CHESS
Pot pourri
Raymond Keene
Nigel Short and Jon Speelman are now in St John, Canada, for the world cham- pionship Candidates' tournament, in which the players are paired in matches of six games on the knockout principle. They have made a splendid start. Short has won his first two games against Sax (Hungary) and Speelman leads Seirawan (USA) by 11/2-1/2.
Here is Short's first win against Sax: Short-Sax: Sveshnikov Sicilian.
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 e5 6 Ndb5 d6 7 Bg5 a6 8 Na3 b5 9 Bxf6 gxf6 10 Nd5 f5 11 Bd3 Be6 12 Qh5 Bg7 13 0-0 f4 14 c4 bxc4 15 Bxc4 0-0 16 Racl Ne7 17 Rfdl Rc8 18 Nxe7+ Qxe7 19 Rc3 Kh8 20 b3 f5 21 Rh3 h6 22 Bxe6 Qxe6 23 Rhd3 Rcd8 24 Qe2 fxe4 25 Qxe4 f3 26 Nc4 R14 27 Qd5 Qg4 28 Ricf3 Rxt3 29 Qxf3 Qic13 30 gicf3 d5 31 Kfl Bf6 32 N1b6 d4 33 Ke2 Bg5 34 Nc4 Bf4 35 h3 Rg8 36 b4 Rg2 37 a4 Kg7 38 b5 aicb5 39 axb5 1(16 40 b6 Ke6 41 b7 Rg8 42 Rbl Rb8 43 Rb5 Kd7 44 Na5 Kc7 45 Kd3 Kd6 46 h4 Kc7 47 Rb2 Bh2 48 Ke4 Bf4 49 Rc2+ Kd7 50 Kd3 Bh2 51 Rd l Bf4 52 Rgl Kd6 53 Kc4 Black resigns. The Sveshnikov Sicilian is one of Sax's favourites but Short was well armed with some fresh analysis suggested by his second, Dr John Nunn. 19 Rc3 is a theoretical novelty and the key to White's advantage. The rook on c3 can swing back and forth to menace Black's king or his weak pawn on d6. Sax was visibly disturbed by this move and began a long think which landed him in acute time pressure. 25. . . f3 is a typical attempt by Black in this variation to muddy the water g of White's strategic edge by offering a pawn. However, Short played brilliantly to neutralise this coun- terattack. 26 Nc4 and 27 Qd5 were particularly fine preliminary moves before harvesting the pawn.
White's endgame advantage was based less on the extra pawn but on White's general grip over the light squares and his chance to create a dangerous passed pawn on the 'b' file. Sax finally resigned when Short switched fronts to penetrate with his rook via the Black king's side. Short's achievement in this game was generally hailed as a strategic masterpiece rather in the style of his role-model Anatoly Karpov.
Meanwhile Karpov has shown his tremendous powers of recuperation by actually winning outright at Wijk aan Zee after his poor start. He ended up with nine points out of thirteen, half a point ahead of Ulf Andersson.
Karpov-Ljubojevic: Wijk aan Zee; Queen's Gambit.
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 d5 4 Bg5 Nbd7 5 e3 c6 6 Nbd2 Be7 7 Bd3 0-0 8 0-0 b6 9 cxd5 cxd5 10 Rdl Bb7 11 Qa4 a6 12 Qb3 Bd6 13 Rc3 h6 14 Bh4 Qb8 15 Bxf6 gxf6 16 Rfcl f5 17 Nfl Qd8 18 Ng3 Qe7 19 Nh5 Rfc8 20 a4 K18 21 g3 Bb4 22 R3c2 Rxc2 23 Qxc2 Bd6 24 Qe2 Bb8 25 Rc3 Ke8 26 Nh4 Qb4 27 Qc2 Kd8 28 Be2 Ba7 29 Nf4 Nf6 30 Nd3 Qe7 31 Ne5 Ne4 (Diagram) 32 Rc6 f6 33 Nhg6 Qe8 34
Position after 31. Ne4 Rc7 fxe5 35 Ftxb7 Rc8 36 Qb3 Rc7 37 Rxc7 Kitc7 38 Nxe5 Kb7 39 Nd3 a5 40 f3 Nd6 41 Ne5 Bb8 42 Qc2 Qc8 43 Qxc8+ Kxc8 44 Ba6+ Kd8 45 Nc6+ Kd7 46 Nxb8+ Kc7 47 g4 Kxb8 48 1(12 Kc7 49 Bd3 fxg4 50 fxg4 Kd7 51 1(13 Ke7 52 Kf4 Kf6 53 h4 Nf7 54 Bbl Nd8 55 g5+ hxg5 + 56 hxg5+ Ke7 57 g6 Kf6 58 g7 Kxg7 59 Ke5 1(17 60 Kd6 1(1.6 61 Kc7 NV 62 Kxb6 Nd6 63 b3 Black resigns.
The Christmas quiz answers last week held over the final scores from Hastings, which were: Nigel Short 9/14; Jon Speelman 81/2; Bent Larsen 8; Lev Psakhis and Murray Chandler 7; John Nunn and Joel Benjamin 61/2; Nigel Davies 31/2.
Speelman made a brave attempt to catch up to Short's winning total. In the final round Speelman emptied a hair-raising bag of tactical tricks against Chandler, but blundered in his opponent's time-trouble and ultimately permitted the draw, which relegated him to second place.
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