Dutch Treat 
by Hans Ree

To the Harbour

The story was originally told in the Canadian magazine En Passant
but I learned it from Inside Chess, now regrettably defunct.
Defunct they wouldn't call it, there at the offices in Seattle. Moved
on from a paper magazine to the wider pastures of the Internet,
they would say. I call that defunct, though I wish them well on the
fickle floats of the New Economy. 

Anyway.

Last year at the closing ceremony of a tournament in Havana the
Canadian FIDE master Irwin Lipnowski sat across from Robert
Huebner, who had shared first prize. Apart from a money prize,
Huebner had received two trophies.

"You must have many trophies at home?" Lipnowski asked
admiringly. Huebner said he had none. His apartment was full with
books and there was no room left for trophies. "But what do you do
then with these trophies?" Huebner explained that after the closing
ceremony he would go to the harbour and throw his trophies into
the water. That was what he always did when he had won a
tournament. He didn't want to carry a heavy cup back to Germany.
Lipnowski asked if it wouldn't be more practical to tell the
organizers in advance that he wouldn't want their cups and
trophies, but Huebner explained that this would be very
discourteous, even insulting.

This stands to reason. One realizes that leaving the cup in the hotel
room wouldn't do either. It would be found, reported, and the
organizers would have to spend time and costs to send the
forgotten cup to Germany after all. No, there was only one
solution. To the harbour.

The meticulous care which Huebner took to avoid hurting the
feelings of the organizers reminds me of a Dutch artist friend, the
gifted painter Willem van Malsen. On one occasion I met him by
accident on a train where, in the quiet of his compartment, he was
carefully tearing apart a pair of his trousers. Why that? He
explained that he was on his way to visit his mother, who in her old
age still took pride in fixing the torn clothes of her Bohemian son.
For him, tearing apart his trousers for her to fix was an act of love.
I appreciated the opportunity to see a true artist at work. But back
to chess.

Lipnowski, who must have won fewer trophies in his life than
Huebner, found it a pity that the recent acquisitions would disappear
into the Havana harbour. Wouldn't Huebner rather give them to
him? Most certainly he would. Indeed Huebner was quite grateful
for the offer. It would spare him a long walk with a heavy burden.
Lipnowski said that he would take good care of the trophies and
that Huebner would be welcome to reclaim them any time he
wished, but Huebner reassured him that the chance that he would
actually do this was zero.

Silver cups and table lamps, popular prizes in weekend
tournaments in the time of my youth, seem hardly coveted by the
top players of modern time. When Garry Kasparov and Vladimir
Kramnik shared first prize at the recent Linares tournament,
Kasparov said that Kramnik could have the cup. He subtly
emphasized that he himself already had five Linares cups.
Kramnik, no less courteous than Huebner, let it be known that he
greatly appreciated the gift.

At the press conference, Kramnik talked about a subject that must
be dear to his heart, as he had already broached it before: the need
of protection against chess criminals who would use a computer
during their games. Is this really a threat? One would like to laugh
it away, but one wonders. 

At the end of 1998 there was the infamous case of the German
amateur Clemens Allwerman who won the Boeblingen Open and
was suspected of having used a computer. "It's mate in eight," he
had said when his last round opponent had resigned, which would
almost be proof of clairvoyance, had he thought up this himself.
What happened to this case? The 1998 story should have had a
follow up by now. There was a report from the German regional
chess federation that had investigated the case, disclosing that
Allwermann, shortly before his heroic feat, had bought a few
thousand German marks worth of spy equipment in an electronics
store. But if he has ever been punished or even reprimanded, I don't
know.

The criminally inclined could learn from this case that it is unwise
to talk about a mate in eight and risky to play too far above one's
normal standard. We haven't heard of such practices since 1998,
but this may only mean that crooks have gotten smarter. We
anxiously await further developments.

Kasparov and Kramnik shared first place in Linares and Anand,
Leko, Khalifman and Shirov shared last. A decent result for
Khalifman and a disappointment for Anand, who can be called the
most prominent loser of the tournament. It took quite a while
before he won a game, but when he did it was a very nice one.

