I SPAIN'S FINEST CAVA {tau diu I
CHESS
SPAIN'S FINEST CAVA
Choreography
Raymond Keene
AS THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP be- tween Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short approaches, the interest in chess is mount- ing. Many people who formerly had only a passing awareness of the game will now want to follow the moves. Accordingly, this week I am going to explain the chess notation.
Chess has the advantage over many other sports and games, that a precise notation for the dance of the pieces exists which permits every game to be played over again and again, exactly as it hap- pened. Because of this we are even able to reconstruct the efforts of chess masters from a thousand years ago in Baghdad where chess first became popular.
Here is a diagram for the starting posi- tion of a chess game. In the notation for writing down the moves each piece is represented by a letter as follows: N=knight; B=bishop; R=rook; Q=queen; K= king.
The squares on the chessboard are de- scribed by co-ordinates consisting of a letter followed by a number. For instance the square marked with a cross on the diagram is e4 and the one with a star is e6. This adheres to the same principle as references on an A-Z street guide. From now on and for all articles during the championship I will give the co-ordinates around the edge of the diagrams to assist readers new to the game in following the moves. There is no mystery to it whatsoev- er, and this code is now used universally for chess computers, chess magazines and almost all chess books, articles and news- paper columns.
Additional symbols to learn are + in- dicating check and 0-0 for 'castles kingside' and 0-0-0 for 'castles queenside'. The only moves where a piece is not mentioned specifically are those involving pawns. In this case merely the square to which the pawn travels is indicated. At all times captures are indicated by an x. To give practical examples, White's first move in the game given below — 1 e4 — indicates that the white `e' pawn travelled to the e4 square. White's second move shows that the king's knight went to f3 and Black's 18th move shows that the pawn on the `b' file captured the white pawn on a4. On move 5, White castled kingside while on move 8, Black returned the compli- ment. The game in question is by a new star in the chess firmament, 17-year-old Zoltan Almasi of Hungary, who has re- cently won the World Junior Cham- pionship, following in the footsteps of Boris Spassky and Garry Kasparov.
Almasi — Jemelin: World Junior Championship, Bratislava, 1993; Ruy Lopez.
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 50-0 Be7 6 Rel b5 7 Bb3 d6 8 c3 0-09 h3 Nb8 10 d4 Nbd7 11 Nbd2 Bb7 12 Bc2 Re8 13 a4 MN 14 Bd3 c615 b3 g6 16 Qc2 Qc7 17 Bb2 Bg7 Up to now this is a repeat of the game Short — Timman, 2nd round Candidates Final, El Escorial, January 1993. At this point Nigel played 18 Radl . Subsequent analysis demonstrated this to be too slow and Almasi is ready with a lively improvement. 18 c4 bxa4 Overlooking White's tactical riposte. 18 . . bxc4 should have been preferred. 19 c5 Disrupting Black's centre in unexpected fashion. If now 19 . . . axb3 20 Qxb3 exd4 21 cxd6 with advantage or 20 . . . dxc5 21 dxe5 Nh5 22 Nc4 with a dominating position. 19. . . exd4 20 cxd6 Qxd6 21 Bxd4 Qb8 The subtext of the tactical operation introduced by White's 19th move is the vulnerability of the traditional Black soft spot on f7. If now for example 21 . . . axb3 22 Qxb3 Qc7 23 Ng5 Rf8 24 13c4 increasing the pressure against 17 to intolerable levels. 22 Rxa4 a bcdef gh Position after 25 Qc3+ c5 23 Bb2 Nh5 24 Bxg7 Kxg7 25 Qc3+ (Diagram) This type of check from one side's queen to the other side's king on the long diagonal is nearly always bad news for the defender, especially if the relevant bishop (in this case the one operat- ing on dark squares) has been traded off. From now on, the exposure of Black's king is a relevant factor. 25. . . f6 26 Ra5 Nf4 27 Bfl Qc7 28 g3 Ne6 29 Nc4 Rad8 30 Bg2 Nd4 A spirited attempt to simplify out of his problems but Almasi's fine pirouettes maintain his advantage. 31 Nxd4 cxd4 32 Qxd4 Ne5 33 Qal Nxc4 34 bxc4 Qxc4 35 e5 A powerful blow. 35 . . . Bxg2 36 Kxg2 Much stronger than 36 exf6+ , when White would ultimately be unable to defend his extra pawn. 36. . . fxe5 37 Rxa6 Ra8 38 Rxe5 A neat piece of tactics which terminates Black's resist- ance. The point is revealed with the double check on the next move. 38. . . Rxa6 39 Re7+ Kh6 40 Qg7+ Kg5 41 h4+ Black resigns A future champion in action?
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