Blitz 'n' Pieces

The official newsletter of the Edinburgh University Chess Club

First Team report

The end of last season was disappointing for the first team, who had managed to win every Lothians League match during the 1994 calendar year. With two games to go, the first team's record was Played 8 Won 8; the nearest challengers were Wandering Dragons 1, who had lost 5-1 to us and drawn against Balerno.

The problem was that the last two matches the first team had to play were against Dragons 1 and Edinburgh 1, two dangerous opponents. Whilst the lateness of these fixtures undoubtedly made for an exciting end to the season, this wasn't to our advantage as it meant that we had to play two matches near the end of term, one in Week 10 and one the week after. This had not been a problem the year before, but this time many regulars were unable to play.

Needing a draw against our nearest rivals to clinch the League title, we lost 4-2 against Dragons 1. Mark Condie and Steve Rix drew, whilst Nick Thomas won his ninth game of the season. The other games were close but didn't quite go our way, e.g. Andrew Masters lost on time in a promising position.

A win against Edinburgh 1 would still have won the League, whereas a draw would have let the Dragons win on tie-break. We decided to let them win outright, by losing 3½-2½. This took some effort: Mark Condie decided not to turn up and defaulted; Steve Pickles lost his queen very early on (but somehow managed to draw); one of the two second-team players called in at short notice failed to offer much resistance. There were quite a few "what if"s going round, e.g. what if Nick Thomas could have managed to stay in Edinburgh for a few more days? What if Mark Condie had played (or had made it known that he wouldn't play)? Ho hum. A chess League is a team game, and you have to play well in all your matches.

The new season has not started well. Mark Condie has left the University and won't be playing this season, whilst Paul Brown has not been seen since March. Potential replacements were Prof Tom Leonard and Luke Russell, but they have decided to play for other clubs. We could raise quite a strong team containing players who could play for the University but don't...

Our first match of the new 1995-6 season was away to Edinburgh 1, who we outgraded on every board by 100-200 points (and their board 1 was 40 minutes late, because he had had to call out the AA). In the event, only Steve Pickles won and only freshman Andrew Davies managed to draw (reaching the well-known draw bishop and wrong rook's pawn ending), so we lost 1½-4½. Oh dear. Well, chess does throw up some funny results from time to time.

Balerno have been beaten 4½-1½, so at least we are now off the mark. There is one more match this term, against Dragons 2, as well as some unfinished business against Dragons 1. We are 2½-1½ down, with two games adjourned. Of the games which finished, Steve Pickles played well and drew against IM Mark Orr, whilst Andrew Davies won a nice game against a 2035. In the adjournments, Steve Rix hopes for a win whilst newcomer Ingo Kacza might get a draw.

The first team's remaining fixtures this season are:

The first team captain is Steve Rix, who can be e-mailed as S.Rix@ed and telephoned on 650-8559 (day) or 555-5690 (evenings).

Second Team report

Life is never easy for our second team. Despite finishing last in Division 1 last season, the second team has not been relegated as the most successful teams from last season's Division 2 declined promotion. Due to the way in which the League constitution is worded, teams are promoted before others are relegated. Therefore the outlook is that the second team will have a long, hard season.

The first matches of 1995-6 seem to confirm this. The second team lost to Civil Service and Edinburgh West 1, but are still hanging on thanks to adjournments against Pentland Hills 1 and Edinburgh West 2. In the former match, we are 2½-1½ down, but Andrew Masters should win his adjournment easily and our chances are good in the other game; in the latter match, we are 3-2 down with an unclear position in the adjourned game.

The second team's reamining fixtures in the 1995-6 season are:

The second team captain is Andy Masters (Tel: 668-3920; e-mail: adam@dcs.ed).

Chess on the Internet

If you have access to an internet news-server (e.g. through the Netscape browser or by using `nn' on festival), you may be interested in the Usenet chess newsgroups. There are a number of interesting groups:

rec.games.chess.analysis - Discussion and analyses of openings, middlegame positions and endings.

rec.games.chess.computer - Computer chess, database software, etc.

rec.games.chess.misc - General discussion of chess and related topics.

rec.games.chess.play-by-email - If you fancy a correspondence game by e-mail, you can get yourself fixed up with any number of opponents. E-mail is likely to overtake postal versions of correspondence chess, as it is much faster (and less vulnerable to strikes in the Portobello sorting office... ).

rec.games.chess.politics - Discussion of the (dis)organisation of chess, with reference to the world chess federation FIDE in particular.

