CHESS

Round-up

Raymond Keene

Acouple of important tournaments which I have not yet covered are Beer Sheva and the Euwe Memorial. The inde- fatigable Korchnoi was active in both, and already this year he has additionally played in Wijk aan Zee, Reykjavik and SWIFT; a total of around 50 games in top class competitions in five months. En route Viktor the Terrible has captured two shared first prizes and performed credit- ably in the other three. Beer Sheva was also a triumph for British champion Jon Speelman, who has lost hardly any games in the past year.

Beer Sheva Tournament 1987

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 12Total

1 Speelman (ENG) X 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 V2 1 1 V2 1 1 1 81/2 2 Korchnoi (SWI) % X/ 1 1 1 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 1 1 81/2 3 Gurevich (USA) 1/2 1/2 X 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/21/2 1 0 1 1 61/2 4 Watson (ENG) 1/2 0 1/2 X 1 1/2 0 1/2 1/2 1 1 1/2 6 5 Greenfield (ISL) 0 0 1/2 0 X 0 1 1 1/2 1 1 1 6

6 Amason (ISD) V2 0/ 1/2 1 X 1 0 1/ 0 1 51/2 7 Birnboim (ISL) 0 1/2 1/2 1 0 0 X 1 1/2 1/2 1/ 51/2

8 Rohde (USA) 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 0 1 0 X 1 0 1 1 51/2 9 Rechelis (ISL) 1h 1/2 0 1/2 1/2 0/ 0 X 1 1/ 5 10 Farago (HUN) 0 0 1 0 0/ 1/2 1 0 X Y2 lh 4

11 Kuijf (NDL) 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1/2 X 1 21/2 12 Shvidler (ISL) 0 0 0 1/2 0 0/ 0 V2 1/2 1/2 X 2 •

Korchnoi-Arnason: English Opening. 1 c4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Nf3 Nc6 4 g3 d5 5 cxd5 Nxd5 6 Be Nb6 7 0-0 Be7 8 b3 0-0 9 Bb2 Re8 10 Ra Bg4 11 d3 Bf8 12 Nd2 Qd7 13 Rel Rb8 14 Nce4 Nd4 15 Nc5 Qc8 16 Nf3 Nd7 17 Nxd4 BxcS 18 NO Bb6 19 Rc4 Be6 20 Rh4 f6 21 d4 g5 22 Rh6 Kg7 23 dxe5 Ktch6 24 exf6 Rg8 25 Qd2 KhS 26 h3 Nc5 27

g4+ Bxg4 28 hxg4+ Qxg4 29 Ne5 Qh4 30 Qc2 Ne4 Black resigns.

In the double round Euwe Memorial, beld in Amsterdam in mid-May, Korchnoi lost one game to Karpov and drew the rest. Final scores were: Karpov and Timman 4/6; Korchnoi 21/2 and van der Wiel 11/2.

Here are two of the interesting games played: Van der Wiel-Timman: Caro-Kann.

1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 e5 Bf5 4 Nc3 e6 5 g4 Bg6 6 Ne2 f6 7 h4 fxe5 8 h5 Bf7 9 dxe5 Nd7 10 f4 Qb6 11 Bg2 0-0-0 12 b3 Ne7 13 Na4 Qc7 14 Be3 c5 15 c4 d4 16 Bf2 g5 17 hxg6 ep Bxg6 18 Ng3 Nc6 190-0 Be7 20 a3 Rf8 21 Bel d3 22 Nc3 Nd4 23 Ne4 Bxe4 24 Bxe4

Position after 24Bxe4

(Diagram) Nxe5 25 fxe5 Rxfl + 26 IUD Nc2 27 Kgl Nxal 28 NbS QxeS 29 Bxb7+ Kxb7 30 Qf3+

Kb6 31 Ba5+ KxaS 32 Qb7 Qg3+ White resigns.

Van der Wiel's variation against the Caro- Kann caused great execution a few years ago. Now it is less fashionable and Timman showed an excellent way to counter it, culminating in his sacrifice 24 . . . Nxe5.

Timman-Karpov: Queen's Gambit.

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 d5 4 Bg5 dxc4 5 Nc3 Bb4 6 e4 c5 7 e5 cxd4 8 Qa4+ Nc6 9 0-0-0 h6 10 exf6 hxg5 11 fxg7 Rg8 12 Nxd4 bxc3 13 bxc3 Qa5 14 QxaS Nxa5 15 h4 g4 16 h5 Rxg7 17 h6 Rh7 18 Be2 b6 19 Bxg4 Bbl 20 Nf3 Ke7 21 Ng5 Rh8 22 h7 Bxg2 23 Rh6 Bc6 24 f4 Be8 25 f5 exf5 26 fixf5 Rd8 27 Rel+ Kf8 28 Be4 Kg7 29 Rh2 Rd6 30 Rgl Kf8 31 Rg2 Ke7 32 Nh3 Bd7 33 Nf4 Rh6 34 Rg7 Kf6 35 Rg8 Rxh7 36 Bxh7 Rxh7 37 Rel Bc6 38 Rd8 Rh4 39 Rd6+ Kg7 40 Rgl + Kf8 41 Rd4 Rh2 42 Rd2 Rh6 43 R12 Ke7 44 Rel+ Kd7 45 Ne2 Be6 46 Rdl Rd6 47 Nd4 Be6 48 Rhl a6 49 Rh8 Bd5 50 Rd2 Kc7 51 Nf5 Rd7 52 Ng7 Kc6 53 Rh6+ Rd6 54 Rhxd6+ Kxd6 55 Ne8+ Kc6 56 Nf6 Draw agreed.

A narrow escape for Karpov. 8 . . . Nc6 and the continuation up to move 11 was recom- mended by Euwe himself in his book of AVRO 1938. In spite of this, the entire variation looks extremely suspicious from Black's point of view.

Information from Moscow now indicates that Seville will be the venue for the 1987 Kasparov-Karpov match. Seattle's bid of one million Swiss francs was deemed too low, and Karpov, by selecting the Emirates as his choice (to which Kasparov would never agree), made the success of the highest bidder inevitable (Seville's bid was £1.7 million). Indeed, the official announcement may already have been made by the time this article appears.