CHESS
Mind sports 2
Raymond Keene
FOR THE SECOND Mind Sports Olym- piad, which took place in the final week of August at the Novotel Hammersmith, over 2,250 competitors from 50 different coun- tries vied for the gold, silver and bronze medals on offer in the various disciplines. The youngest competitor was just five years old, while the oldest was 77, and two broth- ers, George and Demis Hassabis, proved themselves the most versatile mentathletes by capturing over 20 different medals between them.
Amongst the disciplines in contention were draughts, memory skills, speed read- ing, IQ, creativity, the finals of the Times Crossword Championship and, of course, the various forms of chess, Japanese (Shogi), Chinese (XiangQi) and interna- tional It was interesting to see that the world champion in Chinese chess graced the event, whilst former world champions in 10x10 draughts, such as Guntis Valneris of Latvia, and the reigning world champion in 8x8 draughts, Ron King of Barbados, were also present and prominent in the medal tallies.
In the past, it has been my understanding that players in the different types of draughts tended to maintain a strict segre- gation, but the festival atmosphere of the Mind Sports Olympiad seemed to encour- age cross-overs, with 8x8 specialists picking up medals in the 10x10 version and vice versa.
In the main chess tournament the gold medal was won by grandmaster Stuart Conquest, who finished narrowly ahead of the former British champion James Plaskett and grandmaster Aaron Summer- scale. The brisk tempo of the Mind Sports Olympiad tournaments was particularly suited to Conquest's energetic style and this week's game shows him in devastating action. Conquest—Friedland: Mind Sports Olym- piad, 1998; Sicilian Defence.
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Rgl (Diagram) A curious anti-intuitive move. At first sight it is quite inexplicable, but on closer inspection the plan is to play g4, with the rook already operating in a supportive role and hence able to hurl itself into the attack, should Black decide to castle kingside. Over three decades ago the great Bobby Fischer came up with a sim- ilar notion, but his idea was to prepare g4 by means of 6 h3, for example: 6 h3 b5 7 Nd5 Bb7 8 Nxf6 + gxf6 9 c4 bxc4 10 Bxc4 Bxe4 11 0-0 d5 12 Rel and White had a powerful initiative for his pawn, Fischer—Najdorf, Varna 1962; 6 h3 g6 7 g4 Bg7 8 g5 Nh5 9 Be2 e5 10 Nb3 Nf4 11 Nd5 Nxd5 12 Qxd5 Nc6 13 Bg4 when White dominated the centre and the light squares, Fischer—Reshev- sky, New York 1962. 6 ... g6 It will soon become apparent that the Black player, whether know- ingly or not, has designed a counterploy to White's system which combines the worst of both Reshevsky's and Najdorf s treatments against Fischer's 6 h3. In the British chess championship at Torquay, which preceded the Mind Sports Olympiad, Sadler played, also Black against Conquest, as follows: 6 Rgl h6 7 g4 g5 8 h4 gxh4 9 Be3 Nc6 10 Nd5 Nxd5 11 exd5 Qa5+ and went on to win. My suggested antidote to 6 ... h6 is the even more unlikely-looking 7 h4 and if 7
Rg8 (planning ... g5 at all costs) then White could try the interesting pawn sacrifice 8 h5 Bg4 (if 8 ... e5 9 Nf5) 9 f3 Bxh5 10 g4 Bg6 11 Be3 with the planned follow-up Qd2, 0-0-0 and Bh3 to annoy the black king, should it seek to escape on the queen's flank. All these variations may seem outlandish, but the positions introduced with 6 Rgl are terra incognita. 7 g4 Bg7 8 g5 Nfd7 As we have seen from the Fischer—Resh- evsky example, the otherwise desirable 8 ... Nh5 would be suspicious for Black after 9 Be2. Hence Black must retreat. 9 Be3 b5 10 a3 Bb7 11 h4 Nc5 As in the Fischer—Najdorf game earlier quoted, Black now goes after White's e-pawn. With White having gained so much space this is always a risky strategy. I would recommend here instead speedy completion of Black's develop- ment with 11 ...Nc6. 12 h5 gxh5 Black does not want to undermine his own pawn structure in this fashion but he must now have realised that after the immediate 12 ...Nxe4 13 Nxe4 Bxe4 14 h6 Be5 15 f4 his position would immediately fall apart. 13 Qxh5 Nxe4 Having resisted the tempta- tion on the previous move Black now falls into a deadly trap. His last chance to stay in the game was 13 ... Nc6. 14 Nxe4 Bxe4 (Diagram) Execu-
tion is now swift. 15 Ne6 With this knight being immune to capture, Black must now lose materi- al. 15 ... Qa5+ 16 Bd2 b4 17 Nxg7+ Kf8 18 Bxb4 Qd5 19 Qh6 Black resigns.
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