Highly recommended is an excellent weekly newsletter called The Week In Chess, edited by Mark Crowther of Bradford University. It collates tournament results, news, the latest games, analysis, puzzles, forthcoming events, etc. Often all the games from a tournament are available less than a day after the end of the last game! It is posted weekly on the r.g.c.misc newsgroup and is also available from Mark's World Wide Web page:

Usually the last 10-15 issues of TWIC are available on the above site, which has a good SuperJanet connection to Edinburgh. Older issues can be obtained by anonymous ftp to ftp.pitt.edu.

Mark Crowther's page also includes pointers to other WWW sites, which contain a vast amount of chess related stuff. This is the point of the Web: once you get `in', you can follow links to other sites, which in turn link to yet more sites...

A monthly chess magazine called The Chess Connection is also available on the WWW, edited by IM Ali Mortazavi and GM David Norwood. It can be found at:

All the above sites can be found through Steve Rix's chess page, which is:

The last two pages should be accessed by joining together the two lines quoted above, to make one long command.

The PCA World Championship

Unless you've been on a 6 month trek in darkest Peru recently, you'll be aware of the recent world championship match between Kasparov and Anand. Rather than simply list all the games that were played, we thought it would be interesting to look at some of the important psychological points in the match.

20 exf6 Bxf6 (forced) 21 Bxh7+!! Kxh7 22 Ng5+! Bxg5 23 fxg5

Now White intends 24 g6 then 25 Qh4, and Black simply has no defence. Anand claimed after the game that he missed the above idea, before admitting in New In Chess magazine that he had seen this far but "didn't linger long enough to realise how strong White's attack is" (maybe he would have done so, had he not taken 25 minutes over his previous move). Conspiracy theorists might even say he feared a Kasparov back-lash, should he win a game so early in the match...

At this point, the initiative seemed to be with Anand. Kasparov was unable to break the deadlock over the next half-dozen games and offered Anand a series of draws.

After 8 generally short draws, the match was judged by many outsiders as insipid and dull. However, all that was to change in game 9. Anand played a controlled game, pressuring Kasparov on the queenside. Eventually, the following position was reached:

However, Kasparov could not resist the bait...

27... Nxd5? 28 exd5 Qg6

Now Black could not halt the advance of White's queenside pawns, so he went in for an all-or-nothing counterattack:

29 c5 e4 30 Be2 Re5 31 Qd7!

Covering the h3 square (which Kasparov was aiming for) and hitting the weak b7 pawn.

31... Rg5 32 Rg1 e3 33 d6 Rg3 34 Qxb7 Qe6 35 Kh2! 1-0

Black resigned as he had two pieces en prise and his intended 35... Qe5 fails to 36 Qxa8 and the discovered check is of no consequence.)

After game nine, Anand seemed to be well placed, but he fell victim to Kasparov's opening analysis skills in the very next game.

14 Bc2! Qxc3 15 Nb3!

White's idea is to sacrifice a pawn (and possibly even the R on a1) in order to attack Black's king. In a 1990 correspondence game, Black won from this position with 15... Rd8 after some inaccuracies by White; curiously, neither player seemed to know about this game, even though it is included in one of the game collections available on the Internet. At the board, Anand was unable to cope with Kasparov's deep preparation.

15... Nxb3 16 Bxb3 Nd4

Clearly, Black believed that 16... Qxa1 simply loses and it certainly looks risky after 17 Qh5+. However, White was still able to force the pace and Anand was forced into taking the rook next move in order to try to remain in the game.

17 Qg4! Qxa1 18 Bxe6

Black's king is now very draughty and Anand was unable to neutralise the attack.

18... Rd8 19 Bh6! Qc3 20 Bxg7 Qd3 21 Bxh8 Qg6 22 Bf6 Be7 23 Bxe7 Qxg4 24 Bxg4 Kxe7

Anand had been forced into an endgame where he was simply a pawn down. Faced with the advance of White's central pawns, he resigned on the 38th move of the game.

Kasparov now dominated the next few games, winning twice as Black with the Dragon Variation of the Sicilian Defence. Part of Anand's problem was that Kasparov had not played this opening since his youth; he was simply not prepared for this eventuality.

This position occurred in the game in which Kasparov played the Dragon for the first time. Anand declined a draw at move 20, in a fairly level position. According to Keene, Anand's best move in the above position was 28 Nxe7 Re8 29 Nd5 Bxd5 30 b4 axb4 31 axb4 Rc4 32 Rxd5 Rxb4+, with a slight advantage to White. Anand had seen this. Unfortunately, he then thought he saw a better move:

28 b4?! axb4 29 axb4 Rc4 30 Nb6??

This knight forks two rooks, but Kasparov must have worked out the refutation a few moves previously. 30 Ne7 Rxb4+ 31 Kc1 Ba2 is good for Black, but White is still in the game.

