CHESS
Prodigious
Raymond Keene
The Watson Farley and Williams Tournament, which I have already pre- viewed in this column, appears to have identified another British prodigy. When established national player William Wat- son dropped out at almost the last minute I decided to invite a promising 14-year-old Kent schoolboy as a replacement. Matthew Sadler, the second lowest rated partici- pant, seemed to have little chance against a powerful field, but in fact ended up equal second, scoring more than enough points to register an International Master norm. This places him on a similar age/success schedule not only to Nigel Short, but more importantly, to Bobby Fischer.
Matthew's face has been appearing prominently in the media for the past week — no one, it seems, can resist a young genius. I am also delighted to report that a sponsor has come forward to offer Matthew £20,000 of support in his en- deavour to become a true champion of the game, rather than just a brilliant junior. More of this in a later article.
The Watson Farley Williams Challenge was expressly designed to give young Brit- ish players the opportunity to compete for international norms in an all-play-all event. World Chess Federation regulations re- quire that at least one round-robin result be achieved before a title can be granted. Unfortunately, they are rare on the British scene where the far less satisfactory Swiss system tournament tends to be the fashion. The Swiss is a refined version of the knock-out. The difference is, that the losers in each round are not eliminated from the event, they merely drop down to play other losers. Conversely, winners rise to play each other. I am told by those who know that the Swiss system is similar to the method of competition used in Japanese Sumo wrestling since the Middle Ages. Perhaps, then, it should be renamed the Japanese system, but its obvious disadvan- tage is that eventual prize winners can completely miss playing against each other in the course of the tournament and therefore the style of play which is most highly rewarded demands an ability to crush lesser lights. While this encourages fighting spirit, which British internationals used to lack, it hampers sophistication, a quality which is now essential if they wish to prosper at the highest level. It is no accident that players of the stature of Karpov and Kasparov hardly ever venture into Swisses, while Western rivals, such as Tony Miles or Walter Browne, often had little alternative if they wanted to. earn their daily crust.
The final results of the tournament were: Paul Motwani (Scotland) 7 points out of 11 possible; in shared second place with 61/2 points each, Matthew Sadler, Jonathan Levitt and Keith Arkell; on 6 points John Fedorowicz (USA), Julian Hodgson and Daniel King; on 51/2 points David Nor- wood; on 5 points Heikki Westerinen (Finland); on 4 points Larry Evans (USA) and Mark Hebden; and on 3 points Susan Arkell. (All players England unless other- wise stated.) The tournament was a great success for the young Scotsman Motwani, and it is conceivable that this was the best-ever performance by a Scottish player in an international tournament. This week, two games from the WFW Challenge.
David Norwood — Daniel King: Catalan Opening. • , 1 g3 d5 2 Nf3 c6 3 Bg2 Bg4 4 0-0 Nd7 5 d4 e6 0 Nbd2 f5 .A really dubious move. Black is seeking to establish a bind in the centre but the fact that his queen's bishop is already outside the light - squared pawn chain means that Black soon experiences terrible problems with weaknesses in the `e' file. It does, nevertheless, require imaginative play on Norwood's part to exploit this mistake. 131ack should, of course, have played the simple 6 . . . Ngf6. 7 c4 Bd6 8 Qb3 Rb8 If 8 .. Qb6 then 9 Qe3 is annoying, fastening onto the exposed e6 pawn. 9 cxd5 exd5 If 9 . . . cxd5 10 0e3 Qe7 11 Ng5 Nf8 12 f3 bh5 13 Nh3 with initiative for White. 10 Qd3 Q1‘6 11 e4! A brilliant coup and, ironically, the verY move Black had been expending so much effort to prevent. If now 11 . . . fxe4 12 Nxe4 cbce4 13 Qxe4+ Qe6 14 Re 1 or 13. . . Be6 14 Re 1 .Nf8 15 Bg5 017 16 Ne5 with a winning attack. 11 . • • Bxf3 12 e5 An important zwischenzug. 12 . • • Qe6 13 Nxf3 Be7 14 b4 White's position now plays itself. White has a powerful passed pawn in the centre and Black's king's side is virtually incapable of being developed. White only has t9 force open lines on the queen's wing and he will win automatically. 14 . . . h5 15 h4 g6 16 b5 MI6 17 bxc6 bxc6 18 Bg5 N1b6 19 Qa6 Qd7 20 Rae!, Nc4 21 Rbl Rb6 22 Rxb6 Nxb6 23 e6 Qc7 24 Ih" Qd8 25 Qxa7 Ng4 26 Bc7 Black resigns. Paul Motwani — Matthew Sadler: Sicilian Defence. 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Be3 e5 7 NO h6 8 Bc4 Be7 9 Qe2 0-0 10 0-0 Ne6 11 Nh4 More active is 11 Nd5. 11 . . . b5 12 BO Ne5 13 Nf5 Bxf5 14 exf5 Nxb3+ 15 axb3 d5 /6 Kbl Too slow. Better would have been 16 f4 exf4 17 Bxf4 b4 18 Na4. 16. . . d4 17 f4 Qa5 Na2? This move loses. Instead, 18 fxe5 dxe3 lY exf6 Bxf6 20 Bd4 or 19. . . cxb2 20 Kxb2 Bxf6+ 21 Bd4 would maintain approximate equality. 18 . . . dxe3 19 fxe5 Nh7 20 f6 White tries to confuse the issue but his young opponent keeps his nerve. 20. . . gxf6 21 Qxe3 fxe5 22 Rd7 IIg 23 Qg3 Nf6 24 h4 Ne4 25 Qxe5 Rae8 26 Qd5 27 Qdl Nxd7 28 hxg5 Ne5 29 Nc3 Qd8 30 Qui Qxg5 31 Ne4 Qg6 32 Nf6+ Kg7 33 Nxe8+ Rxe8 34 Qf2 Ng4 35 Qd4+ Nf6 36 Rfl Re6 37 1 2 Rel+ 38 Ka2 Re6 39 134 Qg5 40 b3 Qe5 White resigns.
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