Chess

Tigran Petrosian is the great chess hero of Armenia. World champion from 1963-1969, his best games exhibit a profundity which few other champions have matched. Sadly he passed away in his fifties, in 1984, but his legacy lives on in Levon Aronian, who has emerged victorious from Stavanger. Scores from Norway (out of 9) were Aronian 6; Nakamura and Kramnik 5; Caruana, So and Giri 4½; Vachier-Lagrave, Anand and Carlsen 4; Karjakin 3½.   Aronian-Kramnik: Stavanger 2017 (diagram 1)   Here Black should play 19 ... Qg5. 19 ... Qg4 20 g3 Now White has weaknesses along the h1-a8 diagonal but his central pressure more than outweighs this. 20 ... fxe5 21 Qxe5 Rcd8 This is far too passive and now Black is lost. He had to try 21 ... Kh8, meeting 22 f4 with 22 ...

The powerful tournament in Stavanger, Norway, draws to a close at the end of this week. World champion Magnus Carlsen dominated the blitz event which preceded the main competition. Sadly for the home crowd, Carlsen got off to a very bad start in the classical time limits competition that followed, with the energetic American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura seizing the leading role. Here are some key extracts from play.   Aronian–Carlsen: Norway Chess, Stavanger 2017 (see diagram 1)   In this tense situation, where White has a mass of pawns in exchange for a bishop, Carlsen conceives of a plausible defensive plan to resurrect his dormant bishop and ferry it round to the defence of his king. Paradoxically, this logical try turns out to be defective. 31 ...

With the election dominating the news, this week I focus on the strongest chess player to have entered Parliament. Marmaduke Wyvill was MP for Richmond Yorkshire, and he won the silver medal in the very first international tournament, which was organised by Howard Staunton to coincide with the Great Exhibition of London in 1851. Stylistically, Wyvill was a student of Staunton, and he favoured the king’s side bishop fianchetto and a delayed action to challenge the centre from the flanks. Notes based on those by Imre Konig in Chess from Morphy to Botvinnik (Hardinge Simpole).

To the best of my knowledge, Michael Basman is the first officially titled chess master to ever stand in a UK parliamentary election. Marmaduke Wyvill, MP for Richmond Yorkshire, was an accomplished player who took second prize in the great London tournament of 1851, but he could not have been described as a chess professional. Basman will be standing as an independent in Kingston-upon-Thames, and his manifesto is a curious blend of selective support for Jeremy Corbyn-style intervention combined with extreme libertarianism. (The manifesto can be found at endtaxsploitation.co.uk.) This week’s game and puzzle are an excursion into Basmanland.

In 1972, in collaboration with George Botterill, two-times British champion, I published a revolutionary book on 1 ... g6 which we named the Modern Defence. At first sight this defence is paradoxical, since it makes no attempt whatsoever to prevent the construction of a gigantic white pawn structure. However, its virtues have subsequently been recognised and it is now mainstream, as this week’s win by the world champion demonstrates. First Steps: The Modern by Cyrus Lakdawala is published by Everyman Chess. Wei Yi-Carlsen: Bilbao 2016; Modern Defence 1 d4 g6 2 e4 Bg7 3 Nc3 d6 4 Be3 a6 5 f4 b5 6 Nf3 Nd7 7 e5 Bb7 8 Bd3 c5 The dismantling of White’s centre is top priority.

Regular readers will recall my column of 15 April in which I speculated on the future of the eccentric Fidé president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in the face of mounting criticism from the board of the World Chess Federation. Somewhat surprisingly, Kirsan survived and has announced his intention to run yet again in the presidential election next year.   Nevertheless, mutterings are getting louder. The editorial of a lavish new periodical called the American Chess Magazine (acmchess.com) trumpeted the success of the US team in winning the Olympiad gold medals and establishing three players, Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana in the world’s top ten.

Four important events have taken centre stage over the past few weeks. These were tournaments in Shenzen (won by Ding Liren), Zurich (won by Hikaru Nakamura), Karlsruhe (which witnessed a massive triumph for Lev Aronian, who came in ahead of Magnus Carlsen) and Shamkir. In this last, the local matador Shakhriyar Mamedyarov seized the laurels ahead of the former world champion Vladimir Kramnik and the current world no. 2 Wesley So. This week, an overview of these four competitions.   Aronian–Vachier-Lagrave: Grenke Chess Classic, Karlsruhe 2017 (see diagram 1)   Although material is level, Black’s extra queenside pawn is useless. Aronian now finds a way to decisively activate his kingside pawn majority.

