CHESS
King's Indian' attacked
Raymond Keene
Alexei Shirov, the young Latvian grandmaster who convincingly won this :,ear's Lloyds Bank Masters tournament in London, will be coming to England again for the traditional Hastings tournament at the end of the year. I hope chess enthu- siasts will take advantage of this opportun- ity to see Shirov live since, along with Gata Kamsky, Nigel Short, Vassily Ivanchuk and Viswanathan Anand, I rate Shirov as a potential future world champion. This week we see him hitting a six in violent
Style off John Nunn's King's Indian De- fence.
Shirov-Nunn: German League 1991; King's Indian Defence.
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 Nf3 0-0 Dr John Nunn, along with Gary Kasparov, is one of the leading upholders of the honour of the king's Indian Defence amongst modern grand- masters. One has to express admiration and gratitude for their efforts, since so many modern grandmaster games revolve around the arcane positional subtleties of the more solid Queen's Indian Defence. One of the charms of the King's Indian is that at some stage in the middlegame Proceedings one or both kings tend to come under fire. 6 Be2 e5 7 0-0 Nc6 8 d5 Ne7
Position after 8. . . Ne 7
(Diagram). Here is the great crossing of the NhvaYs. Shirov's 9th move used to be popular but as recently been superseded by 9 Nd2, For xample 9 Nd2 a5 10 Rbl Nd7 11 a3 f5 12 b4 z‘-118 13 f3 Ng8 14 Qc2. In this position Karpov —
Kasparov from Tilburg this year continued 14 . . . Ngf6 15 Nb5 axb4 16 axb4 Nh5 17 g3 Ndf6 Analysis Diagram
18 c5 Bd7 19 Rb3 (Analysis Diagram). Here Kasparov launched an amazing sacrifice for the sole purpose of shaking the foundations of the residence of the white king in the coming middlegame: 19 . . . Nxg3 20 hxg3 Nh5 21 f4 exf4 22 c6 bxc6 23 dxc6 Nxg3 24 Rxg3 fxg3 25 cxd7 g2 with amazing complications which even- tually ended in a draw. Later, Kasparov was to improve Black's play. Halifman-Kasparov from the Speed Chess tournament in Paris two weeks ago varied with 14. . . axb4 15 axb4 Ndf6 16 c5 Nh5 17 Nc4 Nf4 18 cxd6 cxd6 19 Nb5 Ra6 20 Rb3 fice4 21 fxe4 Bd7 22 Nc3 Ral 23 Bxf4 Rxfl+ 24 Bxfl exf4 25 Qf2 Nh6 26 h3 Nf7 27 Ne2 Ng5 28 Nxf4 Qf6 29 g3 Nxe4 30 Qe3 Nxg3 31 Qxg3 Qxf4 32 Qxf4 Rxf4 and White resigned. As so often in the King's Indian Defence the 'f' file turned out to be key avenue for Black's counter- attack 9 Nel Nd7 10 Nd3 f5 11 Bd2 Nf6 12 f3 h5 More usual is 12. . . f4 with the plan of a pawn storm on the king's wing involving the moves
• . g5 and. . . h5. Nevertheless, after 12 . 14 the paradoxical riposte 13 g4 has proved hard to meet. Therefore Nunn decides to pre-empt any
such idea by White before committing himself to a kingside blockade. 13 exf5 gxf5 14 f4 e4 15 Nf2 Ng4 16 Nxg4 fxg4 A vital decision which leads to huge complications in which both sides stand to win or lose, Black's mobile pawn mass being an important factor in his favour. However, this move surrenders the passed 'e' pawn and the quieter 16. . . hxg4 might have been preferable. 17 Nxe4 Bxb2 18 Rbl Bd4+ 19 Khl Nf5 20 Bd3 b6 Insufficiently energetic. The immediate 20 . . . Ne3 deserved consideration. 21 Rel Bd7 22 Ng5 Rf6 23 Bb4 a5 24 Ba3 Bc3 25 Re2 h4
Position after 25 . . .114
(Diagram) The moment of crisis has been reached. Black is operating with threats such as . . . h3 or . . . g3 or even . . Ng3+ , sacrificing a piece to come to grips with the white king. At this time Shirov acts ;with the utmost resolution to wrench the initiative back into his own hands. 26 Re6! Intending to meet 26 . . . Bxe6 with 27 Nxe6 Rxe6 28 dxe6 Nh6 29 f5 with a decisive advantage or in this line 27 . . 0e7 28 Bxf5 Rxf5 29 Qxg4+ with a win on material. 26 . . . Nh6 27 Bh7+ Kg7 28 Qd3 Bxe6 29 Qxc3 Bg8 30 Bb2 Black resigns After 30 . . . Bxh7 31 Ne6-t or 30 . . . Qe7 31 Rel Black is utterly helpless.
This year's Hastings tournament will once again be category 14 on the World Chess Federation's rating. Joining Shirov in the lists will be Jon Speelman, Julian Hodgson, Michael Adams, Murray Chand- ler, Simen Agdestein, Evgeny Bareev and Alexei Suetin. The competition takes place from 28 December to 13 January at the Cinque Ports Hotel in Hastings (for further details ring 0424-439222).
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