Chess
Mixed bag
Raymond Keene
Computers are playing an ever-increasing role in contemporary chess life. Academic institutions are interested in chessplaying machines as a gauge of the frontiers of mechanical intelligence, many honr-
, cb are now equipped with a chess- Playing micro, while commercial computer firms themselves are emerging as prominent sponsors of chess events featuring people. In this respect, SciSys and Competence are
particularly active. All this is explained in Tim Harding's Chess Computer Book (Pergamon, £9.95 hardback, £4.95 paper- back), which covers the ground from von Kempelen's automaton, 'The Turk,'. via Babbage's steam-driven 'analytical engine', right up to the latest, highly sophisticated micros. Tim's comments are exceedingly thorough, but he also succeeds in conveying an exciting sense of involvement in a scien- tific development that is, literally, gaining pace by the minute. My main criticisms are that games are sometimes crowded onto the page, while the analysis (pages 96 and 152, for instance) occasionally creaks.
A quite different approach to chess is revealed in The Poetry of Chess, edited and introduced by Andrew Waterman (Anvil, £4.95). The selected verse is fun, but much more interesting is Waterman's introduc- tion, which contains material both conten- tious and humorous. An example of the lat- ter is Man Ray's comment on Marcel Duchamp's marriage in 1927:
`Duchamp spent most of the one week they lived together studying chess pro- blems, and his bride, in desperate retalia- tion, got up one night when he was asleep and glued the pieces to the board. They were divorced three months later.'
Waterman is on pretty sticky ground, though, when he starts comparing Grand-
masters with poets — Nimzowitsch and T. S. Eliot, Alekhine and Hopkins. Very dubious. Apart from this, some of his more exalted paragraphs are in severe danger of providing fuel for Pseuds Corner.
The Chessplayer has recently been active producing more conventional books on chess theory. These include King's Indian Defence, Four Pawns Attack (£3.95), Torre Attack (£4.95) and the bound volume of the 1980-81 openings journal Modern Chess Theory, at £9.95 for 384 pages, with con- tributions by John Nunn, Tony Miles and Gary Kasparov amongst others. All of these books can be ordered from 12 Burton Avenue, Carlton, Nottingham, while the others I mentioned are obtainable from Chess, the BCM or Tournament Chess Sup- plies (01-959-1758).
This week's game is a good example of the violent Four Pawns Attack and it features in both the King's Indian Book and MCT.
Tisdall — Taulbut; Brighton 1980.
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 f4 0-0 6 Nf3 c5 7 d5 e6 8 Bet exd5 9 e5!? A sharp pawn sacrifice, pioneered by Gunderam. 9 ... dxe5 10 fxe5 Ng4 11 Bg5 Qa5 12 cxd5 NxeS 13 0-0 Bf5 More usual here is 13 ... Re8. 14 NxeS Bxe5 15 g4 Bd4 + 16 Khl Ild7 17 Ne4 Bb5 18 b4! Qxb4 19 Rbl Bxe2 20 Qxe2 Qa4 21 Rxb7 Nd7 22 Bel RfeS? The only defence against White's K-side attack is 22 ... Rfb8 to challenge White's R. 23 Nd6 Ne5 24 Nxf7! Black resigns.
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