Dutch Treat by Hans Ree

90 Lashes of the Whip

Last year in Las Vegas at the opening ceremony of the FIDE World
Championship there was a group of singers and dancers, allegedly
from Hong Kong and allegedly (for few of us understood their
Chinese words) announcing that the next championship would be
held there and that the prize fund was secured. There was talk
about a similar offer from Sun City, the South-African casino
town. Millions of dollars were pouring in from all sides into the
chess world, it seemed.

We never heard of these offers again and I remember wondering,
while I was watching the dancers, if they were really from Hong
Kong or if it was an American or European group, just hired for a
performance and maybe unaware of the existence of a game called
chess. What did it matter? Our president Ilyumzhinov had provided
a spectacle and promises of money and that's what counted at the
time.

More and more he reminds me of a character who will be known to
lovers of Russian literature: Ostap Bender, also known as the Great
Combinator, the hero of the novel The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf
and Yevgeni Petrov.

A successful adventurer will never cease to amaze friend and foe
with new daring and unexpected actions. Dull and sober citizens
are still wondering about his latest feat. Was everything really as it
seemed? But the adventurer, always a few steps ahead, is already
on to new exploits, leaving his petty-minded critics bewildered.
Such an adventurer is Ilyumzhinov.

Mid-May, as a result of a meeting of the Presidential Board in
London, it was announced that the venues for the next World
Championships were to be New Delhi, where the tournament
would start on November 25, and Tehran, where the final rounds
would be played. The full prize money does not seem to be secured
yet, but Ilyumzhinov personally guaranteed 3 million dollars.
Maybe this is true, maybe not. I have stopped racking my brains
about the seriousness of FIDE announcements.

But it has to be admitted that the choice of Tehran is a spectacular
surprise. During the eighties chess had been forbidden in Iran. In
1991 the Iranian player Babak Tondivar, while competing in a
tournament in Berlin, told a German journalist - unfortunately I
forgot who he was and in which magazine he wrote his article -
about the ordeals the chess community had to suffer during these
years.

Chess players had to meet in secret places. Tondivar said that he
and his friends met once a week in a clothes factory for small
tournaments and lectures. Chess literature could be bought, but it
was very expensive because the booksellers risked punishment
themselves. There was mention of a strong Iranian chess player
who had received ninety lashes of the whip after being caught at
chess.

After Khomeini's death in 1989, all this changed. In 1990 the
Iranians played in the olympiad again, though apparently
chaperoned by a functionary who could not play chess but had to
make sure that the team members did not drink alcohol or speak to
women.  A year later, according to the German journalist, a mass
chess tournament was held in Tehran with two thousand
competitors and even a tournament for members of parliament,
where fifty took part. How quickly times change.

And now Tehran will receive the FIDE World championships, not
only for men, but also the women's championship, if I understood
the press reports right, and if we can trust FIDE announcements.

Some other pieces of news from the board meeting. Doubts about
the realisation of this year's olympiad in Istanbul are apparently
unfounded. The olympiad will start there on October 27. Players
from Birma (at least those of 1900+), who in the past years had
their ratings raised by fraud on a grand and unprecendented scale,
will have to hand in 100 points, which in my humble estimation
represents about half of the loot.

A new rule was announced to the effect that tournaments in which
a computer takes part will not be officially rated. A sensible
reaction to the silliness of the Dutch Chess Federation which
invited chess computer program Fritz to this year's national
championship.

The rest of this column will be devoted to maintenance long
overdue. Last April, Dutch Jeroen Piket and Kazakhstan Vladislav
Tkachiev played an exciting match of eight games in Cannes,
France. Tkachiev, 26 years old, nowadays divides his time between
Moscow, where his family lives, and Cannes, where the ambitious
local chess club has provided him with an apartment. The club also
arranged a few matches for Tkachiev, against increasingly strong
opposition. David from Luxemburg and Van der Wiel from the
Netherlands were beaten - "to pulp" it was said in one report, with
the characteristic gentleness of chess journalism - and Piket held
the score even, 4-4.      

White Tkachiev-Black Piket, fourth game. 1. d2-d4 d7-d5 2. c2-c4
c7-c6 3. Nb1-c3 d5xc4 4. e2-e3 b7-b5 5. a2-a4 b5-b4 6. Nc3-e4
Sticks to his intention to sacrifice a pawn. 6. Na2 would have
regained it, but with no hopes of an advantage. 6...Qd8-d5 7.
Ne4-g3 Ng8-f6 8. Ng1-f3 Bc8-a6 9. Bf1-e2 e7-e6 10. 0-0 Bf8-d6
11. Bc1-d2 h7-h5 12. Nf3-e5 h5-h4 13. Be2-f3 (See Diagram)

