Dutch Treat
by Hans Ree

LINARES

There had been rumors that Luis Rentero was expelled from the
organizing committee of the Linares tournament that he had
created and run for years. Rumors of bad quarrels with the
municipality, which had taken over the tournament. Rentero struck
back by organizing a new tournament in Ubeda, 30 kilometers
from Linares, in the same period. The Spanish journalist Leontxo
Garcia explained during the supertournament in Las Palmas how
things would develop in the next few years. Gradually Rentero
would buy the best players away from Linares into his own
tournament and the municipality of Linares would be left with a
second rate tournament. Maybe this was what the municipality had
feared. Anyway, at the opening ceremony of the Linares
tournament there was a heart-warming show of reconciliation. A
spokesman of the municipality said that a Linares tournament
without Rentero would be like a skiing holiday without snow.
Rentero had no official function this year, but from the start he
reigned with the heavy hand that the chessworld knows of him,
with thundering speeches and threatening letters.

He published an open letter to Karpov which must be one of the
most insulting that the FIDE world champion has ever received.
Karpov did not play in Linares and, according to Rentero, had not
answered the faxes in which he had been invited.

On behalf of the children of Linares, who supposedly were deeply
shocked by the behavior of their idol Karpov, Rentero called
Karpov a coward who had no right to call himself world champion,
in fact had never deserved to call himself such, after he had ducked
Fischer as he ducked Kasparov now. Rentero ended his letter by
saying that Karpov had joined the list of BAD PERSONS who
would never be invited to Linares again.

Gelfand and Kramnik, who did come to Linares, maybe regretted it
when they were severely reprimanded after playing a short draw in
the first round. Well, probably they did not. Everybody knows the
antics of the bully with the heart of gold, the players take it as a
part of Linares folklore and always come back the next year. But
all in all it seems that Rentero is playing this bully role in a more
and more extreme way. His threats against Xie Jun and Zsuzsa
Polgar, when they played for the world championship in Jaen
under Rentero's auspices, were completely unacceptable and this
time Karpov is rightly angry and has asked for an apology before
he will ever go back to Linares.

Karpov had a good reason not to play. He was campaigning in Tula
for the seat in the Duma, the Russian parliament that had become
vacant when general Alexander Lebed joined the Russian
government. Karpov's main rival was another general, Alexander
Korzhakov, former head of the security services of Yeltsin and
now aligned with Lebed, who probably still has some influence in
Tula. In fact Korzhakov won the election. Karpov was third out of
eleven contenders. Earlier, Korzhakov's leader Alexander Lebed
was quoted as saying that Kasparov would play an important role
in formulating the strategy and programme of his party. It was not
the first time Karpov and Kasparov found themselves in opposing
camps.

When the Dutchman Jeroen Piket left for Linares he thought he
was replacing Ivanchuk but in fact he was replacing for Karpov.
Ivanchuk had said yes, no, yes and no again but finally Rentero
caught him. If there was one player who regretted his coming it
must have been Ivanchuk during the first half of the tournament. "I
am like a wounded lion here - everyone is hunting me," he said to
the journalist Bjelica. The game Ivanchuk lost with white in 19
moves to Judit Polgar was really horrible. But later in the
tournament he regained his strength and he was the only one who
defeated Kasparov. "One day he plays like an 1800 player, next
day he plays like Ivanchuk," Kasparov said. Expletives deleted
according to Mark Crowther, who quoted Kasparov in The Week
in Chess.

Kasparov went on to a formidable score of 8.5 points out of 11,
beating the numbers 2,3,4,5 and 6 of the final ranking. No doubt at
this moment who is boss in the chess world.

