14 APRIL 1979, Page 33

Chess

Lone Pioneer

David Levy

One feels mildly tempted to sympathise with the way that life has treated Korchnoi since his defection in the summer of 1976, but on reflection I think that he has generally got what he deserved. Apart from brief sojourns Korchnoi spent his first eleven months in the West living in Holland, a country where chess players thrive. After various disagreements he moved on to West Germany where he had been given a chess job by a millionaire, but after eight months his German connection broke and Korchnoi found himself barred from the flat where he had been living. (I use the word barred in the literal sense — his millionaire had instructed the police to lock the place up and affix a warning notice to the door.) Korchnoi's next stop was Switzerland. the home of his companion Petra Leeuwerik, about whom , Ray Keene has written so much in these pages during the past months. The Swiss Chess Federation were naturally delighted at their new acquisition and even agreed to pay for a lawyer representing Korchnoi to travel to Buenos Aires for the FIDE meeting last November, but later they issued a statement which effectively, disassociated themselves from his future legal actions. He has not yet left Switzerland but in February he went on Israeli television and announced that he intended to settle in Israel in the hope that it would simplify the task of extricating his wife and son from Soviet clutches. Two days later, however, he was reported as saying his TV statement was untrue and he would not be moving to Israel.

Spectator readers will be only too well aware of the tensions surrounding Korchnoi as a result of the match in Baguio. Less well known are the repercussions which he is now having to face. He was invited to the Grandmaster tournament at Banjaluka in Yugoslavia, but after Soviet pressure was brought to bear on the tournament organisers he was sent a letter saying that they already had enough strong players and would no longer require his services. Under normal circumstances he would have been one of those invited to the World Chess Cup which began in Montreal last Monday (and which we shall be reporting for the next few weeks). but Karpov made it clear to the organisers that they either invite the World Champion or his vanquished opponent, but not both. There are some touinaments from which Korchnoi cannot be excluded, namely open Swisses, and this year he competed in the greatest open of them all, at Lone Pine in California. First prize was $15,000 but in Lone Pine it is not enough to be the strongest player, one must also play extremely carefully, otherwise one of the 'lesser' players can put a very big dent in that nice prize. This year's Lone Pine attracted 73 players of whom 27 were Grandmasters, a record for an individual event. Korchnoi started off quite well, but at the weekend Petra Leeuwerik arrived and on (he two days that she spent in Lone Pine Korchnoi. . . lost two games (to Liberzon and Lombardy). First place was shared by Gligoric, Hort, Liberzon and Gheorghiu who each won $8,875. They scored 64 out of 9, and half a point behind (winning 'only' $1,009 each) were Grinfeld (Israel), Larsen, Lombardy. Ree (Holland). Sahovic and Sosonko. There was also a multiple tie for 11th place, which is where Korchnoi found himself, thereby winning $62.50, and Tony Miles was even less fortunate in scoring only 5, missing the prize list altogether.

Korchnoi's presence at Lone Pine resulted in the withdrawal of the Soviet contingent. who made it perfectly clear why they were not participating. How long this boycott will continue is anyone's guess, but I think it unlikely to cease until at least a year or two after Korchnoi refrains from his anti-Soviet outbursts (with which I do sympathise).

It is ironic that one of his losses in Lone Pine should have been to Lombardy. Korchnoi had invited ex-father William to be one of his seconds in Baguio, and Lombardy had accepted the idea in principle but it proved impossible for the two of them to agree on a suitable fee. Perhaps Korchnoi viewed the following game as an oppor • tunity to prove that Lombardy had not really been worth what he was asking, in which case we should perhaps conclude that with Lombardy's help the championship match might have gone the other way.

Korchnoi-Lombardy, Lone Pine 1979: Dutch Defence.

1 P-QB4 P-KB4 2 P-Q4 N-KB3 3 N-QB3 P-KN3 4 P-B3 Already we are in uncharted waters. 4. . . P-Q3 5 P-K4 B-N2 6 P-K5?! If this move is best then Korchnoi's entire conception is at fault. 6 . . . PxP 7 PxP QxQch 8 KxQ N-R4 9 P-B4 B-K3 10 N-B3 N-QB3 11 K-B2 0-0-0 Black certainly stands no worse in this position. He has a lead in development and a possible target for attack in White's KB4/K5 pawn complex. 12 B-K3 P-KR3 13 P-QR3 P-KN4 14 P-KN3 B-B2 15 B-K2 P-K3 16 P-QN4 PxP 17 PxP B-B1 18 KR-KN1 B-K2 19 P-Bg P-R3 20 'k-B4 KR-N1 21 N-K2 R-Ng M-P423 RxR 23 RxR R-N1 24 RxRch BxR 25 N3-Q4 N-Q1 At this point it would not be surprising if the game was agreed drawn. Instead Korchnoi tries to win at all costs. 26 P-B6?! Not 26 NxBP?? B-R2, winning a piece. 26 . . . P-N4 27 B-Q3 B-B2 28 NxBP? PxN 29 BxBPch N-K3 30 B-N4 N(4)-N2 31 P-B5 P-KR4! Presumably this defensive idea was overlooked by White when he sacrificed the piece. 32 PxN B-N3ch 33 K-B3 PxB 34 PxP NxP In Grandmaster circles it would be considered polite to resign at this moment, rather than suggest that Lombardy is incapable of winning with an extra piece. Instead Korchnoi drags the game on for another twenty moves. 35 N-B4 NxN 36 BxN B-K5 37 K-Q4 BxBP 38 P-K6 B-B6 39 P-N5 B-N5 40 K-Q5 B-R4 41 K-K4 B-N3ch 42 K-Q5 K-N2 43 K-K5 P-B4 44 PxP K-B3 45 B-Q2 B-R2 46 B-K3 B-Q1 47 B-Q2 B-N3 48 B-K3 P-R4 49 B-Q2 KxP 50 P-K7 BxP 51 K-K6 B-Q3 52 BxP K-B3 53 K-B6 B-K5 54 P-N6 BxRP 55 K-B7 P-N5 White resigns. If 56 P-N7 P-N6, and when the KNP promotes Black plays. . . B-Q4ch.