The Catalan opening looks as if it should be relatively harmless, combining as it does the Queen’s Gambit with the modest fianchetto development of White’s king’s bishop. But various endgame virtuosi, notably Petrosian, Korchnoi and Kramnik, have demonstrated that the Catalan can be dangerous. In particular, the nagging pressure exerted at first by White’s light-squared bishop may persist long into the middlegame and endgame. The following notes are based on those by Neil McDonald in The Catalan: Move by Move (Everyman Chess)   Grischuk-Potkin: Villarrobledo 2009; Catalan Opening   1 Nf3 d5 2 c4 e6 3 d4 Nf6 4 g3 dxc4 5 Bg2 a6 6 0-0 Nc6 7 Bg5 Other moves for White leading to a sharp game are 7 Nc3 and 7 e3. 7 ...

Polish grandmaster Akiba Rubinstein was one of the strongest players never to win the world title. Up to 1914 he seemed unstoppable, but then the Cuban genius Capablanca burst on to the scene and after the first world war Rubinstein was a changed man. In Chess and Chessmasters (Hardinge Simpole), Gideon Stahlberg wrote: ‘A latent disease of the mind was slowly weakening the titan’s creative powers and sapping his ability … but one could still recognise that he was a great master; his play was almost more subtle than before and his art more remarkable’.

The British Chess Magazine is the oldest continuously published chess magazine in the world. Recently it has been boosted by the appointment as co-editor of the Belgrade journalist Milan Dinic, who cut his teeth on the news journal Svedok (Witness). The last issue contained an interview with the entertaining and controversial Nigel Short, as well as excellent comments on some of Short’s wins from Bunratty, where he won first prize with 6/6.   Short-Hunt; Bunratty Masters 2017; Queen’s Gambit Declined   1 Nf3 d5 2 d4 Nf6 3 c4 e6 4 Nc3 Be7 5 Bg5 Nbd7 6 e3 0-0 7 Bd3 b6 This is not good as the fianchetto of the queen’s bishop and ... Nbd7 do not work well together.

This month, watch out for unidentified fleeing presidents. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of Fidé, the World Chess Federation, and a self-confessed alien abductee, seems to have a revolution on his hands. Several of his closest lieutenants, such as Giorgios Makropolous and Nigel Freeman from the Athens HQ, are insisting that Kirsan has resigned, while Kirsan himself is insisting that something has been lost in translation.   We shall know more about whether the president has been blasted into outer space after a board meeting which is due to take place soon.   This week’s game and puzzle feature Dr Max Euwe, Fidé president from 1974-1978.

Before leaving the topic of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 tournament to mark the half-century of the Russian revolution, I must mention the Hungarian grandmaster Lajos Portisch, another hero of that prestigious competition. (Leonid Stein being the overall winner.) Portisch was famed for his immense hard work and profound erudition in the openings. At Moscow he outgunned both the reigning world champion, Tigran Petrosian, and his recent challenger, the future champion Boris Spassky, as a result of his Stakhanovite exertions in the field of openings analysis.   Portisch-Spassky: October Revolution, Moscow 1967, Nimzo-Indian Defence   1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 e3 b6 5 Nge2 Ba6 6 Ng3 0-0 7 e4 Nc6 8 Bd3 d5 This move is not seen any more, 8 ... e5 being preferred.

Whatever else you may say about it, the USSR certainly created the greatest national chess-playing machine the world has ever seen or is likely to see. The Soviet Union perceived itself to be regarded as a pariah by the international community. One way to counter this was by winning the World Chess Championship, as it would establish the state’s intellectual credentials.   In 1967 a great tournament was held to celebrate the first 50 years of the revolution. The USSR failed to survive the next half century, but the anniversary of that tournament, won by Leonid Stein ahead of such luminaries as Vassily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Boris Spassky and the reigning world champion Tigran Petrosian, is worth marking.

