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Inside ChessYasser Seirawan
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Inside Chess, 1998/13 S.W.I.F.T. World Cup I, Part Six Round Fourteen An awful round of chess. None of the victories made any sense. Portisch-Ljubojevic was advantageous for Lajos most of the way. When Lajos had built up his position to the point that his pieces were more active and his majority more mobile, he uncorked a horrible move 32.g4. It destroyed his position on the spot. With this victory, Ljubo returned to plus territory and Lajos continued his slippery slide. Nogueiras-Nikolic was a bizarre affair, Predrag gambled with the Slav Winawer Counter-Gambit. It worked. The game became a reversed French. After White overlooked a simple combination, he was forced to give up the exchange for nebulous compensation. A long series of second-rate moves by Predrag turned a favorable position into a lost one. Andersson made it two wins in a row; this time at my expense. The game was unusually sharp right out of the opening. After missing an equalizing continuation, Ulf was on the ropes. Sensing the danger, he went into his ultra-defense mode. This caused me to take greater and greater risks. When I asked more from the position than it had to offer, Ulf calmly pocketed the point. Even if the caliber of chess had suddenly become exhausted, at least the Brussels public had something to cheer about. The local favorite, Winants, pulled off an upset victory over Sax. Luc snookered Gyula into believing nothing was happening in the position. By pulling off a petite combinaison and winning a pawn, Luc was able to nurse this advantage to victory. In trying to decide which game to annotate for this round, I discovered a strange thing: there wasn't a good one! Salov-Kortchnoi and Tal-Speelman were GM draws. Beliavsky-Sokolov was a repeat of Tal-Sokolov. Black introduced an improvement and the game was drawn. The best game of the round was Timman-Nunn. The flaw in this game is that the first twenty-six moves or so are theory, and the last forty moves are unnecessary! So, draw what lessons you can from these games and let's move on to Round Fifteen. Round Fifteen Two players, Nunn and Salov, suddenly moved up to +4, putting a little pressure on Karpov, alone at +5. Nunn produced a professional GM performance against Winants. Certainly the impression is one of a smooth, clear win. Make no mistake, it is these kinds of wins that are necessary for tournament victory. Once again, I over-pressed, this time as white against Salov. I put a favored defense of the English under close scrutiny and it soon became clear that I had the advantage. For twenty-three moves, my play was excellent. Substitute 24.Bh3 for 24.Bd2 and try to defend Black's position. As it was, I threw myself into the teeth of Valery's position and got bitten! Sokolov-Timman was a hard-fought battle. Jan was lucky to survive. He stayed worse for sixty-one moves. At the adjournment, although a pawn down, Jan had survived the danger and the game was soon drawn upon resumption. Ljubojevic-Beliavsky was a dogfight of a draw. At first it seemed that Ljubo was squeezing by virtue of his spatial advantage. After forty moves, the tables had turned. Now Big Al was trying to take advantage of White's advanced center – but, in the end, the reversible thread supporting both players held out. Sax-Karpov, Speelman-Portisch, and Nikolic-Tal were all GM draws. Our featured game is Kortchnoi-Nogueiras. Kortchnoi, Viktor (2640) – Nogueiras Santiago, Jesus (2560) 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 Ne7 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 c5 So far, I've restrained myself in commenting on opening moves. But let me say this: how often does Viktor play l.e4? Is it a good idea to play the French against Viktor, the chief practitioner of this opening? My strong recommendation to Jesus is find another defense to l.e4. The sharks are beginning to form a line! 7.Qg4 Qc7 8.Qxg7 Rg8 9.Qxh7 cxd4 10.Ne2 Nbc6 11.f4 dxc3 12.Qd3 Bd7 The Winawer is getting a vigorous workout of late. The games Karpov- Hort and Karpov-Nogueiras come readily to mind, as does Ljubojevic-Beliavsky. The opening confuses me: what is Black's compensation for White's passed h-pawn and two bishops? 13.Nxc3 Also strong is 13.h4-h5-h6-h7, bolting the kingside down, and playing Qxc3. The text has the advantage of threatening Nb5, costing Black a tempo. 13...a6 14.Rb1!
A wonderful multi-purpose move. It develops a piece, controls b4 (thereby giving White the option of a3-a4 and Bc1-a3), pressures b6 and b7 (which is important if White plays Bc1-e3), and prevents Black from castling because of Oxa6. 14...Rc8 15.h4! Nf5 16.Rh3 Nce7 17.Bd2 Bc6 18.h5 Nh6 19.Rg3! An important move to mobilize the kingside pawns. 19...Rxg3 20.Qxg3 Nef5 21.Qh3 d4? Other than the opening itself, this is the only clear mistake I can find in Black's play. From White's point of view, the knight on c3 is misplaced. It needs to return to the kingside to support the upcoming pawn roller. This move forces White to find this plan. Best was 21...Qe7, eyeing a3 and preparing to meet g2-g4 by ...Qe7-h4+. 22.Nd1 Qd8
23.g4! Through most of the tournament Viktor had been the victim of his own aggression. It was only a matter of time before this aggression was going to payoff and someone was going to get clobbered. With this and his twenty-sixth move Viktor is at his best – playing a forced combination that nets a winning ending. 23...Qh4+ 24.Nf2 Qxh3 25.Bxh3 Nh4 26.f5! Nf3+ 27.Ke2 Bd5 28.Rc1 Ng8 29.Bg2! Nxe5 30.Bxd5 exd5 Excellent play. Black's extra central and queenside pawns are no match for the killers on the kingside. 31.h6 Nf6 32.g5 Nh5 33.Rg1 Kf8 If 33...Rxc2, then 34.h7 is a girl.
