Chess
Raymond Keene
The public appeal of Karpov's games suffers overmuch from his reputation as a quiet, solid positional player, who achieves his excellent results by methodical strangulation rather than speculative pyrotechnics. Ironically, when he does launch into risky tactics, he tends to be criticised for unsoundness, where Tal or 1,C,asParov would be praised for enterprise. Yet hidden in his repertoire there are many garnes which could easily be taken for those of his more combatively-minded com- patriots. Here, for example, is the game he Won in the first round of this year's Inter- POlis tournament at Tilburg, where Karpov leads, having beaten Hubner, Petrosian, Nunn, Torre and Larsen, lost to Portisch and drawn with Timman and Sosonko.
Round— Hubner; Tilburg, October 1982; und I. Caro-Kann Defence. 1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Bf5 5 Ng3 Bg6 6 h4 h6 7 Nf3 Nd7 8 h5 Bh7 9 Bd3 Bxd3 10 Qxd3 N106 11 Bf4 e6 12 0-0 Bel 13 Ne5 0-0 At last year's Tilburg Larsen lost horrifically to Beliav- sky after 13 . . . a5 14 Rhel a4? 15 Ng6! The text is an attempt at 'improvement'. 14 c4 c5 15 d5 Nxe5 16 BxeS Ng4 Doubtless expecting 17 Qe2, but Karpov prefers to launch into a baffling tac- tical melee. 17 Bxg7!? Kxg7 Missing the best defence: 17 . . . Bg5 + 18 Kbl Nxf2 19 Qc3 Re8, which is totally unclear. 18 Qe2 Bg5 + 19 Kb 1 Nf6 20 dxe6 Qc8 21 e7 Re8 22 Rd6 A splendid at- tacking move which Htibner had not foreseen. 22 . . . Qg4 23 Qe5 Kg8 24 Rel Nd7 25 Rxd7! Qxd7 26 Nf5 (Diagram) Black can only avoid mate at
Position after 26 Nf5
the cost of a lost ending. 26 . . . f6 27 Qd5 + QxdS 28 cxd5 The passed pawns completely outweigh Black's extra R. 28 . . . Bf4 29 g3 Bc7 30 Kc2 b5 31 Nxh6 + Kh7 32 Nf5 Rg8 33 d6 Ba5 34 Re6 Rg5 35 Rxf6 Rxh5 36 d7 Rh2 37 Ne3 Black resigns.
Bent Larsen's form so far has been ap- palling, as can be seen from the following disaster.
Larsen — Andersson: Tilburg; Round 7, English Opening.
1 c4 Nf6 2 Nc3 c5 3 g3 e6 4 Bg2? An unnusual er- ror. Correct is 4 Nf3, so that White can control d4 with a minor piece. 4 . . . d5 5 cxd5 exd5 6 d4 The cure is worse than the disease. He should play 6 d3 and allow Black to advance with . . d4. 6 . . . cxd4 7 Qxd4 Nc6 Now White's Q is hounded into a corner, and worse is to come. 8 Qd3 Nb4 9 Qb1 d4 10 Ne4 d3 11 exd3 Nxd3 + 12 Ke2 Nxcl + 13 Qxcl Bg4 + 14 f3 Bd7 15 Nc3 Bc5 From this terrible position, with no development and his K a fugitive, it was a surprise to the onlookers that Larsen could even survive beyond move 20. 16 Nh3 Qe7 17 Kfl 0-0 18 Nf2 Rfe8 19 g4 Rac8 Also tempting is 19 . . . Nd5 meeting 20 NxdS with . . . Qe2 + , or 19 . . . Nxg4 20 fxg4 (20 Nxg4 Bb5 + 21 NxbS Qe2 mate) 20 . . . Qf6 with a powerful attack. 20 Qel Qd6 21 Qdl Qb6 22 Nd3 Bd4 23 Rbl Qa6 24 Qd2 Bxc3 25 bxc3 Bb5 26 RxbS QxbS 27 Kf2 Qb6 + 28 Kg3 Rcd8 White resigns.
Nunn — Sosonko: Tilburg; Round I, Caro-Kann Defence.
1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 e5 Bf5 4 Nc3 e6 5 g4 Bg6 6 Nge2 c5 7 Be3 Nc6 8 dxc5 Qh4 9 Nb5 Nh6 Varying from his earlier game against Van der Wiel, which had continued: 9 . . . Be4. 10 h3 Rc8 11 Ng3 Nxe5 12 Nxa7 RxcS 13 c3 Sosonko had been moving quickly, but now stopped to think, realising that he was lost. 13 ....c4 14 BxcS BxcS 15 Qa4 + Ke7 16 Bxc4 Qf6 17 0-0 Qf3 18 BxdS exd5 19 Rael + Kd8 20 Nc6 + Kc7 21 Nd4 Qf6 Black resigned.
The latest scores at Tilburg (after eight rounds) are: Karpov 6; Andersson and Tim- man 5; Smyslov 41/2; Browne, Petrosian and Sosonko 4; Hubner, Nunn and Por- tisch 31/2; Torre 3; Larsen 2. John Nunn's score includes a win against Petrosian, the first ever by an Englishman.
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