The town of Taos, in north-central New Mexico, has been home to many famous residents including Julia Roberts, Dennis Hopper, D.H. Lawrence, Aldous Huxley and Donald Rumsfeld.
In 1991 this small, laid-back artsy community became home to an unusual mystery: a hum of unknown origin, the so-called Taos Hum. You can read all about it HERE.
We lost some chess players that year. On March 12 veteran Master and former New Jersey champion Edgar McCormick (1914-1991) died. On June 3rd IM Osmo Kaila, twice champion of Finland died and in July the popular 7-time Virginia state champion Charles Powell died in San Francisco.
The big chess news in 1991 was Susan Polgar becoming the first woman in to earn the Grandmaster title when she reached the required 2500 rating which she earned by successfully playing against other GMs. She was awarded the title in December at the age of 15 years, 4 months, 28 days.
In chess politics IM Ricardo Calvo (1943-2002) was censured by FIDE and declared persona non grata after he wrote a letter that was interpreted by many Latin American readers as racist.
It was also the year that a fellow named Arkady Flom, a 64-year-old grandfather was arrested in Manhattan by dimwitted New York City police officers after he accepted two dollars for supposedly gambling on a chess game. Flom's treatment after his arrest was nothing short of Gestapo-like.
Today's game is from the big Tilburg tournament that year. Tilburg, The Netherlands, was a series of very strong tournaments held from 1977 through 1994 under the sponsorship of Interpolis, an insurance company.
These days Short is no longer among the world's elite players, but in those days in the World Championship cycle from 1990-1993 he defeated Speelman, Gelfand, Karpov and Timman and challenged Kasparov for the PCA World Championship (in 1993).
In this encounter against Timman, Short played an instructive game that built up to a brilliant finish that's famous for his incredible King walk.
Timman played Alekhine’s Defense and fianchettod his King’s Bishop. According to Alekhine specialist GM Lev Alburt the fianchetto is a sensible alternative in which black hopes to increase pressure on the a1-h8 diagonal, while leaving his B on c8 for th etime being.
The problem with this variation is that f7 is weak and white can try to exploit this to his advantage. This is exactly what happens in this game...Short conducts a relentless attack on f7.
Nigel Short - Jan Timman
Result: 1-0
Site: Tilburg
Date: 1991
Alekhine's Defense
[...] 1.e4 ♘f6 A rare guest these days and this game turned out to be a poor advertisement for Alekhine's. 2.e5 ♘d5 3.d4 d6 4.♘f3 g6 5.♗c4 This move is recommended by Anatoly Karpov and seconded by Lev Alburt as best. 5...♘b6 6.♗b3 ♗g7 7.♕e2 ♘c6 8.O-O O-O 9.h3 a5 This move is rarely played and its results not quite as good as with the more common 9...Na5. 10.a4 10.c2-c3 has been tried, but it's a bit too slow, and white wants to keep his B on its present diagonal, hence 10.a4. 10...dxe5 11.dxe5 ♘d4 12.♘xd4 ♕xd4 This is the reason that this variation has a bad rap. The Q's early entry into the game causes black some problems. 13.♖e1 e6 This is a logical move, but it has obvious drawbacks. First, his B is shut in, but mybe he intended to play ...Nd5, ...b6 and ...Bb7. Or, maybe he can play ...Bd7 and ...Bc6. Either method is time consumong which is something he can't afford. Also, this move results in a weakening of his K's position.
13...♗d7 was tried by Timman in Leko,P (2625)-Timman,J (2620)/Wijk aan Zee 1996 and in that game Timman managed to hold out for a draw. 14.♘c3 ♗c6 15.♘b5 ♗xb5 16.♕xb5 c6 and the position is roughly equal.
