Dutch Treat 
by Hans Ree

BATTLE FATIGUE

Boris Spassky became sixty years old this year and two journalists
from the French chess magazine Europe Echecs went to visit him
to celebrate. A few crumbs of the conversation they had with the
former world champion appeared in the October issue, which
seems rather late because the birthday was in January. Maybe the
journalists had not noticed it then, but Spassky does not play often
and when he plays, he tends to make a quick draw and join the
commentators to entertain the public with funny faces and
imitations of Karpov's way of speaking.

Though Spassky is married to a French women and has been living
in France for more than twenty years he spoke English with the
French journalists. "It does not matter. Chess is his native
language," they wrote politely.

But sadly, one does get the impression that this native language has
not given much joy to Spassky. His qualification for the candidates
tournament of 1956, a great success at his young age, he describes
as a "whiplash" because his mind was not ready for it. The only
years he recollects with pleasure are the years before 1969, when
he was not yet world champion but felt that he was the strongest.
He had energy, he was creative and that made him happy. But it
was not to last. "After I won the title, I was confronted with the
real world. People do not behave naturally anymore - hypocrisy is
everywhere."

Then came years of pain and sorrow. Spassky lost the title to
Fischer. He left the Soviet Union. His successes became less
frequent and he played not for joy but to earn money. He tells
Europe Echecs that he was saved by the second match against
Fischer in 1992, which made him financially independent.

And now? He is writing his memoirs. Maybe there will be a time
when they will be published, after his death. He is still playing now
and then, one or two tournaments a year, but not the hard and
serious tournaments. "I enjoy life, sometimes with a good bottle of
wine! But don't count on me in tournaments that demand a lot of
nervous energy, like the French championship. I am empty, these
are not for me anymore."

Spassky speaks with Europe Echecs a little bit about Kasparov and
Karpov and has few kind words for them. Why did Kasparov lose
to Deep Blue? "If the match was honest, Kasparov lost because he
is stupid. But we cannot take this for granted." As for the
Kasparov-Karpov matches, he does not hold the extreme opinions
of his friend Bobby Fischer, who thinks that everything was
pre-arranged, from the first to the last move, but on the other hand
he does not accept that all was as it seemed to be. Spassky believes
that the first two matches, of 1984 and 1985, were honest, but after
that he doesn't trust the two K's: "If they had played 150 games at
full strength, they would be in a lunatic asylum by now."

All in all, despite the talk of enjoying life with a good bottle of
wine, the interview exudes a very melancholy mood and the reader,
overcome with a fatigue that is almost as burdensome as that of
Spassky himself, is sadly wondering if life at the top of the world
of chess is really so exhausting as to drain a great and strong player
of all fighting spirit.

It can be, but it does not have to be; Victor Korchnoi is not the
only example of joyful chess longevity. At the time I read this
interview a tournament was being held in the Dutch town
Hoogeveen which had among the competitors two great players
who are much older than Spassky but are far from being drained
and exhausted.

In the main group of four, playing a double round-robin, Vasily
Smyslov competed with Judit Polgar, Loek Van Wely and the
former youth champion Emil Sutovsky. Smyslov is 76 years-old
and he still loves chess. I would like to introduce his game with
Polgar with a short news item that I found in the same issue of
Europe Echecs that had the interview with Spassky. Zoe Gelfand,
the wife of chessplayer Boris, made it known that she had gotten a
tamagotchi as a present. One of these new computer-pets that
children like to raise. Zoe told that she had tried to raise her
tamagotchi according to the famous Polgar-method and that it had
died after a few days. Not quite a convincing argument because
father Polgar's method was meant for humans, but I give it for what
it is worth.