White: Anand Black: Kasparov 1. e2-e4 c7-c5 2. Ng1-f3 d7-d6 3.
d2-d4 c5xd4 4. Nf3xd4 Ng8-f6 5. Nb1-c3 a7-a6 6. Bf1-e2 Like
some players keep their beard growing until they have won a game,
Anand seems to stick to this system until it will bring him a second
success against Kasparov. 6...e7-e6 7. 0-0 Bf8-e7 8. a2-a4 Nb8-c6
9. Bc1-e3 0-0 10. f2-f4 Qd8-c7 11. Kg1-h1 Rf8-e8 12. Be2-f3
Ra8-b8 This position they had in December last year in the last
round of the Las Palmas tournament. Then Anand played 13. g4.
13.Qd1-d2 Nc6-a5 14. Qd2-f2 Na5-c4 15. Be3-c1 e6-e5 16.
Nd4-e2 e5xf4 17. Ne2xf4 Bc8-e6 18. b2-b3 Nc4-e5 19. Bc1-b2
Rb8-c8 20. Ra1-c1 Qc7-c5 21. Qf2-g3 g7-g6 22. Nc3-e2 Ne5xf3
23. g2xf3 b7-b5 24. a4xb5 a6xb5 25. Bb2-d4 Qc5- c6 26. Qg3-g2
b5-b4 27. Ne2-g3 Qc6-b5 28. Nf4xe6 f7xe6 29. f3-f4 e6-e5 30.
Bd4-b2 Rc8-c5 (See Diagram) Anand was in time-trouble. From
Linares there were reports that white could have obtained a clear
advantage with 31. Nf5. I must confess that I don't see it. After
31...Bf8 white cannot strike at once with 32. Nxd6 Bxd6 33. fxe5
Bxe5 34. Bxe5 Rcxe5 35. Rxf6. Then 35...Rxe4 36. Rxg6+ would
indeed be good for white, but after 35...Qb7 black would have
nothing to fear. Interesting after 31...Bf8 would be 32. Nh4, e.g.
32...Qc6 33. fxe5 dxe5 34. Nxg6 Bg7 (34...hxg6 35. Qxg6+ Bg7
36. Rxf6 Qxf6 37. Qxe8+) 35. Nh4 Qxe4 36. Qxe4 Nxe4 37. Nf5
and it is still to been seen if white's advantage is worth much.
Another defence for black after 31. Nf5 would be 31...Qc6.
Anyway Anand would not have lost had he played this way. 31.
f4-f5 g6-g5 But now black takes over the initiative on the king's
wing. 32. Rc1-e1 Qb5-c6 33. Re1-e2 Kg8-f7 34. Bb2-c1 Re8-g8
35. Bc1-e3 Rc5-c3 36. Be3-d2 Rc3xc2 37.Bd2xb4 Rc2xe2 38.
Qg2xe2 h7- h5 39. Ng3xh5 Also a passive defence with 39. Re1
would be very bad after 39...g4 followed by h4. 39...Nf6xe4 40.
Qe2-f3 g5-g4 41. Qf3- g2 Rg8-h8 White resigned. He will lose
material. After 42. f6 sufficient for black would be 42...Rxh5 43.
fxe7+ Kxe7, but much stronger is 42...Bd8 43. Rf5 (43. Ng7
Ng3+) Rxh5 44. Rxh5 Qc1+ 45. Qg1 Nf2+ 46. Kg2 Qc6+ 47. Kf1
Qb5+ 48. Kg2 Qd5+ with a quick win.

White: Ivanchuk Black: Topalov 1. Ng1-f3 Ng8-f6 2. c2-c4 c7-c5
3. Nb1-c3 Nb8-c6 4. e2-e3 e7-e6 5. d2-d4 d7-d5 6. a2-a3 a7-a6 7.
d4xc5 Bf8xc5 8. b2-b4 Bc5-a7 9. Bc1-b2 0-0 10. Bf1-d3 Qd8-e7
11. 0-0 Rf8-d8 12. Qd1-e2 Bc8-d7 13. Ra1-c1 Ra8-c8 14. c4xd5
e6xd5 15. h2-h3 h7-h6 16. Rf1-d1 Bd7-e6 17. b4-b5 a6xb5 18.
Nc3xb5 Ba7-b8 19. Bd3-b1 Nf6-e4 20. Bb1-a2 Ne4-g5 21. Nf3-d4
Nc6xd4 22. Bb2xd4 Ng5-e4 23. a3-a4 Rc8-c6 (See Diagram)
Black has dangerous attacking possibilities against white's king. So
with his next move white tries to exchange an attacker, but this
finds a tactical refutation. 24. Bd4-a7 Rd8-c8 25. Qe2-b2 Probably
his original intent was 25. Rxc6 bxc6 26. Bxb8, but then comes
26...Rxb8 (26...cxb5 27. Be5 is alright for white) 27. Nd4 Nc3 after
which white does not have a good square for his queen: after 28.
Qd3 (leaving f2 unprotected) 28...Nxd1 Nxc6 Qf6 is good for
black and after 28. Qd2 follows 28...Nxd1 29. Nxc6 Qa3 30. Nxb8
Nc3 25...Qe7-h4 26. Rc1xc6 Everything works against white: 26.
Bxb8 Rxc1 27. Rxc1 Rxc1+ 28. Qxc1 Qxf2+ and white's Ba2 is
hanging. 26...b7xc6 27. Rd1-c1 And now 27. Bxb8 would lose a
piece after 27...Rxb8. 27...Ne4xf2 28. Qb2xf2 Bb8-h2+ 29. Kg1-f1
Qh4xa4 White resigned, as he will be two pawns down. The last
piece of bad luck for him is that 30. Nd4 Nxa7 31. Nxc6 would fail
to 31...Qa6+. 