White: Anand Black: Khalifman, Linares ninth round 
1. e2-e4 e7-e6 2. d2-d4 d7-d5 3. Nb1-c3 Bf8-b4 4. e4-e5 c7-c5 5.
a2-a3 Bb4-a5 6. b2-b4 c5xd4 7. Qd1-g4 Ng8-e7 8. b4xa5 d4xc3
9. Qg4xg7 Rh8-g8 10. Qg7xh7 Nb8-c6 11. f2-f4 Qd8xa5 12.
Ng1-f3 Compared to the main variation, 5...Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 Ne7 7.
Qg4, White is definitely better off here. 12...Bc8-d7 13. Ra1-b1
0-0-0 14. Qh7-d3 Ne7-f5 15. Rh1-g1 d5-d4 16. g2-g4 Novelty.
16. Qb5 has been played, but without success. 16...Nf5-e7 17.
Rg1-g3 Bd7-e8 18. h2-h4 Ne7-f5 19. Rg3-g1 Nf5-e3 20. Bc1xe3
d4xe3 21. Qd3xe3 Nc6-e7 22. Bf1-c4 Be8-c6 23. Rb1-b3 Kc8-b8
24. Qe3xc3 Qa5-c7 25. Bc4-e2 Ne7-d5 26. Qc3-c4 Qc7-a5+ 27.
Ke1-f2 It seems as if Black has reasonable attacking chances for
his sacrificed pawns, but Anand will prove to have everything
under control. 27...Bc6-a4 28. Rb3-b2 Rd8-c8 29. Qc4-d4 Rc8-c3
29...Rxc2 or 29...Bxc2 30. Rc1 would lead to an exchange of
pieces that cannot be profitable for Black. 30. Be2-d3 Rg8-c8 31.
Rg1-c1 Rc8-d8 32. Rc1-b1 Ba4-c6 33. Rb2-b3 Rc3xb3 34.
Rb1xb3 Nd5-f6 35. Qd4-b4 Nf6xg4+ 36. Kf2-g3 Qa5-d5 (See
Diagram)

37. Bd3-h7 A nice move that protects Nf3 and at the same time
prevents Black's Rg8. 37...Qd5-d1 38. Kg3xg4 Rd8-d2 39.
Kg4-g5 Bc6xf3 40. Bh7-d3 Rd2-g2+ 41. Kg5-f6 The wandering
King, always a nice theme, though the dangers of its wandering
were small this time. 41...a7-a6 42. Rb3-b1 Black resigned.

Last week in Monaco the traditional Amber tournament started
with a line up of the usual suspects. Joop van Oosterom, the patron
of this tournament, knows whom he likes and whom he does not
and keeps faithful to his friends throughout the years. The
following blindfold game was declared by Hort to be the best of
the first round. Against Lautier's Sveshnikov variation, Shirov
exhumes a piece sacrifice that was studied extensively about ten
years ago and found wanting. But it must be hell to defend against
it in a blindfold rapid game. Thinking time per player: 25 minutes
+ 20 seconds per move.

White: Shirov Black: Lautier 
1. e2-e4 c7-c5 2. Ng1-f3 Nb8-c6 3. d2-d4 c5xd4 4. Nf3xd4
Ng8-f6 5. Nb1-c3 e7-e5 6. Nd4-b5 d7-d6 7. Bc1-g5 a7-a6 8.
Nb5-a3 b7-b5 9. Bg5xf6 g7xf6 10. Nc3-d5 f6-f5 11. Bf1xb5
a6xb5 12. Na3xb5 Ra8-a4 13. b2-b4 Ra4xb4 14. Nb5-c7+
Ke8-d7 15. 0-0 Rb4-b7 16. Qd1-h5 Nc6-e7 17. Qh5xf7 Kd7-c6
(See Diagram)

18. Ra1-b1 f5xe4 19. Rb1xb7 Kc6xb7 20. Rf1-b1+ Kb7-c6 21.
Rb1-b6+ Kc6-c5 22. Rb6-b3 Kc5-c6 23. Rb3-c3+ Kc6-b7 24.
Nd5xe7 Bf8xe7 25. Qf7-d5+ Kb7-a7 26. Qd5-a8+ Black
resigned.

This column first appeared in the Dutch newspaper
NRC-Handelsblad March 18, 2000. Copyright 2000 Hans Ree, All
Rights Reserved