Chess

Big stick

Raymond Keene

/There was one day during the Lucerne 1 Fide Congress when Soviet defector Victor Korchnoi looked as if the sky had fallen on his head. That morning, his arch- enemy Florencio Campomanes swept to victory in the presidential election, while the same afternoon the entire Olympiad rose to mark the death of Brezhnev. Rela- tions between Korchnoi and Campomanes broke down totally in the world champion-

ship at Baguio '78, which the latter organis- ed, and Korchnoi must have feared that Campomanes' elevation to the presidency would herald a Fide-Soviet alliance that would gradually squeeze him out of inter- national chess.

That his fears were ungrounded was demonstrated by Campomanes' swift reac- tion to the Soviet boycott of Korchnoi at

this year's Hoogovens tournament at Wijk

aan Zee in January. The official text follows and I must say that Fridrik Olafsson never reacted in quite so decisive a fashion to counter boycotting during his four years in office: 'The 1983 Hoogovens Grandmaster Tournament is a Fide registered event with Category 14 classification. It certainly falls under the description of a Top-level Tour- nament. The withdrawal of the USSR grandmasters by the USSR Chess Federa- tion as stated in their telex (22 Nov 82) is clearly in contravention of both the letter and the spirit conveyed by the resolutions of the 1979 General Assembly.

To uphold the integrity of Fide statutes and regulations, as•Fide President I hereby severely reprimand the USSR Chess Federa- tion for commission of this contravention.

Here the matter ends.

Fide President Florencio Campomanes.'

Heartened by this gesture of moral sup- port Korchnoi proceeded to an excellent start against Portisch in their Candidates' quarter-final at Bad Kissingen. Here is their first game:

Korchnoi — Portisch: English Opening.

1 c4 Nf6 2 Nc3 e6 3 N13 b6 4 e4 Bb7 5 Qe2 More usual nowadays is 5 Bd3. The text was popular with Korchnoi in 1974. 5 . . Bb4 6 e5 Ng8 7 g3 A new move. Korchnoi used to play 7 d4 in his old games with Karpov, but made very little progress after 7 ... Ne7. 7 ... Nc6 8 Bg2 Nd4 9 Qd3 White's set-up looks rickety, but Portisch finds no way to exploit his opponent's artificial play. 9 Bxf3 10 8x13 Nxf3 + 11 Qx13 Ne7 120-0 Nc6 13 Qe4 0-0 Perhaps 13 . Bxc3!? 14 Ne2 15 15 exf6 ep Qxf6 16 d4 e5 An impatient move which weakens his pawn structure. 16 ... Qf5 looks safer. 17 d5 Nd4 18 Nxd4 exd4 19 814 Rae8 20 Qd3 Qg6 Another panicky move which saddles him with a most fragile ending. 21 Qxg6 hxg6 22 a3 If 22 Bxci Re21 gives counterptay. 22 Bd6 23 Bxd6 cxd6 24 Rfel Rxel + 25 Rxel Rc8 26 b3

Position after 26 b3.

(Diagram) B ack's pawns are horribly weak and his subsequent bids for counterplay never suc- ceed in counterbalancing this permanent defect. 26 ... b5 27 exb5 Rc3 28 Kfl d3 29 a4 Kf7 30 Rai Rxb3 31 Kel Rb2 32 Ra3 d2 + 33 Ke2 K16 34 R13 + Ke7 35 h4 Ra2 36 RN Ke8 37 Rc4 Ke7 38 Re4+ K17 39 Kdl Kf6 40 Ke2 Kr 41 Rf4 Ke8 42 Kd 1 Ke7 43 Rc4 K16 44 Rc7 8x34 45 Rxd7 Rb4 46 Rxd6 + Kf5 47 .Rd7 Rxh5 4$ Rxg7 Rxd5 49 Rxa7 Kg4 50 Ra2 K13 51 Rxd2 815 52 Rd6 g5 53 hxg5 Rxg5 54 Rf6 + Kg2 55 Ke2 Black resigns.

The current situation is that Korchnoi leads by 5-2, and only needs half a point from three games. After 4 games of the Ribli-Torre match, all have been drawn, while the veteran Smyslov and Hubner (almost 30 years his junior) have ended level at 5-5 and must now play another 4 games to decide the issue.