The Kibitzer 
by Tim Harding

THE KIBITZER GOES TO WAR

There are two annual weekend tournaments in Ireland that attract
masters from Britain. A few months ago I wrote about the
Kilkenny tournament held in early December each year; the other
is Bunratty, played each February in the small tourist-oriented
village a few miles from Shannon International Airport. Bunratty is
often the first port of call for American tourists, with its famous
castle (where mediaeval-style banquets are held regularly) and its
folk village (where you can admire and buy Irish craft works and
see how life went on in the traditional Irish cottage before the days
of electrification).

Kilkenny, being nearer to Dublin, attracts the larger entry but
players have to put up with fairly uncomfortable and surroundings;
for many players that is its charm and they enjoy the social
occasion more than the chess. The calm and fairly luxurious
surroundings of Fitzpatrick's Bunratty Shamrock Hotel make for a
different style of tournament; the hotel rooms are better and there
is a swimming pool and fitness centre for families. With the stormy
weather you are liable to get in February in the west of Ireland it's
very necessary!

This year there were three six-round tournaments held over the
weekend February 14-16, with 20 players contesting the Bunratty
Masters. A rating of 1900 was required to get in the tournament
and in fact the field included three FIDE GMs (including
Russian-born Alexander Baburin who now lives here and played
top board for Ireland in the 1996 olympiad), two IMs and two Irish
National Masters plus one of the top players in the Irish Ladies
team, plus myself. So there were no easy games and it is not
surprising that the eventual joint winners could score only four and
a half points.

The rate of play deserves a mention, since although it is standard in
Ireland (except for local leagues and the national championship), it
may differ from what readers are accustomed to. In the masters
section, you have one hour 45 minutes to complete all your moves
in the game, with special blitz rules coming into operation when
you are down to under five minutes on the clock, provided that you
have made 40 moves by then. I greatly dislike this format, and
Jonathan Speelman (one of the GMs at Bunratty this year) said "It's
like an axe hanging over your head." 

I much prefer the old method of 40 (or 35) moves in 90 minutes
followed by a 15-minute blitz finish, but this was unpopular with
tournament controllers as it requires the clock to be wound back
precisely 15 minutes when the players complete the first time
control. However, it is more like real chess to have a genuine time
control before the blitz, and in fact that makes it more likely games
will finish in under the full allotted time for the session, since a
good many games will be decided at the first control.

The new generation of digital clocks should make it possible to
pre-program a time control of this kind without requiring any
wind-back so maybe in a few years we shall see the superior time
control reinstated. However, this year there were just two Saitek
digital clocks in use at Bunratty; unfortunately, board three was the
highest I got to so I didn't have the chance to try one. A warning,
however: the clock shows a countdown of time remaining in hours
and minutes until you get within your last five minutes. So when
you have 320 or 340 seconds left it is showing "00.05" but then
suddenly it will jump to "04.59" and start counting you down to
extinction.

In the first round the top half of the draw (on ratings) played the
bottom half so there were few surprises but round two proved a
fairly successful round for the Irish players against the visitors,
except that I was squashed by the new Scottish star, IM Jonathan
Rowson. Speelman got into enormous trouble against Mel
O'Cinneide, who had played on the Irish team in the Moscow
olympiad. Speelman had about eight minutes to Mel's four but
used up nearly all his time advantage trying to find a way to save
his weak pawns. By the time Black broke through, he had only a
minute left and rejected the best way to win a pawn with a winning
endgame. Instead he chose a simplifying line that gave Speelman
little alternative but to accept the accompanying draw offer.
Speelman's rivals were disgusted that Black hadn't gone for the win
but in Mel's place, against a former world championship candidate,
a lot of us would have done the same. Unfortunately the final
stages of this game were not in the bulletins. The problem is that
these blitz finishes were not all recorded on the scoresheets and if
one was still playing (I was busy losing to O'Cinneide) it wasn't
possible to record the moves; the bulletin editor really needs to
take that responsibility on himself.

In the same round, Edinburgh-based Irish IM Dr. Mark Orr
defeated the other GM visitor.