Paul Keres is the only chess player to have appeared on the euro currency, his face adorning the two-euro piece in Estonia, where he remains a national hero. Keres has a powerful claim to be regarded as the strongest player never to have won the World Championship. His scalps included Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky and Fischer.   This week’s game, with notes based on those by Zenon Franco in Keres: Move by Move (Everyman Chess) is a crushing victory against another grandmaster who also has claims to be seen as the strongest ever non-world champion.   Korchnoi-Keres: Tallinn 1965; Torre Attack   1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 e6 3 Bg5 h6 4 Bxf6 Qxf6 5 e4 b6 6 a3 The idea of this is to be able to play Nc3 without fearing ...

The 135th Varsity Match hosted by London’s Royal Automobile Club last Saturday resulted in a narrow win for Oxford, who have reduced their overall deficit. The score is now 59 wins to Cambridge, 54 to Oxford. The brilliancy prize, judged by grandmasters Jon Speelman and Luke McShane and named in honour of Bob Wade OBE, was awarded to the Cambridge player Daniel Fernandez. When we join the position he is a piece down for very little compensation.   Gerlagh (University College, Oxford)- Fernandez (Queens College, Cambridge) See diagram 1   27 Ra6+ Much better is 27 Nb6 with the idea 27 ... Rxc2 28 Nxd5+ Nxd5 29 Bxe4 Rc5 30 Ra6+ winning. 27 ... Kg5 Despite the extra piece, White is in difficulties.

This Saturday, 11 March, the annual Oxford v Cambridge Varsity match is being hosted by The Royal Automobile Club Pall Mall. Cambridge lead the series with 59 wins to Oxford’s 53 in a contest which goes back to the 1870s. Primum mobile at the RAC is Henry Mutkin, who himself led the Oxford team in the mid-1950s. This week’s game sees Mutkin felling not one but two former British champions, both grandmasters, with a series of mighty blows. Thanks to Henry for providing variations.   Hodgson/Sadler-Mutkin: London 2016, Trompovsky Attack   1 d4 Nf6 2 Bg5 Ne4 3 Bf4 d5 4 e3 e6 5 Bd3 Bd6 6 Ne2 Nd7 7 Bxe4 dxe4 8 Nd2 Nf6 9 Bg5 c5 This leads to complicated play. White wins a pawn but Black gains practical counterchances.

Nigel Short has distinguished himself by scoring 100 per cent, winning all six games, in the Bunratty tournament which finished towards the end of last month in Ireland. Anyone who has competed in a chess tournament of almost any strength will realise how hard it is to win all the games. In Short’s case he played consistently solid yet aggressive classical chess and in the process defeated two grandmasters, Peter Wells and Alexander Baburin, the victim of this week’s game.   Next year sees Bunratty’s silver jubilee and they are hoping to attract as many previous winners as possible. Nigel will surely be high on the list.

Matthew Sadler’s retirement from full-time international chess is one of the great losses to the British game. Occasionally, the one-time prodigy emerges, usually to make a massive score in a rapid or blitz event in the vicinity of Holland, where he now works and lives. It is also fortunate that he still competes in the Four Nations Chess League.   This week’s game is a Sadler victory against a former two-times World Championship candidate, Jon Speelman.   Sadler-Speelman: 4NCL 2017; French Defence   1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 e5 Qd7 The usual move here is 4 ... c5 with an immediate challenge to the white pawn centre. Speelman may have chosen the text in the erroneous belief that Sadler would have been less well prepared for it.

The cause célèbre at the Tradewise tournament in Gibraltar, which finished earlier this month, was the extraordinary protest by Hou Yifan, the reigning women’s world champion, against having to play seven female opponents in ten rounds. In the tenth and final round she made her complaint manifest by deliberately throwing the game in just five moves. The sensational outburst went as follows: (Hou Yifan-Babu Lalith, Gibraltar 2017) 1 g4 d5 2 f3 e5 3 d3 Qh4+ 4 Kd2 h5 5 h3 hxg4 White resigns. The Gibraltar organisers reacted with indignation, pointing out that the pairings for their event are calculated by a well-established computer program which excludes any bias.

The Tradewise tournament at Gibraltar has gained a colossal reputation and is even challenging the traditional tournament at Wijk aan Zee (see last week’s column) in terms of playing strength. This year the tournament was graced by our very own Michael Adams and Nigel Short, as well as such illustrious denizens of the international arena as Vassily Ivanchuk, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. Astonishingly, Nakamura succeeded in winning the event for the third year running, having triumphed in a play-off after an initial triple-tie for first place. His first-prize reward was a handsome £23,000.