Round 10 25th January 2001

AN OFFER YOU CAN’T REFUSE

THE great Dane himself, Bent Larsen, I think best described the atmosphere of this long-established tournament when he once remarked, that, "Normal people have to see Naples before they die but a chess grandmaster has to win Hoogovens first. "

Jeroen van den Berg

And he was right. How do you improve upon a tournament that has been built-up to arguably the finest Festival in the world aver these past 62 years? Now, with the strongest tournament on record, the Corus director Jeroen van den Berg can sit back and relax, feeling pleased that all the hard work over the years have now come to fruition. Just how do you improve on that?

Well, step forward Artem Tarasov and “the boys from Fide”, who paid a visit to Wijk. Looking to sign the tournament up to Fide’s new Grand Prix system, the boys from Fide Commerce tried to convince the organising committee here that “they could do it much, much better.” Yes, just give us all the money, and all the executive control over the tournament, and you can just forget about any future worries. For me it was a bit like one of those scenes from The Godfather or The Sopranos. With some cotton wool in his mouth, you could just picture them explaining to van den Berg, that, “It would be a pity if ‘something’ should happen to your superb tournament - It should have some insurance, Capite?”

I actually disturbed the meeting by mistake (this is all true, incidentally), and after making a hasty retreat before the Fide boys realised who I was, I bumped into one of the Dutch organisers, Cathy de Looze, coming up the corridor in the de Moriaan Centre, and heading in the general direction of the meeting. I stopped her, and asked her before she went into the room if she could ask Jeroen, in Dutch, that: “John Henderson asked me to remind you to count your fingers at the end of the meeting once you’ve shaken their hands.” I waited outside the door only to hear a large guffaw in Dutch, obviously as the Russians couldn’t understand what she had said!

Later that evening, when I passed the same delegation in the street as they were escorting the boys from Fide to their hotel, I held up my hand and started to count my fingers, to which van den Berg just smiled. But seriously, folks, Jeroen and the Wijk people had shown the Fide boys all the usual hospitalities that this tournament has become famous for, without, I hasten to add, committing themselves to anything. As the old saying goes, ‘If it ain’t broke, why fix it?’

Can you imagine their surprise then, when, just a few days later, they realised to their shock that Tarasov had actually made them an offer they couldn’t understand, they got to read from a Russian journalist the following from Moscow:

“Today at the Central House of Chess player a ceremony for the signing of the contract between ‘FIDE Commerce International’ and ‘Octagon Sponsorship Consulting’ (A company which works in sports marketing) took place. It was held under the patronage of the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, on behalf of FIDE Commerce. The contract was signed by its President Artem Tarasov, Octagon Corporation was represented by its Deputy President Aidan Day.

At the press conference Artem Tarasov announced that the next Wijk aan Zee tournament (where he just came from) will be included in the new FIDE Grand Prix system.”

Poor Jeroen had to arrange an urgent press conference to immediately disassociate Corus with the above statement. “Yes,” he confirmed to the assembled hacks. “Mr Tarasov had been to visit Wijk on Friday, 19th January, to tell us about the future plans of Fide Commerce, but no agreement whatsoever had been reached – it was just an amicably discussion.” When it came to questions from the press, with a smile on my face, I asked our esteemed Tournament Director exactly how many fingers he now had!

Anand and his second Elizbar Ubilava

The repeat of the recent Fide final between Anand and Shirov was the big highlight of the round. Diverging from the main line variation of the French that he used to good effect in that final, Anand was soon under pressure as Shirov built up a winning position.

Shirov and Anand in discussion after their game

Shirov,A (2718) - Anand,V (2790) [C10]

