Chess

Famous four

Raymond Keene

It is several months since I announced Nigel Short's triumph in taking top honours at the Grandmaster tournament in aku, Gary Kasparov's home town. Unfor- t,unately, hard details of this great success !lave been frustratingly elusive. Nigel could not reconstruct the tournament table, SPeelman, usually more precise, did not seem Very enthusiastic about doing so, while the British Chess Magazine, generally an excellent source on Soviet affairs due to the expertise in Russian of editor Bernard Cafferty, gave a banner headline to the result, but no games and no crosstable. Here, at last, are the full scores, plus one of Nigel's wins, ironically against his com- patriot.

Baku Tournament, 2-21 November 1983

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1213 14 Total

10 Toshkov 0 0 0 0 1/2 0 0 1/2 1 X 1/2 1 1/2 1 11 Sideif-lade 0' 0 1/2 1/2 0 0 0 1/2 1/2 X 1/2 1 1 12 Cvitan 1/2 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 0 1 1/2 1/2 0 1/2 X1/2 0

13 Kirov ½0½½0½½00½0½X1

14 Van der Sterren 1/2 0% 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 0 0 I 0 X

9 Rashkovski 0½½½½½0½X0½½1½ 2 Malaniuk 1/2X01/201/21 1/21/21 1/2111

3 Guseinev 1/2 1 X 1/2 1/2 1/2 Yr h1/2 1 1 1/2 1/2 1/2 4 Mikhalchishin 1/2 1/2 1/2 X 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 V1 1% /'A 1 6 Taimanov 0 1'h 1/2 1/2 X 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 1 1 1/2 1/2 7 Azmaiparashvili 1/2 0% 1/2 1/2 1/2 X 1/2 1 1 1 0 1/2 1/2 8 Speelman 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 1/2 X 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 1 1/2 1 Short X1/21/21/21/211/21 I I I VI 1/2 1/2

5 Bagirov ½1½½X½½½½½½½1½ 9 8 8

Short — Speelman: Dragon Sicilian.

1 e4 c5 A switch from Speelman's regulation Caro-Kann. 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 g6 6 Be3 Bg7 7 f3 Nc6 8 Qd2 0-0 9 0-0-0 d5 10 exd5 NxdS 11 Nxc6 bxc6 12 Bd4 e5 13 Bc5 Be6 14 Ne4 Rb8 15 c4 Re8 16 g4 Qc8? In sharp lines you must know the latest theory. Here, it seems, Speelman was ignorant of 011-Gufeld, played a couple of months previously in the tournament at Tbilisi: 16 ... Nb6! 17 Qc2?! Nd7 18 h4 Qa5 19 Ba3 Nf6 20 g5 Nxe4 21 fxe4 Bf8, with power- ful Black counterplay. Still, even here White can

71/2 71/2 71/2 7 7

improve: 17 Qxd8! Rbxd8 18 Rxd8 Rxd8 19 b3! with an enduring endgame edge, resulting from Black's split Q-side pawns. 17 Nd6 Qa6 18 b3 Nf6 19 Nxe8 Rxe8 20 g5 Nd7 21 Bb4 e4 22 fxe4

I can only recall four non-Russians in the past 70 years who have won first prize in Russian tournaments, namely: Lasker at St Petersburg 1914; Capablanca, Moscow 1936; Balinas, Odessa 1976 and now Nigel Short. It is an amazing achievement and one which demonstrates clearly that set- backs such as the Benjamin match and Hastings are just minor obstacles on Nigel's upward path.

Position after 22.. .Rb8

Rb8 (Diagram) Short now demonstrates effi-

51/2 ciently that Black has no compensation for his sacrificed material. 23 c5! Qb7 24 Bc3 Nxc5 25 s Bxg7 Kxg7 26 Qc3 + Kg8 27 QxcS Bxb3 28 Rd2! 41/2 Bc4 29 Rd8 + Rxd8 30 Bxc4 Qd7 31 Qe3 Black

41/2 resigns.