30... Rxb4+ 31 Ka3 xxxx 0-1

Kasparov's winning move is left as an exercise for the reader.

By the time of Game 14, Anand trailed by 5½-7½. Showing great courage (or maybe desperation?), he played the Centre Counter ( 1 e4 d5 2 exd5 Qxd5), an opening never previously played in any world championship. Kasparov's response was surprisingly lacklustre. Anand found himself in a promising position after move 26 (See next diagram).

Kasparov, worried about 27... Ne4, played the sacrifice 27 Ne5. With hindsight, Anand should simply have taken it: 27... fxe5 28 Bxd8 Rxd8 29 fxe5 Ne4. If White now follows up by attacking Black's bishop with 30 g4 hxg4 31 Bxg4, the move 31... Qh7! (Rogers) gives Black strong attacking chances against the White king.

Anand ignored the White knight, hoping to maintain his slight advantage with the calm 27... Qe6. However, White then unleashed 28 g4! and Black lost his way in the ensuing complications, played out in time trouble amid the noise of an enthusiastic crowd shouting and screaming(!) on the other side of a supposedly sound-proof barrier. Kasparov won the game to go into an almost unassailable 3 point lead.

Anand was described as a broken man by his associates after the game and was unable to offer much more resistance to his opponent. Kasparov duly won the match 10½-7½, after four more draws.

If you are interested in the match, two books were published soon after the last game, by Raymond Keene and Daniel King. New In Chess magazine 1995 no. 7 contains all the games, some of which are annotated by the players themselves. The November 1995 issue of the British Chess Magazine also contains all the games, with some analysis by Australian GM Ian Rogers. Or, on the WWW, see TWIC issues 49-53.

A copy of the Keene book is now in the Chess Club library. Talking of which...

Chess Club Library

Over the last year or so, a number of books have been acquired, in order to start a chess club library. However our funds are limited, so if you could donate a book to the club for the common good, please do so!

We are not yet sure what sort of arrangements have been made for members to borrow these books, but we are sure that the new EUCC committee will come up with a workable scheme in due course...

General instruction:

Abrahams, Gerald: The Pan book of chess (Pan, 1976)

Golombek, Harry (GM): The Game of Chess (Penguin, 1954)

Hooper, David: Practical Chess Endgames (Routledge, 1968)

Lasker, Edward: Chess, The Complete Self Tutor (Batsford, 1972)

Pritchard, Brian: The right way to play chess (1981)

Stean, Michael (GM): Simple Chess (Faber, 1978)

World Championship:

Keene, Raymond (GM) and Goodman, David: The Centenary Match, Kasparov-Karpov III (Batsford, 1986)

Keene, Raymond (GM): World Chess Championship, Kasparov v Anand (Batsford, 1995)

Winter, Edward (Ed.): World Chess Champions (Pergamon, 1981)

Openings:

Levy, David (IM) and O'Connell, Kevin: How to play the Sicilian Defence (Batsford, 1987)

Martin, Andrew (IM): Winning with the King's Indian (Caissa, 1989)

Watson, John L (IM): Play the French (Pergamon, 1986)

Miscellaneous:

Alburt, Lev (GM): Test and Improve your Chess (Pergamon, 1989)

Kasparov, Gary (GM) with Trelford, Donald: Child of Change (Hutchinson, 1987)

Spanier, David: Total Chess (Abacus, 1984)

Timman, Jan (GM): The Art of Chess Analysis (RHM, 1980)

Wade, Robert and O'Connell, Kevin: The Games of Robert J. Fischer, (Batsford, 1972)

FIDE: Official Laws of Chess (1988)

Magazines:

Dragon (Cambridge University CC): various issues

Kingpin: summer 1991

Scottish Chess: various issues

World News

In his first tournament appearance since the World Championship, Kasparov played somewhat dismally at the Credit Suisse Masters in Horgen Switzerland. He ended up in fifth place on 5/10, with a grading performance of only 2655, 140 points below his current FIDE rating. Vassily Ivanchuk and Vladimir Kramnik came joint first with 7/10, with Ivanchuk achieving a fine win over Kasparov on the way. Particularly galling for Kasparov was Nigel Short achieving a higher score of 6/10 (grading performance 2742), Short's best result for a long while.

However, Kasparov soon bounced back to win the Paris INTEL grand prix, beating Kramnik in the final (but only after the match went to a blitz playoff). Kasparov played Anand in the semi-final, but, in a bizarre incident, Anand failed to turn up for the first game, thus losing on time. It seems that this was not due to fear of Kasparov, rather a mis-understanding (in French) of when the game was due to start. Anand had to play for the win in the second game and duly fell into a line that Kasparov had prepared earlier (so to speak).

