CHESS
Fast lane
Raymond Keene
At times important chess events crowd in thick and fast and this week I will try to give a broad update on what has been a hectic month. In the Euwe Memorial tournament at Rotterdam the great veter- an Viktor Korchnoi proved what a fine player he still is by winning convincingly ahead of Gurevich and Timman with our own Nigel Short bringing up the rear. Almost immediately thereafter Nigel bounced back by reaching the final of the Paris speed chess tournament, inflicting a defeat en route on Kasparov who never- theless won the final by two games to one. In the first round Kasparov gained his revenge against Jon Speelman for his defeat in last year's Infolink European Speed Championship. Finally the Amer- ican Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan has registered the greatest triumph of his career by winning the tournament at Haninge in Sweden ahead of Karpov and Ehlvest who shared second place.
Kasparov — Speelman: Paris, 19 May; Pirc Defence.
1 d4 d6 2 e4 Nf6 3 Nc3 g6 4 Be2 Bg7 5 h4 h5 6 NI3 Nc6 This move permits White to compromise Black's pawn structure. Surely it would be more sensible to preface the knight's development with 6 . . . Bg4. 7 d5 Ne5 8 NxeS dxe5 9 Bg5 a6 10 Qd2 b5 11 f3 Rb8 12 a4 b4 13 Ndl c6 14 dxc6 Qc7 15 Ne3 Qxc6 16 Nc4 Nd7 17 a5 Qe6 18 Qd5 White has no immediate prospects of attack and his own king has no obvious shelter on either wing. It is sensible therefore to trade off Black's most powerful piece in the hope of exploiting Black s ragged pawn structure in the endgame. 18 . . . QxdS 19 exd5 Bh6 20 Kf2 f6 21 Bxh6 Rxh6 22 Rhdl Rh8 23 g3 Kf7 24 f4 exf4 A serious misjudgment which opens up his g6 pawn to attack. Black should keep everything as tight as possible with 24 . . . e4. 25 gxf4 Bbl 26 Rd4 Bab 27 Ne3 Nc5 28 Rgl b3 29 c3 RbdS 30 Rc4 Nb7 Hunting White's 'a' pawn in this fashion invites the invasion of White's rook. He should have played 30 . . . Rc8. 31 Rc7 Nxa5 32 f5 g5 33 hxg5 fxg5 34 RxgS Nb7 35 Bxh5 + Kf8 36 f6 Black resigns.
Short — Kasparov: Paris, 20 May; Sicilian Defence.
1 e4 c5 2 f4 d5 3 exd5 Nf6 Offering a gambit which enables Black to complete his develop- ment at record speed. 4 Bb5+ Bd7 5 Bxd7+ Qxd7 6 c4 e6 7 Qe2 Bd6 8 d3 0-0 9 dxe6 fxe6 10 Nt3 Nc6 110-0 RaeS 12 Nc3 e5 13 f5 White has to give back the pawn but in return he gains a measure of control over the central light squares. Black's position now begins to look promising but White still has plenty of re- sources. 13 . . . QxfS It is unlike the world champion to forget an important theoretical reference. Instead of the immediate recapture Black would do better with 13 . . . Nd4 14 0d2 Qxf5 15 b3 e4 16 dxe4 Nxe4 17 Nxe4 Rxe4 18 0g5 Nxf3+ 19 gxf3 Re2 White resigns (Evans King, London 1988). 14 Bg5 e4 15 dxe4 Nxe4 16 Rael Nf6 The subtle point of White's play is that 16 . . . Nxc3 would fail to the intermezzo 17 Qxe8. 17 Qdl Rxel 18 Rxel Nd4 19 Bxf6 Nxf3+ 20 Qxf3 Qxf3 21 gxf3 Rxf6 22 Re8+ 1218 23 Re6 Rd8 24 Kg2 Kf7 This endgame looks exceedingly drawish but Short generates winning chances by virtue of his slightly more active rook and the facility with which his knight can operate on the central light squares. 25 Re4 At this point it seems to me that Black should play 25 . . . Re8 trying to force rooks from the board. By failing to challenge White's mobile rook Kasparov stores up trouble for himself in the future. 25 . . . g6 26 b3 Bf8 27 Nd5 b5 28 Rf4+ Kg7 29 Kh3 bxc4 30 bxc4 Rb8 31 Rf6 Rb7 32 Ra6 Kf7 33 f4 Bg7 34 Kg4 Bd4 Although Black's bishop has escaped into the open, White's advantage is by now quite clear. The rook ties Black's pieces down to the weak `a' pawn while the fact that White's king side pawns are split makes it easier to attack g6 and create a passed pawn on the right flank. 35 h4 Kg7 36 h5 11132 37 Rxa7+ Kh6 38 hxg6 hxg6 39 Ne7 The threat of Ng8 mate forces Black to make further concessions.
39 . . . Kg7 40 Nf5+ Kf6 41 Ra6+ Kf7 42 Nd6+ Ke7 43 a4 Ra2 44 K13 Ke6 45 Ne4+ Ke7 46 05 Ra4 47 Rxg6 Rxa5 48 Nd6 Bf6 49 Ke4 Ra6 50 Nb5 Kf7 51 Kf5 Re6 52 Nc3 Black resigns Black is quite paralysed and helpless against the threat of Ne4 or Nd5. A filigree piece of endgame technique from Nigel Short and his first Will against Kasparov for over three years.
Seirawan — Karpov: Haninge, May 1990; En- glish Opening. 1 c4 e5 2 g3 g6 3 d4 d6 4 dxe5 dxe5 5 QxdS+ KxdS 6 Nc3 c6 7 f4 With this move Seirawan transforms a relatively quiet opening into a bubbling cauldron of complications. 7 . . . Be68 Nf3 Bxc4 9 Bh3 f5 10 b3 Bb4 11 Bb2 Bd5 12 e4 fxe4 13 0-0-0 After this Black is obliged to surrender material since his bishop on d5 and his rook on h8 are both highly vulnerable to the action of White's pieces. What was worse, the opening's complications have left Karpov with just over a minute on his clock to reach the time control at move 40. 13 . . . Bxc3 14 Bxc3 exf3 15 BxeS Nd7 16 BxhS Ne7 17 Rhfl Nf5 Karpov has' lost the exchange but with his passed pawn on f3 he can still offer stout resistance. Indeed, I would have thought that White's best course now would have been to return the material with 18 Rxd5 cxd5 19 Rxf3 with a technically very promising endgame in which White has the two bishops and Black has weak pawns. However, that is not Seirawan's way. 18 Bd4 h5 19 g4 hxg4 20 Bxg4 NM 21 Bf2 Ng2 22 Bg1 Nh4 23 h3 24 Bh2 Nf6 25 f5+ Kb6 26 fxg6 Nxg4 27 hxg4 Rg8 28 Rd4 a5 29 g5 Nxg6 30 Kd2 Rf8 31 Bgl Ka6 32 Bf2 Rf5 33 Rg4 Ne5 34 Rg3 Ng6 35 Rhl Re5 36 Rel Rf5 Black loses on time. The situation has not changed substantially since move 20 and frankly I doubt whether Seirawan could have demonstrated a win in his position had Karpov's clock flag not fallen.
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