviet youth Sokolov leads with the tremendous score of 8/9, followed by Benjamin (US) and Hansen (Denmark) on 61/2, while Nigel is languishing on 5. He will have to score 4 points from his last 4 games in order to challenge for the medals.
Nigel's lack of success in this junior event is all the more surprising in view of his ex- cellent showing in the Ohra master Swiss tournament in Amsterdam last month, where he tied for 1st prize with Vlastimil Hort, and made a GM norm. Here is a game from that tournament by one of the joint winners.
Hort — Langeweg: Amsterdam 1982; Nimzo- Indian Defence.
1 d4 N16 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 e3 0-0 5 Bd3 d5 6 NO Nc6 6 ... c5 enjoys a more reliable reputa- tion. 7 0-0 a6 8 Rel h6 9 h3 dxc4 10 Bxc4 Bd6 11 e4 e5 12 Be3 b5 13 dxe5 White also stands better after 13 Bb3 exd4 14 Bxd4! Nxd4 15 Qxd4 when his increased grip on the centre more than com- pensates for his loss of the B-pair. 13 ... Nxe5 14 Bb3 Bbl 14 ... b4 looks attractive, but after
15 Nd5 Nxe4 16 Bxh6 Nxf2 17 Kxf2 Nxf3 18 Qxf3 Bxh6 l9 Nf6 + White has a winning attack. 15 Nd4 b4 16 Nd5 Nxd5 17 BxdS BxdS 18 exd5 Qf6 19 Qc2 White has a considerable positional advantage, but now tries to win by tactical means. 19 ... RfeS 20 Radl Rad8 21 Nf5 Qg6 22 Kfl Nd7 23 Bd4 Rxel + 24 Rxel Nf6 (Diagram) 25 Re6! A beautiful move, but Black
can still perhaps defend with 25 Kh7 26
Bxf6 fxe6 27 Hxdfi. Qxf5 28 Qxf5 + exf5 29 Keg Kg6. After accepting the sacrifice Black s resistance collapses. 25 ... fxe6? 26 Ne7+, Bxe7 27 Qxg6 Rxd5 28 Be3 K18 29 14 Ra5 30 g4 Rxa2 31 g5 hxg5 32 fxg5 Nd5 33 Bd4 Black resigns.
Hort, happily recovered from the health which prevented his participation 111 Bugojno, will be one of the star attractions at the 1982 Lloyds Bank Masters opening at the Barbican Centre on 25 August and run" ning until 2 September. Naturally, I hope to defend the title I won last year, but with Korchnoi, Miles and Ftacnik also in the lists, this problem may be insuperable. Position after 24 ... Nf6
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