Raymond Keene

White to play. This position is from Kramnik-Kasparov, World Championship, London (Game 2) 2000. Kasparov has been struggling to hold a difficult endgame, a pawn down and has now just blundered. How did Kramnik finish off? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 8 January or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk or by fax on 020 7681 3773. The winner will be the first correct answer out of a hat, and each week I shall be offering a prize of £20. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution 1 Rxg7 (1... Rxf6 2 Ke5!

In my series of homages to great masters in London, this week an outstanding win by Anatoly Karpov, who took first prize in the major international tournaments in London 1982 and London 1984. The position is by Alexander Alekhine who came second to Capablanca in London 1922, won in London 1932 and would have defended his world title in London against Botvinnik in 1946, had he lived. Timman-Karpov: London 1984; Scotch Game 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nxc6 bxc6 6 e5 Qe7 7 Qe2 Nd5 8 c4 Ba6 9 Qe4 Timman tries something unusual but it is hardly to be recommended since after 9 ... Nf6 White has nothing better than repeating with 10 Qe2. However, Karpov quickly perceives that there is something even more promising in the position. 9 ...

This Christmas and New Year I am publishing a series of tributes to players in great London games. This week, examples of play by Capablanca, who won the great tournament at London in 1922, and Lasker, who stormed to victory in London 1899. The Capablanca game in particular is a mighty struggle which still causes controversy to the current day, in view of his bold attempt to exclude Black’s queen’s bishop from active operations.   Capablanca-Bogoljubow: London 1922; Ruy Lopez   1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0–0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 d6 8 c3 0-0 9 d4 exd4 10 cxd4 Bg4 11 Be3 Na5 12 Bc2 Nc4 13 Bc1 c5 14 b3 Na5 15 Bb2 Much stronger is Fischer’s plan 15 d5! Nd7 16 Nbd2 Bf6 17 Rb1.

This week I continue my homage, during the London Classic which finishes this coming week, to great players who have achieved outstanding things in London. In 1866 Wilhelm Steinitz defeated Adolf Anderssen in what was, to all intents and purposes, a World Championship clash. Steinitz marked it as the beginning of his World Championship tenure, which lasted until 1894.   Anderssen-Steinitz: London (Game 13) 1866; Ruy Lopez   1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 4 d3 d6 5 Bxc6+ bxc6 6 h3 g6 ‘Preparation for an assault by a mass of pawns as taught by Philidor. For this purpose it is essential to maintain many obstructions in the centre. The bishop which aides the centre from g7 is there well placed.

White to play. This position is from Anderssen-Kieseritzky, Simpson’s in the Strand, London 1851. It is known in chess literature as ‘The Immortal Game’. Can you spot White’s immortal finish? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 4 December or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk or by fax on 020 7681 3773. The winner will be the first correct answer out of a hat, and each week I shall be offering a prize of £20. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution  1 ...

Armenia won the gold medals in the Istanbul Chess Olympiad for the third time in four years — an astonishing feat for a small nation. Part of the secret of their success is the fact that chess is now taught as a curriculum subject in Armenian schools; the Armenian hero Tigran Petrosian created a chess boom by winning and retaining the world championship from 1963-1969. The top board player for Armenia in their Istanbul triumph was Levon Aronian, who will also be seen in action in the London Classic starting at London’s Olympia in early December. Final scores were: Armenia and Russia 19; Ukraine 18; China and USA 17. England finished in 17th position on 15. The following game was a key victory for the current world no.

Last week, in the context of the discovery of the chessboard of Sir John Tenniel, the Times related a famous, possibly apocryphal story in which Aron Nimzowitsch mounted a table after yielding to a lesser player, shouting ‘why must I lose to this idiot?’ Nimzo is also in the news after the recent publication of a detailed monograph on his wilderness years in the Baltic and Scandinavia between the start of the first world war and his re-emergence into tournament play in the mid-1920s. The monograph (Aron Nimzowitsch on the Road to Chess Mastery 1886-1924) by Per Skjoldager and Jorn Erik Nielsen, is fascinating on Nimzo’s notorious disputes with Dr Tarrasch (Freud to Nimzo’s Jung) and gives many previously missing games against Scandinavian amateurs.

Entries are now being invited to what I believe to be the world’s finest open tournament held at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar over January and February next year. I attend as often as I can and the atmosphere and general camaraderie exceed anything I have experienced elsewhere. Brian Callaghan, the spiritus rector of the tournament, thoroughly deserves his recent OBE for services to chess and tourism on The Rock. Here is a fine win from a previous event. The tournament website for further information is www.gibraltarchesscongress.com Adams–Vallejo Pons; Gibtelecom Masters, Playoff Caleta 2010; French Defence 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 c5 4 Ngf3 Nf6 5 e5 Nfd7 6 c3 Nc6 7 Bd3 Qb6 8 0-0 a5 Black could also play 8 ...

Michael Basman is in many ways the most important person in British chess. As a player, he is an International Master, who tied for the British Championship in 1973, losing out in the tie-break. Since then he has turned his hand to organising a mass annual schools championship, attended by 70,000 entrants every year. Sponsored by Delancey, this is the prime breeding ground in British chess for future champions who have gone on to win the British championship, or compete in last month’s London Grand Prix at Simpson’s in the Strand, or will compete in the London Classic at Olympia this December.

In contemporary high-class tournament play both adjournments and early draws have been banned. This is partly due to the accessibility of computer analysis and partly to the realisation that well-remunerated grandmasters have an obligation to entertain. As a result, more and more games are being decided in seemingly level endgames which in former times might have been abandoned as draws. Carlsen is a particular exponent of this attritional warfare. If it pays to study the endgame, then Akiba Rubinstein is your man, possibly the greatest endgame artist of all time. Rubinstein was active from around 1907 to 1930, during which period all of the great names succumbed at one time or another to his endgame prowess.

Magnus Carlsen has won the elite tournament split between Sao Paulo, Brazil and Bilbao, Spain ahead of a squad of top grandmasters, including the world champion Viswanathan Anand. Using the 3 for a win, 1 for a draw and nothing for a loss system, the final scores were as follows: Carlsen and Caruana 17, Aronian 11, Karjakin 10, Anand 9 and Vallejo Pons 6. The tie-break between Magnus and rising star Fabiano Caruana was broken by two rapidplay games, both of which ended in Carlsen’s favour. Worthy of note was the feeble performance by world champion Anand, who failed to win a single game and finished near the bottom of the table. Even more significant was the fact that Carlsen overran Anand in the one decisive game from their individual encounters.