CHESS
Pot pourri
Raymond Keene
Mikhail Tal, the former world cham- pion, had to withdraw from the Barcelona World Cup through ill health. At the subsequent Moscow Grandmaster Associa- tion meeting he was very weak after a variety of operations. Indeed, I doubted 1 whether he would be able to compete again at the top level, so frail did he seem. Fortunately, Tal confounded pessimistic predictions by emerging to play in a speed chess event, soon afterwards, in Oslo, where he displayed the brilliant form of his best years.
Tal — Beliaysky: Chess for Armenia, Oslo, 7-10 June; Sicilian Defence.
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nc6 5 Nc3 Nf6 6 Be3 e5 7 Nf3 Be7 8 Bc4 0-0 9 0-0 Be6 10 Bb3 Nay 11 Qe2 Qc8 12 Rfdl Nc4 13 Bc1 h6 Black appears to have emerged from the opening with good prospects. In particular, White's decision on move 12 to place his king's rook (rather than the queen's rook) on dl, appears strange. Nevertheless, Tal now proceeds to conjure up arcane attacking prospects. 14 Nh4 Qc5 15 Qf3 Had anyone but Tal played this it would have seemed to be a blunder. 15 . . . Bg4 16 Qg3 Bxdl threat against e7 and g7 17 Nf5 The double th recoups some material. 17 . . . Bg4 18 Nxe7+ Kh7 19 Qh4 Nb6 20 Bxh6 gxh6 21 Qxf6 Nd7 22 Qh4 Be6 23 NcdS Rae8 24 Rdl Qa5 25 Nf6+ Nxf6 26 Qxf6 d5 If 26 . . . Bxb3 27 Nf5 wins, but the text is also desperate. 27 exd5 Black resigns.
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After 27 . . Bd7 28 c3 introduces the deadly possibility of Bc2+. Final scores in the tourna- ment were: Beliaysky 4 points out of 6; Tal 31/2; Smyslov 21/2 and Agdestein 2. £15,000 was raised towards helping victims of the Armenian earthquake.
Here is the concluding phase of Karpov's loss to Ljubojevic in the Rotterdam leg of the World Cup. We join the game just as Karpov begins to mishandle a promising attack.
Karpov — Ljubojevic: Rotterdam World Cup.
27 Bh5 Rg8 28 Bg6 Nf8 29 Qh5 Rd7 30 Rd3 Qe8 31 Bd2 Nxg6 32 Nxg6+ Kh7 33 Rdg3 Rxd4 34 Qe2 Bxg6 35 Rxg6 Qxg6 36 Rxg6 Kxg6 37 Be3 Rxh4 38 f4 Re8 39 Q13 Nd5 40 Bxa7 Rxf4 41 Qd3 BxeS 42 Net Re4 43 Kf2 Rg8 44 Qc2 Kh7 45 Kf3 Rh4 46 Bgl Rh3+ 47 Kfl Bh2 48 Qc5 Bxg1 + 49 Nxgl Rh2+ 50 Kf3 e5 White resigns.
Kasparov has been active while his rivals were competing in the Rotterdam World Cup. Last month he challenged the French national team to a simultaneous display, beating them 41/2 to 11/2. A spectacular win from this exhibition against a Grandmaster opponent: Kouatly — Kasparov: Simultaneous Display, Evry, France, June 1989; King's Indian Defence.
1 d4 g6 2 c4 Bg7 3 Nc3 d6 41%113 Nf6 5 e4 0-0 6 Be2 e5 7 d5 a5 8 h4 Kouatly's speciality, though a rare choice in the Petrosian Variation. 8 . . Na6 9 Nd2 Nc5 10 g4 a4 11 h5 gxh5 12 g5 Ng4 13 Nfl f5 14 f3 Nf2!! White's whole play has been based on trapping this knight. Now it appears that Black can sacrifice the knight (on an empty square) for a terrible attack. The attacking scheme recalls to mind a game Kasparov won as Black in a King's Indian at Bugojno in 1982. 15 Kxf2 fxe4 16 Kg2 a3 17 RxhS exf3+ 18 Bxt3 e4 19 Be2Bf5 20 Qd2 Bg6 21 Rh3 Qd7 22 Rg3 If 22 Rbl e3 23 Qxe3 Bxbl 24 Nxbl axb2 25 Bd2 Qf5 26 Bd3 Nxd3 27 Qxd3 CC+ 28 Khl Qxfl+. 22 . . . Q17 23 Qel Rae8 24 Be3 Nd3 25 Qd2 axb2 26 Rbl Be5 27 Rg4 Nf4+ 28 Bxf4 e329 Bxe3 Bxc3 30 Qxc3 Bxbl 31 Rf4 Or 31 Qxb2 Rxe3 32 Nxe3 Q12+ 33 Khl Be4+. 31 . . . Rxe3 White resigns.
Last week I mentioned Judit Polgar's debacle in Spain. This was her most remarkable defeat from the tournament in Salamanca: J. Polgar — M. Gomez: Salamanca, May 1989; Sicilian Defence.
1 e4 c5 2 N13 d6 3 Bb5+ Bd7 4 Bxd7+ Qxd7 5 0-0 Nc6 6 c3 d5 7 exd5 QxdS 8 d4 e6 9 Be3 cxd4 10 cxd4 Nf6 11 Nc3 Qa5 12 Ne5 Be7 13 Qf3 Rc8 14 Qg3 0-0 15 Rfel Rfd8 16 Radl NxeS 17 dxe5 Nd5 18 Bh6 Bf8 19 Ne4 Ne7 20 Nd6 Nf5 21 NxfS exf5 22 h4 Qxa2 23 Rxd8Rxd8 24 h5 Qa4 25 f3 Rdl In this position White appears to have a devastat- ing combination available. In fact, White is now falling into a devilish trap. 26 Bxg7?? Rxel+ 27 Kh2 Bxg7 28 h6 Black's next move dispels the dream of checkmate. 28 . . . Qf4!! White res- igns. After 29 Qxf4 BxeS leaves Black a rook ahead and, of course, Black's 28th move pins White's queen, thus preventing Qxg7 mate.
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