34.Kd1! Before going ahead with his pawns, Viktor first improves the position of his pieces. 34...Kg8 35.Ng4 Nf3 36.Rh1 Ng3 37.Nf6+ Kf8 38.Bb4+ 1–0 A scorching victory that really puts this variation of the Winawer under the spotlight. It simply doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Round Sixteen Karpov clinched first today. To show how he did it, we feature his game versus Winants. Portisch steamrolled Nikolic's Slav Defense off the board. It was surprising to see such a solid player as Predrag go down in flames so quickly. Ljubojevic was overjoyed with his victory over Timman today. Inside Chess readers are aware that Ljubo has recently had terrible results against Jan. First, the KRO Match was 4½-1½; then, in the last round of Linares, Jan won with the black pieces. It appeared that Jan would add to his collection-box of victories. His advantage was huge. The only way to explain the sudden turnaround was that Jan overlooked mate on the h-file. "Big Al" Beliavsky tried mightily to pull himself into second at Speelman's expense. Jonathan refused to cooperate and hung on for a grim sixty-eight moves. In his own fashion, Andersson also played hard for the victory. Using one of his patented opening treatments, he attempted to grind down Sax. Gyula also put up a determined resistance and was happy to settle things peaceably. More quick GM draws arose in Nogueiras-Seirawan, Tal-Kortchnoi, and Nunn-Sokolov. Winants, Luc (2465) – Karpov, Anatoly (2715) 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Be7 7.Bg2 c6 8.Bc3 0–0 9.0–0 d5 10.Nbd2 Nbd7 11.Re1 Rc8 12.e4 Ne8?
Pardon? It's impossible to imagine Anatoly giving up the center and wasting tempi. Obviously, he wants to give Luc as much rope as he needs to hang himself – but the noose swings both ways. There's plenty of chess left after 12 Nxe4 13.Nxe4 dxe4 14.Rxe4 c5 or even ...b5. 13.Rc1 Nc7!? 14.Bb2 Bb7 15.h4! Absolutely! With more space and a good central grip, White needs to create a target. Thus, he creates some opportunities on the kingside. The game can easily become a French Defense structure, so White should look to attack the black king. 15...Re8 Prophylaxis. 16.Bh3?! A wasted move. Now's the time to clarify the center: 16.cxd5 cxd5 17.e5! Ba6 18.Bf1 Bxf119.Nxf1 and it's student body right, or Re1-e2-c2. In either case White has a big advantage, as Black has no counterplay. 16...a5 17.a3 Bf8 18.Re3 h6 19.cxd5 cxd5 20.e5 Nb5 21.a4 Na7 22.Bf1!
White has a grip on the position. It's his choice whether to play on the queenside or against the kingside. Luc makes the right decision. 22...Rxc1 23.Qxc1 b5 Forced. Otherwise Anatoly will be hanged with his own rope. 24.axb5 Qb6 25.Bd3? An unnecessary move. Luc wants his queen to enter the game via f1. The caveman method of 25.g4-g5-g6 should be killing. The queen can always involve herself from the b1-h7 diagonal. 25...Nxb5 26.g4 Rc8 27.Qf1 Ba6 It's hard to imagine such a bad French for Black. White has all the trumps and hasn't sacrificed a thing! 28.g5 Nc7 29.gxh6 Bxd3 30.Qxd3 Though Black has been able to exchange light-squared bishops, White is still on the diagonal. Black is on the precipice of defeat. 30...gxh6 31.Nh2 Bg7 32.Rg3 Qb4 33.Ng4 Kh8 34.Qe3 Qf8
35.Nf6? A superficial move. If Black captures twice on f6, then Bb2-a3 decides the game at once. Of course, Black doesn't capture; rather, he enters a bad ending a pawn down. It's not kind of me to highlight Luc's blunders, but this was a golden moment. The way to cap his previous play was with 35.Nf3 (student body right) and where is the defense? If 35...Nb5 (preventing 36.Nf6), then 36.Ng5! followed by Qf4 is munchy, and 35...Ne8 36.Ng5 Qg8 37.Ba3 is a horrible debacle. After 3S.Nf3 the game is won. 35...Qe7 36.Ba3? Missing another opportunity! This time 36.Nh5! Rg8 (not 36...Bf8? 37.Qf4-g4) 37.Nxg7 Rxg7 38.Qxh6+ Rh7 39.Qg5 with a good ending a pawn up. 36...Qxa3 37.Nxd7 Nb5
38.Nf6?? Luc is intent on breaking the record for transforming a win into a loss. In spite of having bungled his best chances, White can keep things in his favor with 38.Qf4; for example, 38...Qe7 39.Nf6, etc. 38...Qa1+ 39.Nf1 Nxd4 40.Rxg7 Kxg7 41.Qg3+ Kh8 42.Qd3 Nf5 43.Qa6 0–1 Not Karpov's finest hour. But to win you need to be lucky, too!
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