CHESS

Home fires

Raymond Keene

English Grandmasters have not abated their activity over the festive season and no one is to be observed resting on laurels after the silver medals at Dubai. As David Spanier related last week, Speelman won the Kleinwort Grieveson British Cham- Pionship after a fierce triangular play-off. The initial tie-break was inconclusive, but Speelman scored 11/2/2 against Chandler in the quick-play deciders. So Grandmaster Jon Speelman of Hampstead and the King's Head Club retains the title he won in 1985.

Meanwhile in Brussels, Nigel Short and John Nunn competed in the strongest tournament since the Elo system of rating was introduced. This was the OHRA event ta Brussels, which averaged out at 2636. For comparison, according to Bob Wade who knows about such things, the closest contenders are: Johannesburg 1981 (aver- age 2629); Bugojno 1986 (2627) and Mon- treal 1979 (2622). Before Elo, and again according to Wade, the top tournaments would have been: 1948 World Championship tourna- ment (2660); AVRO 1938 (2645); St Petersburg Final 1914 and St Petersburg 1896 (both 2620) and USSR Absolute Championship 1941 (2610). But where (Ices that leave such super-events as New York 1927, New York 1924 and the Piati- gorsky Cups of 1963 and 1966? Which were the ten top tournaments of all time will be a fruitful topic for a future series. In any case, Kasparov won OHRA (hit first all-play-all tournament since 1983) in crushing style and by a colossal margin, while Nigel can be justly proud of his victory against the champion.

Brussels, OHRA, December 1986

1 2 3 4 5 6 Total 1 Kasparov 2740 XX 1/21/2 11 11 01 1% 71/2 2 Korchnoi 2650 1/21/2 XX 1/21/2 10 1/21 01 51/2 3 Nunn 2590

00 1/21/2 XX

01/2 11 1/21 5 4 Hubner 2620 00 01 11/2 XX 01 1/21 5 5 Short 2615 10 1/20 00 10 XX 1/21 .4 6 Portisch 2605 0Y2 10 1/20

1/20 1/20 XX 3 Of the thirty games, twenty were decisive, an incredible quantity for such a top-level clash.

Hastings, our only annual Grandmaster event, is currently in progress at the Queen's Hotel. Fresh sponsorship from Foreign and Colonial has considerably lifted the quality of the tournament and this year no fewer then eleven of the fourteen players are Grandmasters. The English contingent is led by Speelman, Chandler and Mestel; foreign hopes rest mainly on Bent Larsen and the women's world champion, Maia Chiburdanidze.

Short-Kasparov: OHRA, Brussels 1986; Sicilian Defence.

1 e4 c5 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Be3 e6 7 Qd2 b5 8 13 Nbd7 9 g4 h6 10 0-0-0 Bb7 11 Bd3 Ne5 12 Rhel Rc8 13 Kbl Be7 14 h4 b4 15 Na4 Qa5 16 b3 Nfd7 17 g5 g6 18 f4 Nxd3 19 cxd3 hxg5 20 hxg5 d5 21 15 e5 22 exd5 Qxd5 23 f6 Bd6 24 Nc2 a5 25 Ba7 Kf8 26 Ne3 Qe6 27 Nc4 Kg8 28 Nxd6 Qxd6 29 Nb2 Rc3 30 Nc4 Qd5 31 Ne3 Qe6 32 Rd l Qa6 33 Rxe3 bxc3 34 Qxc3 Qxa7 35 Qc7 Qd4 36 Qxb7 Qxd3+ 37 Nc2 Rh2 38 Qc8+ Nf8? He must play 38. . . Kh7! 39 Rxe5 Rhl + 40 Kb2 Qd2 41 Re8 Qd6 42 Rd8 Qe5+ 43 Ka3 Kh7 44 Rxf8 Qd6+ 45 b4 Black resigns.

Short-Nunn: OHRA, Brussels 1986; Ruy Lopez.

1 e4 e5 2 N13 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Rd l b5 7 Bb3 0-0 8 c3 d5 9 exd5 Nxd5 10 Nxe5 Nxe5 11 Rxe5 c6 12 d4 Bd6 13 Re2 Qh4 14 g3 Qh5 15 Nd2 Bh3 16 13 Bc7 17 a4 b4 18 c4 Nf6 19 Ne4 Qg6 20 Nf2 Bf5 21 Bc2 Rfe8 22 Bxf5 Qxf5 23 Rxe8+ Rxe8 24 Kg2 Rd8 25 Be3 Bb6 26 Qb3 Bxd4 27 Rdl c5 28 Bxd4 cxd4 29 Qxb4 Qd7 30 Qb6 h5 31 Qxa6 31 h4! is safe. 31 . . . Rb8 32 Rd2 h4 33 Qa5 Rb3 34 Qc5 Qb7 35 Rd3 35 Qf5! still wins. 35 . . . h3+ 36 Kxh3 Rxd3 37 Nxd3

Short-Nunn: Final position

Qx13 38 Qxd4 Qfl+ 39 Kh4 Qf5 White resigns on account of 40 g4 g5+ 41 Kg3 Ne4+. A tragedy for Nigel who should have won.