White: Smyslov Black: Judit Polgar, Hoogeveen, fourth round. 1.
Ng1-f3 Ng8-f6 2. d2-d4 g7-g6 3. Bc1-g5 Bf8-g7 4. Nb1-d2 d7-d5
5. e2-e3 0-0 6. Bf1-d3 c7-c5 7. c2-c3 b7-b6 8. 0-0 Bc8-b7 9.
Bg5xf6 Bg7xf6 10. Qd1-e2 Bf6-g7 11. Ra1-d1 Nb8-d7 12. Rf1-e1
Modern opening theory is not for Smyslov anymore, especially
when he plays with white. He opts for a modest and solid position
and waits for what comes. 12...c5-c4 And what comes must have
been a welcome surprise to Smyslov. 13. Bd3-c2 f7-f5 The
consequence of her last move, for otherwise white would easily get
a good game with 14. e4. But now white also gets a clear
advantage with energetic play. 14. Nf3-g5 Rf8-f6 15. f2-f4 b6-b5
16. g2-g4 e7-e6 17. Qe2-g2 Qd8-e7 18. Nd2-f3 h7-h6 19. Ng5-h3
a7-a5 20. Nf3-e5 Black has a miserable position and now sacrifices
material to confuse the issue. 20...g6-g5 21. g4xf5 Nd7xe5 22.
d4xe5 Rf6xf5 23. Bc2xf5 e6xf5 (See Diagram) Black certainly
does not have enough for the exchange. She threatens to close the
position with 24...g4. 24. f4xg5 d5-d4 25. e3-e4 d4xc3 Now 26.
gxh6 would win even more material for white. With 26...cxb2
black would get an impressive block of pawns, but again it would
hardly be enough. 26. b2xc3 h6xg5 27. Nh3xg5 b5-b4 28. e5-e6
Bb7-c6 29. Ng5-f7 Qe7-f6 30. Rd1-d6 Here 30. e5 Qxe6 31. Nd8
looks quite good for white. He was in heavy time pressure.
30...Qf6xc3 31. Re1-d1 Bc6xe4 32. Rd6-d8+ Ra8xd8 33. Rd1xd8+
Kg8-h7 34. Nf7-g5+ Kh7-h6 35. Ng5-f7+ Draw

David Bronstein played in the open tournament. He is three years
younger than Smyslov, his position on the world ranking list is a
bit less prominent, but a Bronstein game is still very often
something special. In the first round against the young Dutch girl
Linda Jap Tjoen San he left a queen en prise in a totally winning
position, which reminded the Dutch spectators of the candidates
tournament of Amsterdam 1956, where Petrosian had done exactly
the same thing against Bronstein himself. In the fourth round it
seemed as if Bronstein got a return gift from Dutch chesswriter IM
Gert Ligterink, who resigned in what at first was thought to be a
drawn position. But this was not true. After long analysis Bronstein
showed that there had been a beautiful win for him anyway. Not
that this quite justified Ligterink's resignation. And two rounds
earlier Jap Tjoen San, the glad recipient of Bronstein's queen, had
resigned against Ligterink in a position which really was drawn.
You give a few, take a few and in the end it all comes out equal. I
learned from the great Dutch chess writer E. Straat that Tacitus
held those who ascribe significance to banal coincidences in
contempt; otherwise, I would tend to see a higher justice in this
remarkable circle of gifts. 

So much for curiosities. Just winning beautiful games is something
that Bronstein is also still quite capable of.

White: Bronstein Black: Vedder, Hoogeveen open, third round 1.
d2-d4 Ng8-f6 2. c2-c4 e7-e6 3. Ng1-f3 b7-b6 4. g2-g3 Bc8-b7 5.
Bf1-g2 Bf8-b4+ 6. Bc1-d2 c7-c5 7. d4xc5 Bb4xc5 8. 0-0 0-0 9.
Nb1-c3 Nf6-e4 10. Qd1-c2 f7-f5 11. Ra1-d1 Ne4xd2 12. Rd1xd2
a7-a6 13. a2-a3 Qd8-c7 14. Rf1-d1 Bc5-e7 15. Qc2-b3 Rf8-c8 16.
c4-c5 (See Diagram) Black has seen too late that white is now
threatening 17. Rxd7 Nxd7 18. Qxe6+. 16...Bb7-c6 17. c5xb6 Of
course white is winning now. He finishes the game quite elegantly.
17...Qc7-b7 18. Nf3-e5 Bc6xg2 19. Rd2xd7 Bg2-d5 20. Rd1xd5
Rc8xc3 21. Rd7-d8+ Bronstein would have played the simple 21.
bxc3, were it not that he was afraid that pedants would accuse him
of having overlooked a forced mate. 21...Be7-f8 22. Rd8xf8+
Kg8xf8 23. Qb3-b4+ Kf8-e8 24. Rd5-d8+ Ke8xd8 25. Qb4-f8+
Mate 

This column first appeared in the Dutch newspaper
"NRC-Handelsblad" October 18, 1997. Copyright 1997 Hans Ree,
All Rights Reserved. 