coilx , oiliiill[13

SPAIN'S FINEST MA

CHESS

c 011103 STAIN'S FINEST CAVA

Crystal ball

Raymond Keene THE INTEL/PCA WORLD Chess Cham- pionship quarter-finals got underway this

week in New York, too late, however, for a game to be included in this column. The pairings pit Britain's Nigel Short against Boris Gulko (USA), Kasparov's two-time vanquisher Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) against Gata Kamsky (USA), Viswanathan Anand (India) against Oleg Romanishin (Ukraine) and Michael Adams (UK) against Sergei Tiviakov (Russia).

I cannot believe that either Short or Anand will experience problems with their veteran opponents. Romanishin's qual- ification can most charitably be described as a surprise while Gulko, in spite of his win against Karpov given in this column last week, has been repeatedly beaten by Short in tournament play. I would like to believe that Adams was favourite against Tiviakov, but our grandmaster's recent play has been shaky and his personal score against Tiviakov is wretched. The closest call of all is between Kramnik, an erratic genius and noted bohemian, and Kamsky, iron-willed, ascetic, dour but not overly endowed with imagination. Kamsky's re- cent result at Las Palmas, a career-best, gave Kramnik fair warning that the Amer- ican is grimly determined to follow in the footsteps of Bobby Fischer. Kamsky's win against Adams showed his machine-like efficiency to best effect.

Kamsky — Adams: Las Palmas, 1994; Queen's Pawn Opening.

1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 d6 3 c4 Bg4 4 Nc3 Bxf3 5 gxf3 g6 In this position I believe that 5 . . Nbd7 is correct in order to establish a speedy foothold in the centre by means of . . e5. That way, Black might justify his double-edged opening which cedes the bishop pair and a huge pawn centre to White, in return for smashing White's kingside

pawn structure. 6 Qb3 Qc8 7 Bh3 (Diagram) A neat tactic for if 7 , . Qxh3 8 Qxb7 wins Black's rook. 7 . . Nfd7 More natural is 7 . . Nbd7. 8 e4 Bg7 9 Be3 0-0 10 f4 c5 Black's position is already suspect and with this move Adams plans transposition into an endgame which he can only hope to draw. 11 dxc5 NxcS 12 Bxc8 Nxb3 13 Bxb7 Bxc3+ 14 bxc3 Nxal 15 Kd2 Nd7 16 Bxa8 Rxa8 17 Rxal Nc5 18 e5 White is a pawn ahead but with his own pawns smashed this is not the decisive factor. The real point is that White's bishop is more active than Black's knight. Here Black should consider the immediate 18 . . . Rb8 to contest the open 13' file. As played White soon has all the trumps at his disposal. 18 . . . Ne6 19 exd6 exd6 20 Rbl Rc8 21 Bxa7 Rxc4 22 Rb4 Rc6 23 a4 Ra6 24 Bb6 Nxf4 Adams relies on counter-attack hoping for 25 Rxf4 Rxb6 but by this stage White's passed 'a' pawn is already a force in the land. 25 a5 Nd5 26 Kd3 (Diagram) No respite is given. It transpires that White does not even need to move his attacked rook. The advance of White's king underscores the help- lessness of Black's situation. 26 . . . Kf8 27 Ke4 Nxb4 28 cxb4 Ke7 29 Kb5 Ra8 30 a6 Kd7 31 a7 Black resigns Impressive accuracy from Kamsky but somehow I doubt whether it will be suffi- cient to subdue Kramnik's turbulent ingenuity.

a bcde f gh Position after 26 Kd3

In the battle of training against talent I suspect that talent will win.

Short's overall lifetime score against Gulko consists of 5 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw. Here is a sample of what might happen to Gulko if Nigel hits forth.

Short — Gulko: Linares, 1990; Ruy Lopez.

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 4 d3 d6 5 c3 Bd7 6 Nbd2 g6 7 Nfl 11g7 8 Bg5 h6 9 Bh4 Na5 10 Ba4 Bxa4 11 Qxa4+ Nc6 12 Nei Qd7 13 0-0 0-0 14 Khl Nd8 15 Qc2 Ng4 16 h3 Nxe3 17 fxe3 Nc6 18 d4 exd4 19 exd4 f5 20 Rael Rae8 21 exf5 Rxf5 22 Bg3 Qf7 23 Qc2 Bf6 24 Qe4 d5 25 Qd3 c6 26 Be5 Nf4 27 Qd2 Nxh3 28 g4 Bg5 29 Qg2 Nf4 30 Qh2 Rf6 31 NxgS hxg5 32 Bxf6 Black resigns.

Las Palmas, 20-31 May, 1994

In the first round Short and Anand drew their games while Adams and Kamsky both won. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

*1/2 1/2 1' 1 1 1/2 1/2 1 1/2 * 1/2 0 1 1 1/2 1/2 1 1 1/2 1/2 * 1/2 1 '/2 1/2 1 1/2 0 1 1/2 * 0 1 1 0 1 1 1/2 0 0 1 * 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1/2 0 1 * 1/2 1 01 0 /1 0 1 1/2 * 1/2 0 1 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 0 0 1/2 * /1 1/2 0 0 0 0 1 1 1/2 * 3/2 0 01 0 0 0 01h 1/2 *

1 Kamsky 2 Karpov 3 Topalov 4 Lautier 5 Polgar 6 Adams 7 Morovic 8 Illescas 9 Shirov 10 Epishin 61/2 6 51/2

51/2

41/2 4 4 4 31/2

11/2