13...h4xg3 A beautiful Queen sacrifice, which is entirely voluntary,
as 13...Qa5 was quite playable. Then 14. Nxc6 Qc7 would be good
for Black. 14. Bf3xd5 g3xh2+ 15. Kg1-h1 c6xd5 Black has two
pieces, two pawns and a very compact and solid position for the
Queen. It is more than enough. 16. a4-a5 Ba6-b5 17. a5-a6 Nb8-c6
18. Ne5xc6 Bb5xc6 19. Ra1-a5 Ra8-b8 20. Qd1-e2 Nf6-e4 21.
Rf1-a1 Bd6-c7 22. Bd2-e1 Bc7xa5 23. Ra1xa5 c4-c3 24. f2-f3
Ne4-d6 25. Be1-g3 Rb8-b5 26. Ra5-a1 Nd6-c4 Probably he was in
time trouble, for this is Piket's habit. 26...cxb2 27. Qxb2 Nc4
would give much better winning chances. 27. b2-b3 Nc4-b6 28.
Bg3-d6 Ke8-d7 And here, to hold the game, he should have played
28...f6 followed by Kf7. But spurred by the clock he leaves his
entire King's side unprotected. 29. Bd6-c5 Rh8-b8 30. Qe2-f2
Nb6-c8 31. Qf2-g3 Rb8-b6 32. Qg3xg7 Nc8-d6 33. Qg7-f8 Black
resigned.

A bitter pill to swallow for Piket, but in the last game, which, being
4-3 down, he had to win to equalise the match, he received a
comparable present from his opponent.

White Tkachiev-Black Piket, eighth game. 1. d2-d4 Ng8-f6 2.
c2-c4 c7-c5 3. d4-d5 b7-b5 4. Ng1-f3 g7-g6 5. c4xb5 a7-a6 6.
b5-b6 d7-d6 7. Nb1-c3 Bf8-g7 8. e2-e4 Nb8-d7 9. a2-a4 Qd8xb6
10. a4-a5 Qb6-a7 11. Bf1-e2 0-0 12. 0-0 Ra8-b8 13. Qd1-c2
Nf6-e8 14. Bc1-g5 Nd7-e5 15. Nf3xe5 Bg7xe5 16. Nc3-a4 Ne8-f6
17. Na4-b6 Be5-d4 18. Ra1-b1 Bc8-d7 19. Rf1-d1 (See Diagram)

19...Rb8xb6 Again Piket is willing to sacrifice material, but here
this was more or less forced, as White was ready for 20. b4 with an
advantage. 20. a5xb6 Qa7xb6 21. h2-h3 a6-a5 22. b2-b3 Bd7-b5
23. Rd1-e1 Rf8-b8 24. Be2xb5 Qb6xb5 25. Bg5-d2 Qb5-a6 26.
Bd2-e3 Bd4xe3 27. Re1xe3 Rb8-b4 28. Rb1-d1 Nf6-d7 29. Rd1-a1
f7-f6 30. Ra1-a4 Rb4-b5 31. Re3-e1 Qa6-b6 32. Ra4-a3 Kg8-g7
33. Re1-a1 c5-c4 34. Qc2xc4 Nd7-c5 35. Ra1-e1 Rb5-b4 36.
Qc4-c2 Nc5xb3 37. Qc2-c8 Nb3-c5 White has played a bit
hesitantly, maybe not being able to decide if he should play for a
draw to win the match or play for a win, which his position
deserved. The draw could still be had easily with 38. Qe8 Qa7 39.
Rxa5 Qxa5 40. Qxe7+ and if Black walks out of the perpetual
check he will be mated. Rejecting this possibility, White
unexpectedly sees his position go from bad to worse. 38. Qc8-c6
Qb6-a7 39. Ra3-a1 Kg7-f7 40. Re1-b1 Nc5xe4 41. Qc6-c2 Qa7-d4
42. Rb1-e1 f6-f5 43. Ra1-a2 Qd4xd5 44. Re1-d1 Qd5-e5 45.
Rd1-a1 Qe5-d4 46. Ra2-a4 Ne4-c5 47. Ra1-d1 Qd4xd1+ 48.
Qc2xd1 Rb4xa4 49. Qd1-d2 h7-h5 50. Qd2-c3 Ra4-b4 51. Kg1-h2
Nc5-e6 52. Qc3-a3 Rb4-b5 53. Qa3-a4 Rb5-c5 54. Qa4-b3 d6-d5
55. Kh2-g1 Rc5-c1+ 56. Kg1-h2 d5-d4 57. Qb3-a3 Rc1-c5 58.
Qa3-b3 h5-h4 59. Kh2-g1 Rc5-c3 60. Qb3-d5 a5-a4 61. f2-f4 a4-a3
62. g2-g4 h4xg3 63. h3-h4 Rc3-c5 64. Qd5-a2 d4-d3 White
resigned. 

This column first appeared in the Dutch newspaper
"NRC-Handelsblad" May 20, 2000. Copyright 2000 Hans Ree, All
Rights Reserved. 