Chess

All change

Raymond Keene

he new Fide President, Florencio Cam-

pomanes, chose the super-tournament Just concluded at Linares as the setting for a commission to discuss major reform of the World championship cycle. The sessions Were attended by, amongst others, Cam- Pomanes, Toran (European vice-president), Myself, Karpov and Timman, and we have recommended that the championship cycle OW

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, speeded up, bringing it more into line with the pace of modern sport. This wIll be achieved by holding the world cham- Pions* match and qualifying tournaments !very two years instead of three and doubl- ing the Candidates' event to 16 players, comprising a tournament followed by knock-out matches among the best four. If, as seems likely, these changes (called for, incidentally, in Spectator articles in June 1980 and February 1982) are accepted by the Fide General Assembly at Manila later this year, up-and-coming players will have a Much more realistic crack at the world title, and there will be much less chance of age- flume candidate missing out on the elimina- ft..

tion tournament. To avoid excessive strain on top players from the accelerated schedule, twelve will be seeded directly into Interzonals via Elo rating, six more will come from the previous Candidates', while the top four from that Candidates' automatically retain their places.

The tournament itself was, in contrast, an extremely conservative affair; both Seirawan and Larsen were horribly out of form and most of the others were content to draw with each other, while trying for the maximum against the tail-enders. Spassky's result was good, if hardly exciting, while Karpov's annoyance at failing to take first prize was compounded by the news that he has been ousted from the annual jour- nalists' Oscar by Kasparov.

Linares Tournament, February 1983

1 Spassky 2 Karpov 3 Anderson 4 Sax 5 Miles 6 Jusupov 7 Hont 8 Geller 9 Timman 10 Seirawan 11 Larsen

Here is Spassky's best game, with some notes based on the players' post-mortem.

Timman — Spassky: Linares, February 1983; Ruy Lopez (Spanish). 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Tll

1/2 1/2 1/2

O 1/2 1/2 O ½ 0 O 0 0

1/2 1/2 1/2

0 I 1/2 I ½0 0 0 0 0 0 1

61/2 6 6 51/2 51/2 51/2 5 5 5 3 2 1 e4 e5 2 N13 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 d6 The Steinitz Defence Deferred. Popular White replies are 5 c4, 5 c3 and 5 0-0, Timman chose something more direct. 5 Bxc6 + bxc6 6 d4 exd4 Unusual. Normally, Black supports his centre with 6 ... f6, but the text appears to be well playable. 7 Qxd4 c5 8 Qd3 g6 9 Nc3 Inaccurate. White should prefer 9 Bg5, provoking ... f6 to block

the diagonal of Black's KB. 9 ... Bg7 10 B14 Ne7 11 0-0-0? A horrible move, castling into Black's prospective attack from the B on g7 and QR soon to be operating from b8. Best is 11 Qd2 0-0 12 Bh6, eliminating Black's KB. 11 ... 0-0 12 Qd2 Re8.! 13 Bh6 Bh8 White's hesitation has allowed Black to preserve his valuable KB. 14 h4 Rb8 15 a3? From now on, Timman's play is inex- plicably passive. He should prosecute his own at- tack with h5 as quickly as possible, but he never

resolves on this essential measure. 15 Be6 16 Ng5 Qc8 17 Nxe6 Qxe6 18 Kbl Rb7 19 Kal Reb8 20 Rbl Nc6 21 f4 Bd4 22 Qd3 a5 23 Qh3 f5 24 Rhel Or 24 exf5 gxf5 25 Qgl + Kf7 26 Bg5 (or 26 Qg5) 26 ... NM! 27 Rhcl Bxc3 28 bxc3 Nxc2 + 29 Rxc2 Rxbl mate. If 27 axb4 axb4 is similar to the game. 24 ... Nb4! A neat piece sacrifice which forces a rapid decision. 25 axb4 axb4 26 Na4 Or 26 Na2 Ra7 27 Qb3 Qxb3 28 cxb3

Rxa2 + 29 Kxa2 Ra8 mate. 26 Ra7 27 Qb3 c4 28 Qa2 Rba8 29 -exf5 Rxa4! White resigns. An energetic display by Spassky, but Timman's play was unrecognisably planless.

The first game in the Kasparov — Beliavsky Candidates' match, currently in progress in Moscow, was drawn in 64 moves. Kasparov has now won the second on time on the 38th move. This is widely regarded as the most interesting of the four elimination matches, and I will keep readers abreast of developments over the next few week.