P-P-P-P-PICK UP A PENGUIN

By John Henderson

RAY KEENE AND ERIC SCHILLER: AN APOLOGY - It’s been brought to my attention by our legal firm of Dowey, Skrewum & Howe, that in my first report, entitled No Pein, No Pain, I erroneously described both Mr Keene and Mr Schiller as “the Hardy & Hardy of chess organisation”. I now realise that I was wrong to describe these two legends in their own lunch hours in such a way, and humbly apologise for any harm or offence caused.

Eric Schiller

I now fully accepted that, in view of the fact that they need to climb four flights of stairs numerous times a day in order to get to the pressroom that doesn’t have any food or refreshments within it, coupled with the fact that they have both been seen eating regularly at a Vegetarian Restaurant (favourite food: seconds – see Tony Miles and Larry Christiansen), I should, in fact, have described them as “the Laurel & Laurel of chess organisation”.

Ray Keene

I hope that in no way does this oversight on my part harm any future working relationship with Mr Keene and Mr Schiller, and I look forward to reviewing their “instant” book on the Braingames World Championship match between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik – due for publication the week before the match finishes!

I suppose the above is pretty tame for these two who over the years have been the butt (and a large one at that) of many jokes, scandals and malicious gossip in the chess world. However, one of them, Ray Keene, despite the jibes about his many bad books, has, in fact, authored several excellent titles in his early days that were well worth picking up. Opening classics such as Flank Openings, The Pirc Defence and The Modern Defence (in collaboration with George Botterill), and The Nimzo-Larsen Attack, all stand out as outstanding theoretical works. However, for me, Ray was at his best producing biographies such as Aaron Nimzowitsch: a Reappraisal (by far his best work), Leonid Stein: Master of Attack, Howard Staunton: the English world chess champion (in collaboration with Richard Coles), and last, but not least, his own recent autobiography to celebrate his big Five-O, Grandmaster Strategy.

Affectionately known in British chess circles as “The Penguin”, Ray, despite all his many faults, in fact has a keen (no pun intended) sense of history for the game that shines through in his weekly column in The Spectator magazine. Both players in this $2 million Braingames World Championship match are playing for a new trophy that has, as they would say in a London-based police thriller, Ray’s dabs all over it – The Staunton Memorial Trophy. No British journalist/author has done more to highlight the achievements of the great English player of the 19^th centaury, Howard Staunton (1810-1874), regarded by many as the de facto world champion of his day.

Staunton played a huge part in changing the face of the game from being a gentleman's pastime into a competitive sport. He was the mastermind behind the first international chess tournament in London in 1851, which launched the era of international chess competition long before most other sports had got themselves organised. He lent his name to the 'Staunton pattern' chessmen, thus establishing a design for chess pieces that remains standard to this day - highlighted by the fact that both Kasparov and Kramnik play this match with such a set.

Although the title of world champion did not officially exist in the 1840s, Staunton was regarded as the “unofficial” world champion after he broke the 100-year French domination of world chess (Legall, Philidor, Deschapelles and La Bourdonnais).

“In a match played in London,” jokingly commented Garry Kasparov at the press conference after game five, “there should be at least one English Opening!”. Kasparov wasn’t just paying homage to the venue for his match against Kramnik, he was, in his own little way, paying tribute to Staunton, of whom Bobby Fischer described as “...the most profound opening analyst of all time.”

The English Opening, 1 c4, was rarely tried until 1843; then became the centre of attention after Staunton played it six times in his match against Pierre de Saint-Amant. When both the Champions of England and France met in the Great Hall of the Café de la Regenge in a 21-game match (Staunton winning 13-8), it was universally dubbed as “The World Championship Match”, the first time a chess match had been such named. Staunton was the first British player to be honoured with a memorial tournament, and last year he became the first chess-player to be immortalised by English Heritage when a blue plaque was unveiled in his honour at his former dwelling, 117 Lansdowne Road, London.

And, likewise at the Braingames World Championship match, he’s being honoured by the chess fraternity with both Kasparov and Kramnik competing not just for the prize-money, but more importantly for ownership of the trophy, specially commissioned and designed by the royal jewellers, Aspreys, which will be awarded to the winner.

Kasparov,G (2849) - Kramnik,V (2770) [A34]

1 c4 Perhaps feeling the strain after his exertions (incidentally, Word 2000 offered me the choice of “excretions” here on its spellchecker, which I thought would have been more appropriate!) of the day before, Kasparov plays the English; an opening he rarely plays these days. Although he used it most of the time during his Seville match against Karpov in 1987, he last used it against Deep Blue in 1997. 1 ..c5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 g3 d5 The Rubinstein Variation. 4 cxd5 Nxd5 5 Bg2 Nc6 6 Nc3 g6 6 ..e5?? 7 Nxe5! Nxc3 8 Nxc6 wins material. 7 0–0 Bg7 8 Qa4 Nb6 9 Qb5 Nd7!?N

A novelty from Kramnik, though admittedly it does transpose later into a known line. He doesn't like giving up the c4-pawn despite the fact that he gets more than adequate piece-play for it: 9 ..c4 10 Ne5 (10 Na4 0–0 11 Nxb6 axb6 12 Qxc4 Be6 13 Qh4 Bxa2 14 d3 e5 15 Bg5 Qd7 16 Be3 Nd4 17 Nxd4 exd4 18 Bd2 Bd5 19 Bb4 Rxa1 20 Rxa1 draw Myreng,S-Catalan,T/Gausdal 1982/MCL (61)) 10 ..Bxe5 11 Bxc6+ bxc6 12 Qxe5 f6 13 Qe4 Qd6 14 Rd1 Bf5 15 Qf3 Qe6 16 Re1 Kf7 17 b3 Rhd8 18 Qe3 cxb3 19 axb3 Qxb3 20 Ba3 Qe6 21 Qxe6+ Bxe6 22 d3 a5 23 Bc5 Nd7 24 Be3 Rdb8 draw Lobejko,R-Schmidt,W/Koszalin 1998/CBM 65 10 d3 0–0 11 Be3 Nd4 12 Bxd4 12 Qc4!? Nxf3+ (12 ..b5 13 Nxb5! Nxe2+ 14 Kh1 and White's doing well.) 13 exf3! (13 Bxf3 Ne5! and Black has the bishop pair and a nice game. As played, White will always be able to use f4 to take the e5-square from Black.) 13 ..Ne5 14 Qxc5 Nxd3 15 Qb5 and, after easy developing moves like f4, Rfd1 and Rac1, White has a big plus. 12 ..cxd4 13 Ne4 Qb6!

This looks like Kramnik's “big idea” to playing Garry in this match. Whenever practically possible, he seeks to exchange queens to frustrate the champion. 14 a4 a6! 14 ..Qxb5 15 axb5 Nb6 16 Ra5!, and White has good hopes with active queenside play. 15 Qxb6 Nxb6 16 a5 Nd5 17 Nc5 Rd8 18 Nd2 Rb8 19 Nc4 e6 20 Rfc1 Bh6!

Kramnik doesn't want Kasparov to have control of the c-file, hence 20 ..Bh6. 21 Rcb1 Bf8 22 Nb3 Bg7 23 Bxd5 Rxd5 It doesn't take a genius to work out that taking with the pawn is bad: 23 ..exd5 24 Nb6 Re8 25 Rc1! 24 Nbd2 24 Nb6?! Rb5 25 Nd2 e5 26 b4 Bf8 27 Ra4 Bg4 28 f3 Be6 29 Ndc4 Bc5! and Black's better. 24 ..e5 ½–½

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of TWIC, Chess & Bridge Ltd or the London Chess Center.