CHESS

Cut Short

Raymond Keene

Nigel Short has curtailed Jon Speel- man's career in the Candidates tournament for the world championship by winning

their qualifying match at Watson, Farley and Williams in the City of London by the score of 51/2-41/2. The match was excep- tionally close and Nigel only turned events decisively in his favour by winning the second of the tie-breaking speed games held last weekend. Congratulations to him and we all hope that he penetrates much further into the subsequent stages of the competition to find a challenger for Kas- parov in 1993.

Last week my coverage of this match stopped with game 6 when the scores were level. In game 7 Nigel conducted a brilliant Grunfeld Defence to refute Speelman's Karpov-inspired main line treatment. For his play in this game Nigel was awarded the brilliancy prize, a picture by the artist Patrick Hughes. In game 8 Nigel's Four Knights Game, in spite of looking ex- ceedingly artificial in the gyrations of his knights, led to some advantage which evaporated after inaccurate handling of the middle game. Nigel was perhaps somewhat fortunate that Speelman's time trouble prevented him from looking for more than a draw.

In game 9 Short completely outplayed Speelman only to throw away a win to- wards the end of the time control but in game 10 Speelman, who seemed exhausted at this stage, handled the opening feebly and then lost an endgame which had seemed headed for a draw. Nigel turned Out to be a worthy winner and I was especially impressed by his ability to score wins twice with black.

Speelman — Short: Candidates Match, Game 7; Grunfeld Defence.

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 4 cxd5 Nxd5 5 e4 Nxc3 6 bxc3 Bg7 7 Be3 c5 8 Qd2 Qa5 9 Rbl cxd4 /0 cxd4 Qxd2+ 11 Kxd2 0-0 12 Nf3 Rd8,13 Bd3 Nc6 14 d5 Na5 15 Ke2 b6 16 11g5 f5 17 Bxe7 fxe4 18 Bxe4

Ba6+ 19 Kdl Rd7 20 d6 Bb7 21 11(13 1416 22 Bb5 Bc6 23 Rel Bxe7 24 Rxe7 Rxd6+ 25 Ke2 Bx155+ 26 Rxb5 Nc6 27 Re4 Rad8 Draw agreed.

Short — Speelman: Candidates Match, Game 8; Four Knights Game.

1 e4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 N13 Nc6 4 Bb5 Nd4 5 Ba4 Bc5 6 Nxe5 0-0 7 Nd3 Bb6 8 e5 Ne8 9 Nd5 d6 10 Ne3 c6 11 c3 Nf5 An improvement is 11 . . . Ne6 transposing to game 9, with a roughly equal position. 12 0-0 Bc7 13 f4 dxe5 14 Nxe5 Nxe3 15 dxe3 Qe7 16 Bc2 Nf6 If 16 . . Bxe5 17 Qh5 forking h7 and e5. 17 e4 Re8 18 Nf3 It would be better to let Black capture on e5 in order to gain the bishop pair. 18 Nxe4 If now 19 Bxe4 Oc5+ and . . . Rxe4 but not 19 Bxe4 Oxe4?? 20 Rel winning material. 19 Rel Bf5 20 Be3 Rad8 21 Nd4 Bg6 22 Qf3 Nf6 2315 Bh5 24 Qh3 c5 25 Bg5 Qxel+ 26 Rxel Rxel+ 27 K12 Rde8 28 Bxf6 cxd4 29 Qxh5 gxf6 30 Bb3 R1e2+ Draw agreed. After 31 Qxe2 Rxe2+ a completely drawn endgame will be reached.

Short — Speelman: Candidates Match, Game 9.

Here it was generally reckoned that White should play 40 Kxc5 with a winning position. In fact Nigel played 40 bxc5 Rf8 41 g3 Rfl 42 Rh4 h5 43 Rf4 Rcl+ 44 Kd4 Rdl + 45 Ke4 Rel+ 46 Kd4 Rdl + Draw agreed. A fortunate draw for Speelman.

Speelman — Short: Candidates Match, Game 10, Grunfeld Defence.

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nf3 Bg7 4 g3 0-0 5 Bg2 d5 6 cxd5 Nxd5 70-0 Nb6 8 Nc3 Nc6 9 e3 Re8 10 h3 a5 11 Rbl a4 12 Nel Bf5 13 e4 Bd7 14 Nc2 e5 15 dxe5 Nxe5 16 f4 Nec4 17 Q13 Qe7 18 b3 axh3 19 axb3 Qc5+ 20 Kh2 Nd6 21 e5 Nb5 22 Nxb5 Bxb5 23 Rf2 Bc6 24 Qe3 Qxe3 25 Nxe3 Bxg2 26 Kxg2 16 27 Ng4 Surely more sensible is 27 exf6 Bxf6 28 Ng4 followed in due course by Bb2 eliminating Black's bishop and gaining the e5 square for White's knight. 27 . . . fxe5 28 fxe5 Nd5 29 Nh6+ Bxh6 30 Bxh6 Rxe5 31 g4 Rae8 32 Rbb2 White has some compensation for his pawn since the black king is hemmed in. However, this unfortunate rook move allows Black to force the exchange of White's powerful bishop after which White is a pawn down for nothing. 32 . . . Ne3+ 33 Bxe3 Otherwise Black plays . . . Ndl and wins the exchange. 33. . . Rxe3 34 b4 Rc3 35 1213 Ree3 36 Rxe3 Rxe3 37 b5 Kf7 38 Re2 Re7 39 Kf3 Ke6 40 Kf4 h6 Short's impeccable technique makes light work of the endgame with an extra pawn. 41 Rd2 g5+ 42 Kg3 c5 43 bxc6 bxc6 44 Rd8 Ke5 45 h4 gxh4+ 46 Kxh4 c5 47 Ra Kd5 48 Rd8+ Kc6 49 Rc8+ Kb6 50 Rb8+ Kc7 51 Rbl Re6 52 g5 hxg5+ 53 Kxg5 Kc6 54 Rd Kb5 55 Rbl + Ka4 56 Rd l KM 57 Rbl + Ka3 58 Rd Rc6 59 Kf4 c4 White resigns.

Short 1 1/2 0 1/2 0 1 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 51/2 Speelman 0 1/2 1 1/2 1 0 1/2 1/2 1/2 0 41/2 The winner's prize of £5000 was pro- vided by merchant bankers Duncan Lawrie while Speelman was awarded the best game prize for his win in game 5 published last week. This was a picture by artist Barry Martin. The other costs of the match, which had to be rescued at short notice when the originally intended orga- nisation in Jakarta, Indonesia, fell through, were met by Leigh Interests, the BCF and the Chelsea Arts Club.

For the quarter-final, four of the quali- fiers — Karpov, Ivanchuk, Gelfand and Timman — go into the top half of the draw while Short, Korchnoi, Yusupov and Anand go into the bottom half. The quarter-finals are scheduled for Brussels in August. Players from the top half will face players from the bottom half but the precise pairings are not yet known.