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 dxe4 4 Nxe4 The Rubinstein Variation. 4 ..Nd7 5 Nf3 Ngf6 6 Bd3 c5 7 0–0 Nxe4 8 Bxe4 Nf6 9 Bg5 cxd4 10 Nxd4 10 Qe2!? Be7 11 Rad1 Nxe4 (11 ..Qb6!? 12 Rxd4! Qxb2 13 Qc4 is unclear) 12 Rxd4 Qxd4 13 Nxd4 Nxg5 14 f4 Nh3+ worked ou fine for White in Morozevich-Zakharevich, Russia Cup 1997. 10 ..Be7 10 ..Bc5!? 11 Nb3 Bd6 12 Bxf6 gxf6 13 Qh5 f5 14 Bxf5 exf5 15 Rfe1+ Be7 16 Re3 f4 17 Re4 0–0 18 Rd1 Qc7 19 Nd4 Bf6 20 c3 Bd7 21 Nf5 Bxf5 22 Qxf5 Rad8 23 Rde1 Bg7 24 h4 Rd2 25 Rxf4 Qd7 26 Qg5 h6 27 Qg3 Rd3 28 Rf3 Rd1 29 Rxd1 Qxd1+ 30 Kh2 Qe2 31 Qg4 Rd8 32 a4 Qe6 33 Qg3 Qe5 34 Rf4 Rd2 35 Rb4 b6 36 f4 Qf5 37 Rb5 Rd5 38 Rxd5 Qxd5 39 Qe3 Bf6 40 b4 Qc4 0–1 Morozevich,A-Zakharevich,I/Novgorod 1997/CBM 60 (40). 11 Bf3 0–0 12 Re1 Qc7 13 c3 a6 14 Bh4 Bd6 15 Bxf6 gxf6 16 g3 Rd8 17 Bg2 Bf8 18 Qh5 Bg7 19 Rad1 Qb6?

The look in the press room of Vishy's trainer, Elizbar Ubilava, at this stage said it all. Simply a bad plan, from which his man never really finds a way back from. 20 Nb3 Re8 Anand readily admitted that he was making concessions with such moves. However, he hadn't worked out the strength of Shirov's 21st move. 21 c4 Qc7 I would have been OK if I could somehow get in ..f5, explained Anand. However, as he demonstrated, he can never do so: 21 ..f5?? 22 c5 Qc7 23 Qxf5! exf5 24 Rxe8+ Bf8 25 Rdd8 with an overwhelming position. 22 Qa5! Qxa5 23 Nxa5 Bf8

As Anand explained during his press conference, "I had to take drastic action now - anything else and I was totally lost". 23 ..Rb8 24 c5! and Black's in serious trouble: 24 ..Bf8 25 b4 b6 26 Nc6 Rb7 27 Nd4 bxc5 (27 ..Rb8 28 c6! Bxb4 29 c7!) 28 Bxb7 Bxb7 29 bxc5 Bxc5 30 Nf5! 24 Re3! Rb8? "I should have opted instead for 24 ..Bb4 25 Nxb7 Bxb7 26 Bxb7 Ra7 , and with the opposite coloured bishop ending, it wouldn't have been easy for him to mobalise his queenside pawns." 25 Rb3! b6 26 Nc6 Rb7 27 Na5 Rb8 28 Bc6 Re7 29 c5 b5 30 Rbd3 b4 Anand had to prevent Shirov playing b4 for a complete bind on the position. 31 Rd8 I would have been sorely tempted myself to opt instead for 31 Bf3!? Rc7 32 c6 31 ..Rc7 32 Bd7 Rxc5 By now this was Black's only chance to salvage something. 33 Nc6 Bxd7 34 Nxb8 Bb5 35 Nd7 Bxd7 36 R1xd7 Kg7 37 Rb8?

"I was completely lost here," admitted Anand. Shirov should have opted for 37 Rd2! After which, Anand's bishop will never get into the game, and after moves like Kg2 and b3, White will be free to start hovering up the pawns. 37 ..Rc2 38 Rbb7 Bc5! Now look at the difference between this position and 37 Rd2 - Anand has a lifeline; he's now got something to work with. 39 Rxf7+ Kg6 40 Rxh7 Bxf2+ 41 Kf1 Rxb2 42 Rh4 White has to be careful: 42 h4? Kf5! And suddenly the Black pieces are all active with the possibility of mating threats with the White king marooned on the back rank. 42 ..Bc5 43 Rc4 Bf8 White may still be winning, but the lack of material on the board, coupled with the active Black pieces, makes White's task very difficult. And indeed during the post mortem, both players couldn't really find much better than what was played. 44 Rc8

A possible try, as suggested by Dutch IM and de Volkskrant journalist, Gert Ligterink, was: 44 Rg4+ Kf5 45 Rf4+ Ke5 46 Rf2 Rb1+ 47 Kg2 There may actually be something in it for White - He's got his king off the back rank, and he's defending the second rank. 44 ..Bd6 45 Rc6 Be5 46 Rxa6 Kf5 47 Rbb6 Ke4 48 Rxe6 Rxh2 49 Rxf6 ½–½

With Shirov now effectively competing at “Linares”, as his co-leader, Garry Kasparov, so eloquently put it, the Great One must have fancied his chances as he was now playing himself in the “Dutch Open” – opposition of Piket, Timman and Van Wely in the next three rounds. Surely he could overtake Shirov with three wins? Well, Garry soon discovered that the competition in the Dutch Open was not such a pushover as he thought.

