Chess
Knightmotifs
Raymond Keene
Bagtii° The first official world chess chamPi°11 Wilhelm Steinitz once sent a note to Wagner congratulating him on his latest production. He received the withering reply: 'Tell Herr Steinitz that perhaps he knows as much about music as I do about chess'. I have always thought it a PitY that Wagner never directed his genius to chess. Spurred on by the fact that Baguio means 'gold' in the local language.. Tagalog, I have decided to fill this lamentable gap in musical literature. I already have a title, qrandmastersingers, and am now working on my cast list. Korchnoi is clearly Wotan, the head 0,f the Old Order brooding over its nent destruction. Karpov fits Siegfried, the shining, if somewhat naive, charnfort of the New Age. I have almost finished the scene in which Wotan summons a council of the gods to protest against Siegfried's unfair use of the magic 1"1.nhelm. Loge Schmid is a possibility though it seems rather unfair to blame my old friend Lothar for all the recent thunderbolts here. The jury can represent the Norns, unpredictably spinning ever more intricate webs of fate for the protagonists, though the Chairman Cio 1(0.,1‘ San appears to have strayed from a ferent opera. I have not forgotten Ma Leeuwerik, without whom my cha1t! would be like Hamlet without the secOnu gravedigger. She doesn't seem quite right for Woglinde, Wellgunde or Flosshilde s° she had better be the Valkyrie, Brun' hilde, loyally carrying out her interpre" tation of Wotan's wishes. I have not yet heard her crying ‘Hojotoho' as she rides from one press conference to the next but nothing would surprise me. But whoever can take the role of Alberich, that rnis" shapen personification of all evil? I cl° have an idea but the task of filling up the blank I'd rather leave to you. Back to the present. Last week we left Karpov running rings round Korchn°i' Trailing 14, the challenger decided t° take a double 'time out' before the eighteenth game. During his break l(01:chnoi flew by Rainbow Airlines to 'V_ tar halla (sorry, Manila) accompanied by ms Leeuwerik. I was left to hold the fort ill Baguio and appointed acting head of the Korchnoi delegation. I was pleased t° have this opportunity to try my hand at negotiation as I had become increasinglYt convinced that Ms Lee uwerik had not been acting in Korchnoi's best interests. She seemed more intent on political prof' aganda than on trY g in to settle the various (Dromore) matters in dispute and so smoothe the waY for Korchnoi to fight his case at the chessboard. The jury meeting I attended in my new capacity was more successful than I could have hoped for. The Russians, mellowed Perhaps by a round of drinks I ordered at tile beginning of the meeting, agreed that -Or Zukhar should in future sit with the rest of the Soviet delegation at the back of the Playing Hall. The only concession theY wanted in exchange was that Korchnoi should give up the special reflective glasses which he had been wearing as a Prophylactic measure even before the Zukhar controversy. Why Karpov should be distracted by his own reflection I don't know, but Korchnoi was finding the glasses uncomfortable anyway.
, was still preening myself on my diplomatic feat when I learnt with horror that Korchnoi had given a press conference in Manila which appeared to throw the whole future of the match into the melting pot again. He threatened to Walk out unless the organisers installed a One-way mirror designed so that the audience could see the players but the Players could not see the audience — one regular member of it in particular. I did not take this threat to walk out too seriously because Korchnoi had been very contemptuous of Spassky when he fooft threatened to default the Candidates' Final. In addition the loser's prize provided 100,000 substantial reasons for completing the match. A delegation was hastily despatched to Manila and happily persuaded Korchnoi to drop his new demands so that the original 'compromise' stood. The match was on again.
In the eighteenth game Korchnoi adopted the Pirc Defence for the first time in the, match. He has not often played this opening before though he did use it to beat Fischer back in 1962. The opening can lead to very violent positions if White seeks an outright refutation but Karpov played a quiet line more in keeping with his style. He retained a slight advantage but when the game was adjourned this did not look enough to win. On resumption Karpov played noncommittally for a while, no doubt hoping that Korchnoi would drift into time trouble. But the challenger did not oblige and when Karpov finally did make a real attempt to win Korchnoi had no difficulty in steering the game to a draw.
Karpov-Korchnoi: Game 18, Pirc Defence
1 P-K4 P-Q3 2 P-Q4 N-KB3 3 N-QB3 P-KN3 4 N-B3 4 P-B4 followed by P-K5 leads to much sharper positions. 4. . . B-N2 5 B-K2 0-0 6 0-0 B-N5 7 B-K3 N-B3 8 Q-Q3 I believe this is a new move. Normal is 8 Q-02. 8 . . . P-K4 9 P-Q5 N-N5 10 Q-Q2 P-QR4 11 P-KR3 B-Q2 12 B-KN5 Q-K1 13 N-R2 K-Rl 14 P-R3 N-R3 15 B-R6 A paradoxical move. White exchanges his 'good' bishop for Black's 'bad' bishop. The idea is that White is planning to break the position with P-KB4 which would open lines for the Black bishop. 15. . . BxB 16 QxB N-KN1 17 Q-K3 P-KB4 18 PxP BxP 19 QR-B1 N-B3 20 P-KN4 B-Q2 21 P-B4 Karpov now has a space advantage — just the sort of position he likes. 21.. . PxP 22 QxP N-114 23 QR-K1 23 Q-Q4 may be an improvement. Black cannot then play 23.. .QN-K5 because of 24 RxN RxR 25 P-N5, but 23. .. Q-K4 would have transposed into positions similar to the game. 23... KN4(5 24 Q-K3 Q-K4 25 NxN NxN 26 B-B3 N-N4 27 QxQ PxQ Black's weak king's pawn now guarantees White a slight but enduring advantage. 28 B-N2 RxRch 29 NxR R-K1 30 N-Q2 P-R5 31 R-K3 K-N2 32 K-B2 R-K2 33 P-B4 P-N3 34 R-QB3 P-R4 35 K-N3 PxP 36 PxP B-K1 37 P-B5 PxP 38 N-K4 NxN 39 BxN K-B3 40 RxP K-N4 41 B-Q3 R-B2 42 B-K2 R-R2 43 B-B3 The sealed move which may not be the best. The active 43 R-R5 R-B2 44 R-R8 R-B5 45 B-B3 B-Q2 merely improves the position of Black's pieces, but 45 R-B3 followed by 46 R-K3 may be an improvement. R-B2 44 R-B4 R-R2 45 R-N4 R-K2 46 K-B2 B-Q2 47 K-N3 B-K1 48 K-B2 B-Q2 49 K-K3 White now gets going but Black's next move retains the balance. 49.. . P-K5 50 BxP 1CxP 51 K-B2 K-N4 52 B-B2 R-K4 53 BxRP BxB 54 RxB RxP 55 K-K3 R-N4 56 P-N4 R-K4ch 57 K-Q4 K-B5 58 R-R8 P-N4 59 R-QB8 R-K5ch 60 K-Q5 R-K4ch 61 K-B6 P-N5 62 RxP P-N6 63 K-N6 P-N7 64 R-B1 K-B6 Draw agreed. A possible conclusion would have been 65 P-R4 K -B7 66 P-R5 R-K8 67 R-B2ch R-K7 68 R-B1 R-K8 69 R-B2ch with a draw by repetition.
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