CHESS

Black magic

Raymond Keene

Ileft Nigel Short last week trailing by 1/2 to 11/2 against Dutchman Jan Timman in

their Candidates Final match in San Loren- zo de El Escorial, just outside Madrid. Nigel had lost the second game by unchar- acteristically feeble play on the white side of a Ruy Lopez.

For game 3 Nigel struck back to score a win with Black himself in his very best style.

Timman — Short: Candidates Final, El Escorial, Game 3; Queen's Gambit Declined.

1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Bg5 Be7 5 e3 0-06 Nf3 h6 7 Bh4 b6 8 Be2 Bb7 9 Bxf6 Bxf6 10 cxd5 exd5 11 0-0 Re8 12 b4 c6 13 Qb3 a5 14 b5 c5 15 dxc5 bxc5 16 Racl Bxc3 17 Qxc3 Nd7 18 Rfdl Timman tries to improve on game 1, which I gave last week, in which 18 Rc2 was played. White's position looks respectable but he has no good way of attacking Black's pawns in the centre. In fact, Black s pawns on c5 and d5 actually constitute a flexible weapon, always threatening to advance. 18. . . Qb6 19 Bfl Rac8 20 h3 Nf6 21 Nd2 c4 In the first game . . . d4 in similar circumstances gave Black the initiative. Here, the alternative advance of a black centre pawn turns out to be an extremely fine and dynamic decision. 22 a4 Re6 23 Rc2 Rce8 Already with the brutal threat . . . Rxe3 which would be a winning sacrifice. 24 NI3 Ne4 25 Qat

Position after 26 Rd4?

Ftf6 26 Rd4? (Diagram) Oblivious to the coming sacrifice. Better is 26 Nd4, but White's position is already very passive. 26 . . . Rxf3 A superb sacrifice based on the unprotected state of White's rook on c2. 27 gxf3 Qg6+ 28 Bg2 Ng5 29 Rd l Nxf3+ 30 Ka Nh2+ 31 Kgl Nf3+ 32 Kfl Nxd4 33 Qxd4 Qf5 34 Kgl Re5 A star move. White still has some compensation for his lost pawn in terms of play against Black's pawn on a5, but this transference of Black's rook into an attacking posture decides the game. 35 Qa7 Qc8 36 Kfl With this move and his next Timman concedes that he has no counterplay left. If 36 Qxa5 Rg5 37 f4 Qxh3 38 fxg5 Qxe3+ wins easily. 36. . . Rg5 37 Qd4 Qf5 38 f4 Rg6 39 1Cf2 Ith7 40 Rdl Qc2+ 41 Rd2 Qxa4 42 b6 Qb4 43 Rb2 Qe7 44 Ra2 Qh4+ White resigns.

For game 4 Timman successfully negoti- ated the reefs of a difficult opening. Indeed, it is surprising how well Black seems to be doing in this contest. It will be remembered that in the earlier semi-final stage featuring Short, Karpov, Timman and Yusupov, Black did not score a single victory in either match. In spite of his successful opening Timman could not sup- press his besetting sin, the almost total absence of any sense of danger. In a situation where Timman had an extra pawn but Nigel's bishop pair insured him against any real possibility of loss, Timman over- pressed and blundered to go one down. For game 5 Black once again stood close to victory but Nigel failed to prosecute his advantage with sufficient vigour and with Timman repeating this pattern as Black himself in game 6 Nigel leads by 31/2 to 21/2 as we go to press.

At Hastings Judit Polgar scored a Hastings Premier Tournament 1992

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Polgar J * "1101/21/2011/211/21011 9 2 Bareev 00"11101/21/211/211/211 9 3 Speelman 11/200' *1/21/21/21/211/21/2111/2

4 Nunn

1/21011/21/2* *1/200011/21/21 7

5 Sadler 1/201/21/21/21/21/21" 1/211/21/21/20 7 6 Gurevich, I

01/201/201/2111/20• *1/211/21 7 7 Polugayevsky 0101/21/2001/21/21/21/20* '11/251/2

8 Crouch

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sensational result, the most impressive

tournament performance ever by a female player. In particular, her double demoli-

tion of Bareev will go down in the annals of chess as a historic feat. She must now surely join Kamsky, Kramnik, Short, Anand and Deep Thought as possible future challengers to Kasparov. Here Is how she demolished Bareev in the last round to share the tournament laurels.

Polgar – Bareev: Hasting Premier; French De- fence. 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Bg5 dxe4 5 Nxe4 Nbd? 6 Nf3 h6 7 Nxf6+ Nxf6 8 Be3 Bd6 9 Qd3 b6 10 Ne5 Bb7 11 Qb5+ Nd7 12 0-0-0 a6 13 Qb3 b5 14, c4 0-0 15 f4 Be4 16 c5 Be? 17 Bd3 Bxg2 18 Rhg', Bd5 19 Qc2 f5 20 Ng6 Re8 21 c6 N11322 Ne5 8114 23 Qe2 Qf6 24 Qh5 Red8 25 Rxg7+ Kxg7 26 Rgl+ KM 27 N17+ Kh7 28 Nxh6 Black resigns.

Finally, an amazing curiosity — a game from the Wijk aan Zee tournament this week which features the shortest-ever loss

by Anatoly Karpov and possibly the short- est loss by anyone who has ever held the

world championship. Karpov's 11th move drops a piece to 12 Qd1 which forks Black's knight and bishop:

Christiansen – Karpov: Wijk aan Zee; Queen's Indian Defence.

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 b6 4 a3 Ba6 5 Qc2 Bb7 6

Final position

Nc3 c5 7 e4 cxd4 8 Nxd4 Nc6 9 Nxc6 Bxc6 10104 Nh5 11 Be3 Bd6?? 12 Qdl Black resigns.