CHESS
Anabasis
Raymond Keene
Wilhelm Steinitz (1836-1901), the first world champion, taught that the king is a strong piece. By this I believe he meant that the king could become not only very powerful in the endgame (when reduced material eliminates most dangers of snap checkmates) but could also, to a surprising extent, look after itself in a tactical middle- game made. I doubt that he intended his words to signify that the king itself could actually join in as a decisive attacking unit in a middlegame onslaught. Three asto- nishing examples this week show that this is, however, possible.
Horwitz — Staunton: 24th Match Game, London 1846.
Black's pieces have achieved their best squares but now Staunton is faced with the problem of how to make further progress. His solution is ingenious, enlisting the aid of his king in order to concentrate suffi- cient force for a decisive assault.
30. . . Kg6! 31 Rc8 Qe6 32 Rd8 Bg4 33 Qf4 N13+ 34 Kg2 Qe1 35 Rg8+ Kh5! White resigns.
The final position with Black's king co- operating in the common effort to deliver checkmate is most unusual. There is no defence to . . Re2+ thus 36 Rxg4 Re2+ 37 Kxf3 Qf2 mate or 37 Bxe2 Qxe2+ and mate next move.
A hundred and forty years later Nigel Short repeated Staunton's feat with his king. Kasparov — Short: Speed Chess Match, London 1987.
45. . . Kg6! A brilliant concept. With White's forces committed to an attack along the eighth rank, Nigel's king advances out of danger to boldly march against its opposite number. Un- less White stops this attack the chosen route will be. . . Kh5 followed by. . . Kg4. 46 Bel Kh5 47 Ra8 Qc5 48 Rc8 Qxa3 49 g4+ Bxg4 50 Rxc4 Qal White resigns.
However, the apotheosis of the king attack in the middlegame must go to Nigel's win against Jan Timman played last week in Tilburg.
Short — Timman: Tilburg 1991; Alekhine Defence.
1 e4 Nf6 2 e5 Nd5 3 d4 d6 4 Nf3 g6 5 Bc4 Nb6 6 Bb3 Bg7 7 Qe2 Nc6 8 0-0 0-0 9 h3 a5 10 a4 dxe5 11 dxe5 Nd4 12 Nxd4 Qxd4 13 Rel e6 Black's opening has not been satisfactory. His queen roams exposed around the board, the dark squares near his king are weak and he will have trouble developing his queenside pieces, espe- cially the queen's bishop. 14 Nd2 Nd5 15 Nf3 Qc5 16 Qe4 Qb4 17 Bc4 Nb6 18 b3 An inspired conception. Conventional wisdom dictates that one should not surrender the bishop pair nor allow one's pawns to be shattered. Nigel breaks both rules in order to augment his dominance of the dark squares. The threat is now Ba3 winning material. 18. . . Nxc4 19 bxc4 Re8 20 Rdl Qr5 21 Qh4 b6 22 Be3 Qc6 23 Bh6 Bh8 24 Rd8 Bb7 25 Radl Bg7 26 R8d7 RIB 27 Bxg7 Kxg7 28 R1d4 Rae8 29 Qf6+ Kg8 30 h4 h5 White dominates the 'd' file and has complete control of the dark square terrain around Black's king. His prob- lem, though, is that his knight cannot join the attack in view of Black's threats along the a8-hl diagonal. Therefore Nigel activates his last
Position after 31 . . .Rc8 passive piece, the king. 31 KU! Rc8 (Diagram) Black absolutely had to play 31 . . . 8c8 though 32 Rd8 is quite sufficient to win. The point of White's 31st move must have completely eluded the Dutch grandmaster, though the horrible truth dawns soon enough. 32 Kg3 Rce,8 33 Kf4 Final position Bc8 34 Kg5 Black resigns (Diagram) A wonder- ful conclusion. If 34 . . Ith7 35 Qxg6+ .or 34. . . Bxd7 35 Kh6 imprisoning the black king and threatening unavoidably 36 0g7 mate.
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