DUTCH TREAT by Hans Ree

Going to the Dogs

When I was musing about the role of the dog in the history of
chess, until recently my thoughts went out to that English dog that
induced a painful but fortunately only temporary estrangement
between the great chessplayers Euwe and Botvinnik. In 1936
during the tournament in Nottingham, world champion Euwe and
future world champion Botvinnik took a walk together. They saw a
dog of a comparatively rare breed. "We don't have such dogs in the
Soviet Union," Botvinnik said. "No," Euwe replied, "I suppose
your people have eaten them all."

The unwavering communist Botvinnik made it clear in his
memoirs that he did not appreciate this remark, which he blamed
on Euwe's youthful impudence, though he himself was ten years
younger than Euwe. It was only much later that they became very
good friends.

And then of course there was Robert Huebner's dog, which
according to Huebner could reach master strength within a few
months with competent instruction. But Huebner's dog has in
common with Schroedinger's cat that it is an imaginary animal that
serves only to illustrate a point, in this case a point about the
strength of international masters.

But now there is Short's dog, the hell-hound from Novgorod. After
the tournament in Novgorod, Short said in his column in "The
Sunday Telegraph" that on the evening before the last round he
went out for a walk to consider an always difficult problem: what
to do against Gary Kasparov.

Quietly flowed the river Vokhov. Serene was the sight of the
thirteenth- century monastery, situated nearby. The perfect
background for subtle contemplation. But very unquiet was the
famished wild dog that suddenly hurled itself on Short. Only in the
early hours of the morning of the day that he had to face Kasparov
was a bandaged Short able to leave the hospital. The game against
Kasparov was a short but fascinating draw, ending in a perpetual,
that will give students of the Sicilian Defence food for thought for
quite a while. Here it is:

White: Short 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-c4 e7-e6 7.
0-0 Bf8-e7 8. Bc4-b3 0-0 9. f2-f4 b7-b5 10. e4-e5 d6xe5 11. f4xe5
Nf6-d7 12. Bc1-e3 Nd7xe5 13. Qd1-h5 Nb8-c6 14. Nd4xc6
Ne5xc6 15. Rf1-f3 b5-b4 A novelty. Often 15...g6 has been played
and white has usually won nicely. Kasparov's move looks very
risky. 16. Rf3-h3 h7-h6 17. Ra1-d1 Qd8-a5 (See Diagram)

18. Nc3-d5 e6xd5 19. Rh3-g3 d5-d4 20. Bb3-d5 Be7-g5 21.
Be3xg5 Qa5xd5 22. Bg5-f6 Qd5xh5 23. Tg3xg7+ Kg8-h8 24.
Rg7-g6+ Kh8-h7 25. Rg6-g7+ Draw.

It is tempting to speculate on what might have been had Short not
been attacked by that furious dog. As it happened, Short went for
an elegant draw. But maybe there was a refutation of Kasparov's
novelty. After an undisturbed night's sleep Short might have found
it. Kasparov and Kramnik would have shared first place in
Novgorod and the clamors for a world championship's match
between the two would have become even louder. The history of
chess might have taken a different turn, had not the hound of
Novgorod intervened.

I must admit that this line of speculation is very tenuous, for
Kasparov probably had worked out the whole game and all its
possible deviations at home, and as we know, his preparation is
usually quite good.

On the same page as Short's chess column there was a bridge
column that was also about chess. The bridge writer of "The
Sunday Telegraph" considered Deep Blue's victory over Kasparov
as proof that chess is an inferior and "one-dimensional" game.
Bridge was much deeper and a computer would never defeat a
strong human bridge player.

Is that true? Bridge computers may be weaker than their
chessplaying relatives, but much less time and money has been
spent on them by researchers. But what may be true, is that bridge
players will be less in shock when a computer beats the best human
players. They seem to be closer than us to their roots, which for us,
as well as for them, lie in frivolous coffee house play. They might
realize more clearly than chess players that a game can only be
played by humans and that the strength of a machine is irrelevant.

But we are in danger of digressing from our subject, which is the
dog. For the Mongols, the dog was the piece that occupied the
position next to the king, where we have the queen. There have
been scholars who took this as an indication that for the Mongols
the dog was a more important member of the household than the
woman, but these scholars are not taken seriously anymore. A
German writer had it that our bishop used to be called "Hund"
(German for dog) in the past, but that seems not to be true either.
In a study about Mongol tribes, published in St. Petersburg in
1776, the Mongol people of Kalmykia are described as being
completely immersed in chess and card games during wintertime.
And so by a detour we are once again in Kalmykia, land of our
leader Ilyumzhinov.

In the Dutch weekly "Vrij Nederland" Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam
(known to us as editor of "New in Chess") had it on authority of an
eye-witness that the building of the independent chess city-state
that would arise in the Kalmuk capital Elista had come to a stop
after the Turkish workmen had left because they were not being
paid. According to the same eye-witness 1500 civil servants in
Kalmykia had not been paid their salaries for four months, because
the money was needed for the prizes of the Russian chess
championship, played in Elista. Whether all this is true, I have no
idea, and anyway, it takes us too far from our theme, which is and
remains the role of the dog in the history of chess.

White: Isabella Hund Black: Barbara Hund, Bundesliga, Germany
1993. 1. e2-e4 e7-e6 2. d2-d4 d7-d5 3. e4xd5 e6xd5 4. Bf1-d3
Nb8-c6 5. c2-c3 Ng8-f6 6. Bc1-g5 Bf8-e7 7. Ng1-f3 Bc8-g4 8. 0-0
0-0 9. Nb1-d2 Bg4-h5 10. Rf1-e1 Bh5-g6 11. Bd3xg6 h7xg6 12.
Nf3-e5 Nc6xe5 13. Re1xe5 Be7-d6 14. Re5-e3 (See Diagram)

These two did not harm each other, but a fiercer bite was seen in
the next game. White: Bruno Bouvier Black: Georges Antonoff,
Championship of Paris 1995. 1. Ng1-f3 Ng8-f6 2. d2-d4 d7-d5 3.
c2-c4 d5xc4 4. Nb1-c3 c7-c5 5. e2-e3 e7-e6 6. Bf1xc4 Bf8-e7 7.
0-0 a7-a6 8. a2-a3 b7-b5 9. Bc4-d3 0-0 10. d4xc5 Be7xc5 11.
e3-e4 Bc8-b7 12. Qd1-e2 Nb8-d7 13. e4-e5 Nf6-e8 14. Rf1-d1
Qd8-e7 (See Diagram) 15. Bd3xh7+ Kg8xh7 16. Nf3-g5+ Kh7-g6
17. Qe2-d3+ f7-f5 18. e5xf6+ Kg6xf6 19. Qd3xd7 Qe7xd7 20.
Rd1xd7 Ne8-d6 21. Ng5-h7+ Kf6-e5 22. Nh7xf8 Ra8xf8 23.
Bc1-e3 Bc5xe3 24. f2xe3 g7-g6 25. Ta1-d1 Bb7-d5 26. Rd7xd6
Black resigned because of 26...Kxd6 27. e4.

This column first appeared in the Dutch newspaper
"NRC-Handelsblad" June 6, 1997. Copyright 1997 Hans Ree, All
Rights Reserved. 