Florencio Campomanes, president of FIDE for 17 years, was ousted from office last week at a FIDE meeting in Paris. Campomanes' unpopularity is legendary; he was instrumental in stopping the Karpov-Kasparov World Championship match of 1984, just when Kasparov looked like winning. This incident led eventually to the breakaway PCA organisation in 1993. Despite this, Campomanes has held onto power until now, mainly due to his ability to raise money for FIDE chess events. However, there were concerns over voting irregularities in his re-election, amid chaotic scenes in the Moscow FIDE congress of last December. He has also been implicated in financial irregularities which recently occurred in FIDE finances. A new president, the Russian Krisan Iljumzhinov, has been elected in Campomanes' place and the controversial FIDE World Championship match between Karpov and Gata Kamsky (of the USA) is now due to be held next year in Montreal. A special board has been set up to negociate a re-unification match between the eventual FIDE champion and the PCA champion Kasparov.

Meanwhile, at the Investabank Tournament in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Kramnik has again been playing excellent chess. With one round to go, he is joint leader with Boris Gelfand on 7/10. A particular highlight was his brutal drubbing of Michael Adams of England in only 29 moves:

White: Michael Adams (2660)
Black: Vladimir Kramnik (2730)

1 e4 c5 2 Nc3 Nc6 3 Nf3 d6 4 d4 cxd4 5 Nxd4 Nf6 6 Be3 Ng4 7 Bg5 h6 8 Bh4 g5 9 Bg3 Bg7 10 Nb3 Be6 11 Be2 h5 12 h4 gxh4 13 Bxh4 Rc8 14 O-O Bf6 15 Bg3 Rg8 16 Nd5 h4 17 Nxf6+ Nxf6 18 Bxh4 Nxe4 19 Bf3 Ng5 20 Bxg5 Rxg5 21 Qd2 Rg8 22 Nd4 Ne5 23 Be4 Qb6 24 Rfe1 d5 25 Bxd5 Bxd5 26 Rxe5 Rxg2+ 27 Kf1 Qg6 28 Qb4 Bc4+ 29 Ke1 Qf6 0-1

Finally, on the domestic front, Big John Abbott won the Major tournament at the Oban Congress on 4½/5 (and in so doing gained 15 minutes of fame on UK Teletext!). Unfortunately, Mark Chapman didn't fare so well on 2½/5. If you have any congress results or games worthy of publication, do let us know!

Annotated Games

In this issue, we present a couple of Steve Pickles' games from last year's Lothians League. If you have an interesting game that you want published, let us know! Anyway on with the action...

White: S.Pickles
Black: N.Berry
University 1 vs Balerno 1, Lothians League 1994/5

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 Bb5+ Nd7 4 c3 Nf6 5 Qe2 a6 6 Ba4 e6 7 d4 cxd4 8 cxd4 d5! 9 exd5

Both 9 e5?! Qa5+ 10 Nc3 Ne4 and 9 Nc3 Ne4! are best avoided.

9... Nd5

Probably, 9... Qa5 was to be preferred. However, Black, rightly or wrongly, was afraid of the unclear complications beginning with 10 Bd2 Qxa4. A safer alternative is 9... Qa5 10 Nc3 Nxd5 11 Bd2 Nxc3 12 Bxd7+ Bxd7 13 bxc3.

10 O-O Be7 11 Nc3 O-O 12 Bd2 N7f6 13 Ne5 (See next diagram)

White is prepared to give up the d-pawn, confident that with active piece play and open files for his rooks, he should have adequate compensation.

13... Nb6

Taking the bait, but how else is he to continue? It is not easy for black to complete his developement without conceding the bishop pair, e.g. 13... b5 14 Nc6 Qb6 15 Nxd5 Nxd5 16 Nxe7 Nxe7.

After either retreat of the bishop, White's open lines and bishop pair should be more than enough for the pawn.

14 Bb3 Qxd4 15 Rfd1 Qd8 16 Rac1

White calmly completes his development.

16... Nbd5

Black tries to block the d-file...

17 Bg5

... and White increases the pressure.

17... Qa5 18 Nxd5

Time to cash in.

18... exd5

Or 18... Nxd5 19 Rxd5 exd5 20 Bxe7 +-.

19 Bxf6

Regaining the pawn with interest.