13...♘d7 didn't work out well for black after 14.e6 fxe6 15.♗xe6+ ♔h8 16.♘c3 ♘e5 17.♘b5 Tregubov,P (2583) -McShane,L (2605)/Germany 2006
14.♘d2 ♘d5
14...♗d7 was good for equality in Dimitrov,V (2505)-Marinkovic,I (2450)/Tivat 1995 15.♘f3 ♕c5 16.♗e3 ♕e7 17.♗g5 ♕c5 18.♕e4 ♗c6
15.♘f3 ♕c5 16.♕e4 With this aggressive move Short is planning on going after the K with possible moves like Qh4, Bh6, Ng5. The more conservative Komodo considers moves like 16.c3, 16.h4 and 16.c4. Stockfish likes the first two and thinks Short's move is just a smidgen behind. 16...♕b4 Realizing he is facing the possibility of a dangerous attack Timman offers to trade Qs. Naturally Short is not so inclined. 17.♗c4 In view of the fact that this move result in the exchange of his seemingly well palced B plus doubled Ps this move just looks wrong, but Short has a plan. 17...♘b6 18.b3 Short is willing to accept a badly weakened Q-side because he is in control on the K-side and that's where the game is going to be decided. 18...♘xc4 19.bxc4 Black has the B pair and white's Q-side is destroyed. A cursory evaluation might lead one to believe that black is doing OK here, but that's not the case at all. Such evaluations is why Short was a world class player in his day. So was Timman, but in this game he ahs been outplayed. Timman likely was well aware of that or he would not have offered to exchange Qs back on move 16. 19...♖e8 With the threat of Ba3 skewering his Q and R black has to lose time and ... Bd7 must wait. (19...♖d8 20.♗a3 ♕b6 21.♕h4 ♗d7 22.♘g5 isn't much better.) 20.♖d1 Well played. This move makes sure the development of black's B is stymed. 20...♕c5 Poor Timman. His Q is his only active piece. The idea is to play ...Qc6 and support ...Bd7. 21.♕h4 Intending Bh6, but this move also eyes f6.
21.♖a3 This move, the idea of which is yo play it to d3 was suggested by both GM John Shaw and Stockfish. 21...♕e7 22.♖ad3 and here, tto, black is in a pickle.
21...b6 22.♗e3 Another well played move by Short! Before playing Bh6 he forst drive the black Q back. 22...♕c6 He could have retreated to f8, but Timman prefers c6 because after ...Bb7 he at least has a threat against g2 should Short get careless. (22...♕e7 is suicidal after 23.♕xe7 ♖xe7 24.♖d8+ ♗f8 25.♗h6) 23.♗h6 Any book on strategy will recommend this elementary strategy of exchanging the B and weakening the dark squares around black's K. 23...♗h8 Of course black will not cooperate. Black has serious positional difficulties here. So bad in fact that Stockfish considers his position completely lost, evaluating it at 4 Ps in white's favor. The more conservative Komodo puts it at about 1.5 Ps. 24.♖d8 Strategically the game is over. All Short has to do is figure out a way to convert it to a win. 24...♗b7 Black has a potential threat against g2, but Short easily deals with it.
24...♗d7 25.♖xa8 (25.♘d4 ♖exd8 26.♘xc6 ♗xc6 favors white.) 25...♕xa8 26.♘h2 f5 (26...♗xe5 27.♘g4 ♗h8 28.♘f6+ mates) 27.exf6 is also very good for white.
25.♖ad1 ♗g7 (25...♖exd8 26.♖xd8+ ♖xd8 27.♕xd8+ mate next move.) 26.♖8d7 ♖f8 Black is forced to defend f7. (26...♕e4 27.♖xf7 ♕xh4 28.♖xg7+ ♔h8 29.♘xh4 ♖ed8 30.♖xd8+ ♖xd8 31.♖xc7) 27.♗xg7 ♔xg7 28.♖1d4 ♖ae8 29.♕f6+ ♔g8 30.h4 h5 White now faces the problem of how to finish off his opponent. If only he had one more piece to add to the attack. He does. The King! 31.♔h2 This is not a waiting move played just to make time. 31...♖c8 One wonders if Timman thought he had defended everything and could simple take a wait and see attitude.
31...♗c8 fails because of 32.♘g5 ♗xd7 33.♖f4 ♕a8 (33...♕xa4 34.♘xf7 ♖xf7 35.♕xf7+ ♔h8 36.♕xg6 and mate is certain.) 34.♘xf7 ♖xf7 35.♕xf7+ ♔h8 36.♖f6 ♖g8 37.♕xd7 and white is winning.
32.♔g3 ♖ce8 33.♔f4 White now has a mate in 8. 33...♗c8 34.♔g5 Black resigned. (34.♔g5 ♔h7 35.♖xf7+ ♖xf7 36.♕xf7+ ♔h8 37.♔h6 ♕d7 38.♖xd7 b5 39.♕xe8#) Powered by Aquarium
No comments:
Post a Comment