Chess
Title hopes
Raymond Keene
Torquay
when this article appears the 1982 British Championship will be draw- ing to a close. At the moment, after the first week's play, it appears likely that either Tony Miles or Jon Speelman will capture the title, but in the past the last five rounds have often proved exceedingly fickle, and anything may happen.
Our loyal sponsors, Grieveson Grant, must be delighted that this is the strongest championship to date and, indeed, the very first where Grandmaster norms are possi- ble. Although the target will be extremely difficult to reach, IM norms are quite on the cards, since so many Commonwealth representatives are competing to swell the international stature of the event.
Speelman has produced some startlingly imaginative chess, having sacrificed his Q twice. Here is one example from round 6.
Speelman — Martin: British Championship, August 1982; English Opening (by transposition).
1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 g3 Bg7 4 Bg2 d6 5 0-0 0-0 6 h3 e5 7 Bb2 c5 8 Nc3 Nc6 9 d3 h6 10 e3 B15 11 h3 Qd7 12 Kh2 Rab8 13 Qd2 g5? This seems a gratuitous weakening of his K's defences, 13 ... a6 preparing ... b5 must be better. 14 Radl a6 15 d4!? A remarkable idea leading by force to a speculative offer of his Q. 15 ... exd4 16 exd4 exd4 17 Nxd4 Nxd4 18 Qxd4 Ng4 + Accepting the bait. 19 hxg4 Bxd4 20 Rxd4 Bg6 21 c5 For his Q White has two minor pieces, attacking chances. against the Black K, and the likely win of Black's pawn on d6. 21 ... Rbe8 22 Nd5 f6 23 Ne3 Qb5 Counter-sacrifice with ... Rxe3 would alleviate some of the pressure. 24 cxd6 Qe2 25 Bc3 Qxa2 26 d7 Rd8 27 Rd6 Kh7 28 Nd5 Qa3 29 b4 Qa4 30 Ral Qb5 31 Rdl Qe2 32 Nxf6 + Kh8 33 Rel Qc4 34 Ba 1 Qa2 35 Kg] Qc4 36 B13 Qb3 37 Kg2 Preparing to switch fronts. 37 ... Qc4 38 Ne4 + Kh7 39 Nxg5 + hxg5 40 Rhl + Kg8 41 Rxg6 + 1(17 42 Rg7 + Black resigns. After 42 ... Ke6 43 Rh6 + is deadly.
The critical game between Miles and Speelman in round 8 was drawn, which left the leading positions as follows: Miles 6 1/2; Koften and Speelman 6; Bellin, Hebden, Keene and Strauss 51/2. At the time of writing there are still three rounds to be played.
There is one female participant in the championship„ namely Sheila Jackson, board two in tie English ladies' team and
newly elected President of the BLCA. She has gained a fair amount of publicity 1°1 her campaign to obtain more places for women in the championship by contesting a marathon game with me, which took 12 hours of play, lasting over three days, final' ly concluding on move 105. The Guardian even described this as a symbolic battle to draw attention to women's rights in chess. Here is the position which arose at the end of the fifth session after Sheila had missed a chance to draw on move 90:
White (Sheila Jackson) had just played
QgS + and now resigned. After 105 Kh8 to Qd8 + Kh7 107 Qh4 + Kg6 White has no further checks, while 106 Qh6 + Qh7 allows Black t°/ meet either 107 Qf6 + with 107 ... Qg7 + or lu Ql8 + with ... Qg8 + .
Previous page