19... Bxf6 20 Rxd5 Qb6 21 Nxf7! 1-0

An early resignation, but justified:

(a) 21... Rxf7, 22 Qe8+ Rf8 23 Rd8+ mates;

(b) 21... Kf7 22 Rd6+ wins Black's queen;

(c) 21... Be6 22 Rd6 Qxb3 23 Nh6+ gxh6 24 axb3 +-;

(d) 21... Qe6 22 Rd8! wins (22 Re5, Berry's suggestion, also wins) e.g. 22... Qxe2 23 Nh6+ Kh8 24 Rf8++ or 22... Qxf7 23 Bxf7 Kxf7 24 Rc7+ Kg8 25 Qe8!.

White: S.Pickles
Black: A.Grant (2145)
University 1 vs Pentland Hills 1, Lothians League 1994/5

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Qd3!?

One of White's pets.

4... dxe4 5 Qxe4 Nf6 6 Qh4 Nd5

6... Qd5!, threatening ... Qe4+ exchanging queens, is the simplest way to equalise.

7 Bg5 f6 8 Bd2 Nc6 9 Bd3 f5

Defending against the immediate threats, and virtually forcing a queen swap. However, White has excellent play in the ending.

10 Qxd8+ Nxd8

If 10... Kd8, then 11 Nxd5 Bxd2+ 12 Kxd2 exd5 13 Nf3

11 Nxd5! Bxd2+ 12 Kxd2 exd5 13 Re1 Kf7 14 Nf3

Heading for e5.

14... c6 15 h3! Kf6 16 g4 fxg4 17 hxg4 Bxg4 18 Ne5 Be6

Better might be 18... Bf5, when White might play 19 Bxf5 Kxf5 20 Rh3 Ne6 21 Rg1 (better than 21 Rf3+ Nf4 22 Nf7 Rhf8 23 Nd6+ Kg6 24 Rg1+ Kh6 25 Rh1+ Kg6) and now:

(a) 21... g5 22 Rf3+ Nf4 23 Nf7;

(b) 21... Kf6 22 Rf3+ Ke7 23 Rf7+;

(c) 21... Nf4 22 Rf3 g6 23 Nf7 Rhf8 24 Rg5+ Ke4 25 Ne5 Kxd4 26 c3+ Kc5 27 Nd7+ Kd6 28 Nxf8 Rxf8;

(d) 21... Nxd4 22 Nf7 Rhg8 23 c3 Ne6 24 Rf3+ Ke4 (24... Nf4+ 25 Rg5+ Ke4 26 Re3++) and now 25 Re3+ Kf5 26 Rf3+ offers White at least a draw.

19 Ng6 Re8 20 Rxh7 Bf7 21 Ne5 Ne6 22 Nd7+ Ke7 23 Rxg7 Kxd7 24 Rxf7 Kd8

Or 24... Kd6 25 Rf6, with continuing pressure.

25 Bf5 Nf8 26 Rg1 Rb8 27 Rg8 1-0

Forthcoming Congresses

Look out for the Lothians Championships, in Edinburgh at the start of next term. These will take place at the Lasswade High School Centre, Eskdale Drive, Bonnyrigg on the 12-14 January 1996. If you did not get a copy of the light green entry form with your copy of the Lothians League handbook, then telephone the tournament director (Dave Stewart) on 478-0088.

There will be four sections, namely the Lothians Championship, Open (for players rated <1850), Major (Under 1600) and Minor (Under 1300). The difference between the top two sections is that only players resident in Lothian Region are eligible to play in the Challengers; strong players from elsewhere in Scotland may play in the Open.

Blunder of the Month

White: Jonathan Grant (2255)
Black: Steve Rix (2080)
Scottish National Chess League 1995

Black had been steadily outplayed until White tried to open up the position for a kingside attack. This left White with a number of weak pawns, one of which was lost en route to the above position. However, Black had only 30 seconds left for the rest of the game and was about to offer a draw due to the time situation. Unfortunately White's mysterious 45th move caused a short circuit somewhere inside Steve's tiny brain, with the following spectacular result:

45 Kf2 Rxb5?? 46 Nxb5 1-0

Farewell!

Well folks, that concludes another fun-filled issue of Blitz 'n' Pieces. We hope that you enjoyed it, possibly even enough to want to volunteer a contribution for the next issue... We are always on the look out for material, so if you find a fine combination or a sneaky cheapo in one of your games, please jot it down on a piece of paper and hand it to one of the editors.

Steve Rix is that strange, balding guy with the silly beard who you will see at most club evenings even though he tries not to get cornered into actually playing anyone. You can speak to Steve using the info on P1.

Dr. John Thompson attends most club evenings. John has been a stalwart member of the club for eight years now. If Steve gives you the creeps, then you can talk to John in complete safety! His e-mail address is jst@ee.ed.