Piket,J (2632) - Kasparov,G (2849) [D58]

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 No Grünfeld today for Mr Piket! Kasparov reverts to the solid Tartakower Variation of the Queen's Gambit, a system the former world champion last played in the eighties. The defence also featured extensively in the Kasparov-Karpov matches of 1984 and 1985; so we can presume that Kasparov knows a thing or two about it then! 3 Nf3 d5 4 Nc3 Be7 5 Bg5 0–0 6 e3 h6 7 Bh4 b6 8 Qb3 8 Be2 and ; 8 Rc1 was the battleground in the aforementioned K-K epics of 1984-85. 8 ..Bb7 9 Bxf6 Bxf6 10 cxd5 exd5 11 Rd1 Re8 12 a3 c6 13 Bd3 Nd7 14 0–0 g6 15 Rd2

15 Rfe1 was Korchnoi-Kasparov Candidates 1983, which ended in a draw. Piket idea, which is new here, is to contest the d and c-files by now swinging the king's rook to c1. 15 ..Nf8 16 Rc1 Ne6 17 Qd1 Qe7 18 Bb1 Rad8 19 h3 c5 20 Ba2 h5 21 dxc5 d4 22 Nxd4 Nxd4

Kasparov spent a long time - a very long time - trying desperately to make the combination with 22 ..Bxd4 work, only to discover a little flaw that thwarts the Black plan: 22 ..Bxd4 23 exd4 Qg5 24 d5 Nf4 25 f3 (25 g3? h4 26 Kh2 hxg3+ 27 fxg3 Nxh3! 28 Kxh3 Re3 with the idea of Kg7-Rh8 winning.) 25 ..Ba6 26 Ne4? Rxe4 27 fxe4 Be2 28 Rxe2 Nxe2+ 29 Qxe2 Qxc1+ winning. However, he was stopped in his tracks after discovering 26 h4! Qg3, and the queen has been diverted from the same diagonal as the c1 rook. 23 exd4 Bxd4 24 c6?! 24 Rxd4! Rxd4 25 Qxd4 Qg5 26 Bxf7+! Kxf7 27 Qc4+ Kg7 28 Qf1 Bxg2 29 h4! again h4! 29 ..Qf4 30 Kxg2 Qg4+ 31 Kh2 Qxh4+ with a perpetual. 24 ..Bxc6 25 Nd5! Bxd5 26 Bxd5 Rxd5 27 Rxd4 Re5 Black has a little pressure in the ending - though nothing much. Careful play from Piket assures the draw. 28 Qf3 Rf5 29 Rf4 Qg5 30 Rcc4 Rxf4 31 Qxf4 Qxf4 32 Rxf4

Realistically the position is a dead draw, but Kasparov does have a reason to play it out thanks to his more active rook. A small slip from Piket in this ending would have been disastrous. 32 ..Re1+ 33 Kh2 Re2 34 b3 Rb2 35 Rf3 Kf8 36 Kg3 Ke7 37 Kf4 f6 38 h4 a5 39 Re3+ Kd6 40 Rd3+ Kc5 41 Ke3 b5 42 g3 Rc2 43 f3 Ra2 44 b4+ axb4 45 axb4+ Kxb4 46 Rd6 Ra3+ 47 Ke4 f5+ 48 Kf4 Kc5 49 Rxg6 b4 50 Re6 b3 51 Re1 Kc4 52 g4!

Kasparov and Piket post-mortem

The only saving move. During the post mortem, Piket even ventured that taking on f5 would have been enough for a draw. Quick as a flash, Kasparov pointed out the flaw by blitzing out the following: 52 Kxf5? b2 53 Rb1 Rxf3+ 54 Kg5 Rxg3+ 55 Kxh5 Kc3 56 Kh6 Kc2 57 Rf1 b1Q 58 Rxb1 Kxb1 59 h5 Kc2 60 Kh7 Kd3 61 h6 Ke4 62 Kh8 Kf5 63 h7 Kg6 64 Kg8 Ra3 and White's totally lost: Queening allows a mate, and under promoting to a knight will eventually lose the piece. 52 ..fxg4 53 fxg4 hxg4 54 Kxg4 b2 55 Rb1 ½–½

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

You can contact John Henderson at: jbhthescots@cableinet.co.uk