Orr - King 1 d4 e6 2 e4 d5 3 e5 c5 4 c3 Nc6 5 Nf3 Bd7 6 a3 f6 7
Bd3 Qc7 8 Bf4 0-0-0 9 0-0 c4 10 Bc2 Aiming to open the b-file
when sparks can fly as usual with opposite side castled kings.
Rather than try to hold up the advance with....Na5, Black gets on
with his own counterplay. 10...h6 11 b3 g5 12 Be3 f5 13 a4 cxb3
14 Bxb3 Na5 15 Na3 Bxa3 16 Rxa3 Ne7 17 Bc2 Nc4 18 Ra2 Be8
19 Ne1 f4 20 Bc1 Bg6 21 Bxg6 Nxg6 22 Nc2 h5 23 Na3 a6 24
Nxc4 dxc4 25 Ba3 Qc6 26 Re1 Nh4 Threatening mate on g2 and
planning a sacrificial follow-up. 27 f3 g4? Black thinks he is
getting a strong attack but 27...Nf5 or 27...Rd7 look safer. 28 Be7!
Nxf3+ The point, but it's unsound. 29 gxf3 Rdg8 30 Kh1 gxf3 31
Rf2 Rg2 32 Rxg2 fxg2+ 33 Kg1 Qd5 34 Bh4 The blockade means
that the bishop is much better than the pawns and the one on g2
just protects White's king! 34...Kd7 35 Qb1 f3 36 Qg6 Kc6 37 Qg7
Rb8? There is no active square for the rook but 37...Rc8 was better.
38 Qe7 The start of a neat finishing manoeuvre. 38...Rc8 39 Rb1
Rc7 40 Qe8+ Qd7 Now comes the coup-de-grace. 41 d5+ (See
Diagram) Black resigned, for if 41...Kc5 (41...exd5 42 Qg6+
mates: 42...Kc5 43 Qb6#; or 41...Kxd5 42 Rd1+ wins the queen)
42 Qf8+ mates, e.g. 42...Kxd5 43 Qxf3+ Kc5 (43...Kxe5 44 Bg3#)
44 Bf2+ Qd4 45 Bxd4#.

Then the visitors started to fight back. In round three King got on
the winning trail by beating Baburin and in round five Speelman
beat Orr after being held to a draw by Rowson..

Since I play correspondence chess almost exclusively these days,
and am very busy editing my new Chess Mail magazine, I found I
was very rusty for over-the-board play. Having decided in advance
to try some new openings instead of my normal repertoire was
probably a mistake, in retrospect. My own moment of fun came in
round four:

Suzanne Connolly-Tim Harding 1 e4 Nc6 2 Nf3 e5 3 Bb5 f5 A
good psychological move for the Saturday night round, which
meets with a timid reaction. Unfortunately I know almost zero
about the Jaenisch/Schliemann and after 4 d3 (instead of the
normal 4 Nc3), it was absolutely zero. 4 d3 d6? Black should play
4...fxe4 5 dxe4 Nf6. 5 Bc4 Even after this tempo sacrifice, which
cannot be White's best, I am still worse but I misjudged this and
played an abominable pseudo-active move. 5...Qf6? 6 Nc3 Of
course. Now after 6...Nge7 simply 7 Nb5 would force a groveling
K move. 6...Be6 7 Bxe6?! I was more worried about 7 Nd5.
7...Qxe6 8 exf5? This throws away any last vestige of advantage
for White. 8...Qxf5 9 Nd5 0-0-0 10 0-0 Nf6 11 Ne3 Qd7 12 c4
Black now plays a good move. My bishop looks bad and White
appears to be gathering a storm on the queenside but in three
moves the whole picture changes. 12...g6! 13 Qa4? This loses a
tempo because Black is never obliged to play....Kb8. 13...Bg7 14
Rb1 e4 15 dxe4 Nxe4 Now White saw that b4 cannot be played
because of....Nc3. She said afterwards that she should have
developed her bishop at move 13. 16 Qc2 Rde8 17 b4 Rhf8 18 b5
Just in time, as Black seriously intended to play....Rxf3 followed
by ...Qh3 and....Ng5 with a murderous attack. 18...Nd4 19 Nxd4
Bxd4 20 Rb3 Qe6 Among other things, this provides a flight
square for the K at d7, but the main point is to guard the knight and
so relieve the rook for other duties (see move 22). 21 Rd3 Bb6 22
a4 Black must bring more pressure to bear before White can
organise a4-a5. The idea is to double or even treble on the f-file.
22...Rf7 23 Nd1?? Apparently protecting f2 still further (with a
view to Be3) but actually having the opposite effect. I was looking
for a Nxf2 combination all the time but it didn't work until now. It
was virtually the first reply that occurred to me but a horrible
shock for White. 23 f3 was the least evil. Black has no immediate
winning plan then, although Ref8 is possible to maintain the N on
e4 until the bishops are exchanged, after which c5 beckons. (See
Diagram) 23...Nxf2! 24 Be3 Nxd1! Even stronger than Nxd3
which she expected; that wins an exchange but Nxd1 wins a piece
and/or mates. If 25 Bxb6 (25 Rxf7 Nxe3) 25...Rxf1+ 26 Kxf1
Qe1# so White resigned (0-1).

After round four the leaders had there points and I was in a group
half a point behind. Round 5 was played on the Sunday morning.
Orr lost to Speelman while King obtained two bishops against a
rook against Rowson in a simplified position. Finally King beat the
Scot with about five seconds left on his clock. I lost to O'Cinneide
so that was the end of my challenge.

In the last round. King and Speelman agreed a GM draw to finish
on 4.5/6 leaving O'Cinneide the chance to beat Baburin and finish
as sole winner with 5, or Baburin to win and join them in a tie for
first. The Novgorod-born Irish GM tried hard but in the end he did
not have enough advantage to win so the professionals' cynical
decision to sign peace after 18 moves was vindicated.

Returning to the OTB battlefield after a long break is tough for
correspondence players, especially those of us over 40. The
problem is that it's addictive and even if you do not do well, you
feel that next time, with a bit more practice and openings
preparation, it will be different. For the time being, however, it's
back to kibitzing!

 