Chess
Survivors
Jonathan Tisdall
With a plethora of top-class tournaments taking place all over the globe, the recently concluded West European Zonal in Marbella, Spain, is of special interest to English chess. Despite the absence of GMs Speelman and Keene, the qualifier Was a resounding success for the English en- trants, with five players reaching the final from two ten-man preliminaries. With three spbts in the lnterzonals at stake, the final was bitterly contested. After the penultimate round Mestel was clear with 4'/z, followed by Van der Wiel (4) and Nunn, Stean and Rivas, all on 3 1/2. Van der Wiel th.en drew quickly with his compatriot L■gterink while Stean beat Hebden and Rivas succumbed to young Nigel Short. John Nunn's dramatic last round win over JOn Mestel kept his own chances alive but
denied England a new grandmaster Mestel — who fell, unhappily, half a point short of the necessary total. Final standings in Marbella: 1-4 Nunn, Mestel, Stean (all England), Van der Wiel (Netherlands), 41/2; 5-6 Short (England), Rivas (Spain), 3 1/2; 7 Ligterink (Netherlands), 3; 8 Hebden (England), 1/2.
The top four now face a double round robin playoff to determine the three who will continue on the long road to the world cham- pionship. No date (or prize fund!) has yet materialised for the elimination event but it must conclude comfortably before the first Interzonal, due to begin on 28 July in Mexico City. The other two sites awaiting the aspirants are: Las Palmas, starting 15 August, and Moscow, starting 6 September.
Here is an enterprising and elegant game from one of the winners.
Ligterink-Nunn: Marbella 1982, Benoni Defence. 1 d4 N16 2 c4 c5 3 d5 e6 4 Nc3 exd5 5 cxd5 d6 6 Nf3 g6 7 g3 Bg7 8 Bg2 0-0 9 0-0 Nbd7 10 e4 a6 111314 11 a4 would be the usual reaction but here White ig- nores the threatened expansion of the queenside, concentrating on quick action in the centre. 11... Qe7 12 Rel Ng4 13 Bg5 Qe8 14 e5 Consistent but extremely ambitious. Nunn has prepared a sur- prising defence. 14... Nbxe5 15 NxeS Nxe5 16 f4 Ng4!! (Diagram) A brilliant positional Q sacrifice. The Black pieces now run rampant while White is obliged to lash himself to the mast and hope to emerge with his surplus material. 17 Rxe8 Rxe8 18 Net Ne3 19 Qd2 Nc4 20 Qc2 b5 21 g4 Preventing 21... Bf5 is top priority. 21 . . Big4 22 Ng3 h6 23 Bh4 Bxb2 24 Rd Bd4 +! Black
spurns the helpless R in order to pursue the attack.
25 Khl Ne3 26 Qd2 Nxg2 27 Qxg2 Re3 28 Rfl Rae8 29 15? The decisive mistake. 29 h3 to evict the annoying B was mandatory. 29... g5 30 f6 Position after 16. . . Ng4!!
Kb8 31 BxgS hxg5 32 Nf5 BxfS 33 Rxf5 Rel + 34 Rfl 13x f6 35 Qh3 + Kg7 36 Rxel Rae! + 37 Kg2 c4 White resigns. The Q is helpless against the ad- vancing pawns. A sparkling demonstration of dynamic compensation by the top seed who had to overcome a first round defeat at the hands of Rivas to make his way back to the top.
Late news: After 19 rounds of the marathon
26 man GM tournament in Indonesia Walter Browne (USA) leads with 14 points, closely followed by Murray Chandler (NZ) with 13. Chandler is well within range of a result
which would earn him the coveted grand- master title.
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