Tal triumphs

David Levy

After his magnificent result in Montreal earlier in the year, it comes as no surprise that Mikhail Tal has scored an outstanding victory in the Riga Interzonal which ended on Sunday. Winning an event ol this calibre by a margin of 2i points is reminiscent of Bobby Fischer's successes at the Interzonal tournaments of 1962 (Stockholm) and 1970 (Palma de Mallorca), but what makes Tal's performance all the more remarkable is the fact thal this month he celebrates the 20th anniversary of his first qualification for a world championship match it was in October 1959 that Tal won the Candidates' tournament in Yugoslavia as a prelude to his successful, though brief, reign as world champion. Looking at the cross table it is clear that the tournament presented no real surprises. Tal is certainly the best player and he proved it. Equally sure is Polugayevsky's status as the second strongest, and I would have expected him to score even more than 11i against this opposition. Of the twelve Grandmasters in the tournament only Ljubojevic finished out of the top 12 places and of the IMs only Grunfield, the young Israeli, appears to have the potential to reach the higher title. The tie for third place between the two young Hungarians is only mildly surprising. This is undoubtedly Adorjan's best result to date, and extremely impressive when one considers that he was ill during part of the tournament. Ribli is a stronger player than his compatriot and I would expect him to prove this when they meet for a play-off, but neither of them is particularly likely to pass the first round of the Candidates' matches. • The event could have been stronger: Hon t and Kavalek both qualified for this Interzonal, but for Hort there is no attraction in playing in a qualifying competition when he. knows that if he goes on to the next stage he will still not reach Karpov — indeed who, apart from Fischer and Korchnoi, would wish to play Karpov in 1981? Kavalek's absence is explained by an injured leg (playing tennis at his training camp), and poor Mednis was substituted at rather short notice, though being of Latvian origin he probably enjoyed his surroundings more than most of the contestants.

It is of course a great disappointment to all of us in Britain that Tony Miles did not qualify, and he clearly put a great deal of effort into his attempts to do so. After winning his first two games he dropped back to the middle of the field, but a rally during the second half of the tournament put him within striking distance of the leaders. Unfortunately he dropped too many points to the stronger Players, but although he failed to reach his goal Tony's final score was by no means a bad result. After all, with 12 competent Grandmasters in the field, nine of them must be losers.

Without having been in Riga to watch him play, it is very difficult for me to say Why Tony did not do better. We all know that on his day he is capable of finishing at the top of a strong Grandmaster tournament, and he has proved this often enough in the past. My only suggestion is that he has been playing too much chess in recent months. He competed in South Africa in May, then straight on to Buenos Aires, and only a short while after returning from South America he was in the British Championship. In contrast it is very noticeable that most of the strongest Grandmasters who played in Riga, or who are playing in the other Interzonal in Rio, have spent much of the past few months out of the tournament circuit, training in other ways. Next time Tony plays in the Interzonal I Would strongly urge him to consider doing the same — perhaps a short training, match to finish two or three weeks before the first round, but no other competition during the preceding three or four months.

That Tony played with great determination throughout, can be seen from his game with Kuzmin, played in round five. At that point Tony had 2 out of 4, and with an excellent score against Russian Grandmasters he could have hoped for more from this game.

Miles-Kuzmin, Nimzo-Indian Defence.

1 P-Q4 N-KB3 2 P-QB4 P-K3 3 N-QB3 B-N5 4 P-K3 P-QN3 5 P-B3 Unusual, but typical Miles — spoiling for a fight. 5 . . . N-R4 6 N-R3 To meet the threat of 6 ... Q-R5ch with 7 P-N3. 6 . . . P-K84 7 P-K4 0-0 8 B-N5 Q-Kl 9 PxP P-KR3 10 B-Q2 N-QB3 11 N-QN5 PxP dis ch 12 B-K2 Q-Ql 13 BxB NxB 14 Q-Q2 P-QR4 15 P-QR3 N-QB3 16 0-0-0 With a slight lead in development Tony hopes to be able to launch

a K-side attack. 16 P-R5 17 K-Ni N-R4 18

Q-B2 N-QN6 19 P-N4 PxP 20 PxP P-Q3! Simple and strong. The pressure along this diagonal is a little awkward for White. 21 Q-N6 N-B3 22 B-B3 P-Q4 23 PxP B-Q2 24 N-B3 Q-K1 If White exchanges queens the cumbersome arrangement of his K-side will very soon cost him the game, and his extra pawn would be of little value. 25 Q-Q3 NxNP 26 B-K4 R-Q1 27. Q-N3 Q-K2 28 QxP R-B1 29 P-Q6! Q-K1 Not 29... RxQ 30 PxQ R-B2 31 N-05. 30 KR-K1 K-Rl If 30 ... RxQ 31 B-Q5ch K-R1 32 RxQ RxR 33 PxR. 31 B-B2 N-K6 32 RxN QxR 33 QxB RxN 34 PxR QxBP 35 11-05 Q-R8ch 36 K-B2 NxPch 37 RxN QxR 38 Q-K6?? A horrible blunder in time trouble. 38 B-Q3 looks safe. 38 . . . Q-B4ch 39 K-Q3 RxB 40 K-K4 Q-QB7ch 41 K-Q4 Q-Q8ch White resigned.

I should not end this report without a big vote of thanks to the Brazilian player Trois, who has saved the chess world from something horrible.

Riga Interzonal Final Table

123456789012345678Pts 1 Tal X1111111111111111114 2 Polugayevsky 0)(1111110111111111111 3 Ribli 11X11001111111111111 4 Adorjan 111X0011111111111111 Gheorghiu 0101X1111111111101101 6 Romanishin 00111X111011111111101 7 Larsen 101010X1101141111110 8 Miles 0000110X10111111119 9 Tseshkovsky 01101110X1011111119 10Kuzmin 001101111X111111019 11 Tarjan 0111101111)(01010118

12 Grunfeld 1110110 01111X00111171

13 Ljubojevic 010001101101X1111061 14 van Riemsdyk 1 110000001110X111051

13 Mednis 01100100010011X1 1151 13 Mednis 01100100010011X1 1151

16 Bouaziz 100 10 100001 0 11 OX1151

17 Trois 0000101001110110)(15 18 Rodriguez 00010100100011001X4