CHESS
Quick spirit
Raymond Keene
Aplayer to watch is Tony Kosten. I first became aware of him when he shared third place with me in the 1982 British Championship behind Tony Miles and Jon Speelman. I remember I was most impress- ed, not so much by Kosten's score, as by the very fierce resistance he put up to Miles in a game where Kosten (who was relative- ly unknown to me) had the disadvantage of the Black pieces.
Now Kosten has won the Foreign and Colonial Hastings Challengers, he has a Grandmaster norm to his credit and a number of outstanding results in interna- tional Swiss system tournaments. He will be playing in the next Hastings Premier and is also a strong candidate for the English Olympic team to compete in Greece later this year.
The notes to this week's game are based on those by the loser in Chess magazine. Chess has a new editor in Paul Lamford who has produced three truly excellent issues for January to March of this year. It costs £17.50 per annum and can be ordered from Chess, Sutton Coldfield, B73 6AZ.
Plaskett = Kosten: Foreign and Colonial Hastings Challengers 198$: Torre Attack.
1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 e6 3 Bg5 h6 4 Bxf6 Qxf6 5 c3 g6 6 Nbd2 Bg7 7 e4 d6 8 Bd3 Nd7 9 a4 0-0 10 a5 c6 11 0-0 Qe7 12 Nc4 If allowed White will follow this up with e5. 12 . . . e5 13 Bc2 exd4 14 exd4 Nf6 15 Rel Be6 16 Nei Qc7 17 b4 RadS 18 Nh4! Kosten said afterwards he had completely missed this move and its idea of f4-f5. He now began to take a pessimistic view of his chances. 18 . . . d5 19 e5 NM 20 13 Qe7 21 g3 Ng5 22 Qd2 (Diagram) 22
• . . f6! Whatever its objective merits, the impact of this move upon White was devastating for he had not considered it, devoting his attentions to the ponderous break with . . . c5, e.g. 22 . . . b6 23 axb6 axb6 24 Khl c5 25 bxc5 bxc5 26 f4 Ne4 27 Bxe4 dxe4 28 d5 with advantage. 23 f4 fxe5 24 fxg5 24 fxe5!? Nh3+ 25 Khl might be an idea. 24 . . . QxgS 25 Nxg6 exd4 26 Qd3 26 Nxf8 would have been a better practical try: 26 . . . dxe3 27 Qd3 Kxf8! Now White should play 28 Rxe3! Bxal 29 Rxe6 with nebulous threats to the Black king, plus the specific one of 30 Qfl+. 29 . . . Bf6 seems more or less forced, and despite his minus pawn White could hardly be worse after 30 a6 or 30 h4. 26 . . . dxe3 27 Nh4 R12! A simple and clear refutation. Kosten sets his sights on White's most powerful piece, the c2 bishop, and single- mindedly goes after it. 28 Rxe3 Rxc2 29 Rxe6 Rd2 30 Qg6 Black now refused to be distracted by his opponent's time trouble and wrapped matters up. 30 . . . RBI 31 a6 Qxg6 32 Rxg6 bxa6 33 Rxa6 Kh8 34 Rxg7 Kxg7 35 Rxc6 d4 36 g4 d3 37 Rd6 Rc8 38 Nf5+ Ki7 White lost on time with two moves still to play.
Position after 22 Qd2 I am told by Jon Speelman, one of England's two quarter-finalists (the other, of course, being Nigel Short) that Fide has conceded the possibility of holding the quarter-finals in separate venues and at separate times. Accordingly, the chance of the Speelman v Short quarter-final taking place in England has appreciably risen, and the likely time will be August. In the past weeks there have been some encouraging title successes for English players. Daniel King and Jonathan Levitt have both achieved a norm towards their Grandmaster titles, while Andrew Whiteley, leading light of the King's Head Club and a veteran of the English Olympic team, has justifiably gained his Interna- tional Master title. Well done all round. More of this later.
The answers to the IQ questions Kaspar- ov failed are: 84 81 88 14 12 18 9 16 11 7 9 40 74 1526 5436 3) If DGJ + JAE + BHF = DDAB and Fx C _ GA, what is A ?GJ Answer: G or 2 I have been asked how much time Kasparov was given for the IQ test. In fact, he had 30 minutes to answer 40 such questions and he scored 29 correct. One reader contacted me to say he solved all three but took 30 minutes just to answer the third and most difficult question. I would be interested to hear from any other readers who correctly answered all three.
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