Chess
Chess for Friday 06 May 2000 by Kaarlo Schepel
The chess column that appeared in the South China Morning Post
(SCMP) for some 20 years was suddenly axed by the new Features
Editor. Even the daily chess problem that gave two generations
of dedicated chess fans a chance to test their chess skills on
their way to work was eliminated without any consultation with
readers. Reasons are unknown, but it is not exactly applauded
by the large number of organised and non-competitive chess
players in Hong Kong. Rumour has it that chess was considered
to be a 'colonial' leftover by the new editors. Everyone knows
that chess was invented in India. The sister game of Chinese
Chess has probably as many as 100 million fans. At least that
many people in the P.R.C. are able to play the moves, and a
fair number of those follow international chess as well. My
sources in China tell me that there are 60 million organised
players of Chinese Chess and the Chinese version of 'go'.
To provide continuity, this chess column will appear now every
Friday on the internet, and every Tuesday a column will be
published specifically for the over 2,000 primary and
secondary students who take private, extra-curricular tuition
in Hong Kong. The number of chess fans is rapidly growing in
South China. The figures provided by the Chinese Chess
Association indicates that there are 4.5 million organised
players in international chess in the P.R.C. The Ladies' World
Champion is GM Xie Jun, who first held the crown from 1993-
1996. After losing to Zsusza Polgar, she moved to Amsterdam,
the Netherlands for two years for the specific reason to play
stronger (mainly male) opponents.
The Hong Kong National Championship has now almost ended.
National Master Lau Yung indeed added the 2000 title to his
Open title of last year, and his National title of 1998. The
runner-up of last year C.Y. Chong played me in the last round
and we had a hard-fought, very interesting draw. I shall
publish it next week together with Lau Yung's most exciting
game with his own comments. Anwar Hossain and myself were
still locked in battle for third place. Full results next
week. Updates can be found on the official website address of
the Hong Kong Chess Federation (HKCF) www.hkcf.net.
The biggest Hong Kong chess event in 11 years took place with
only a few days notice at the FCC on 20 April. I managed to
invite former World Champion Anatoly Karpov to Hong Kong.
He was on his way from his brief match in Shenyang with GM Ye
(strongest PRC Grandmaster) which Karpov won 3-1, and a
tournament in Bali. Karpov did not disappoint. He beat 37 of
the 39 students, and all but one of the adult sponsors in less
than 30-35 moves. Tjitte Veldhuis drew with Karpov in 25
moves. And two of our strongest juniors did the same. Two of
those games were published in the SCMP last Saturday on 29
April. This was my final column for the SCMP (for the moment)
after 14 years of dedicated service, in which I never missed a
single deadline. May I thank all the readers who followed my
column for part or all of those years.
Herewith the picture that I was able to buy from the Hong Kong
Standard. Please note: * Copyright 2000 the Hong Kong Standard
republished here with permission of the Hong Kong Standard. No
further republication or redistribution without prior written
approval of the Hong Kong Standard.
Karpov at the Foreign Correspondents' Club
A person who is not so happy with the forthcoming match in
October between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik is Latvian
emigre GM Alexei Shirov. After all, he won the final
qualification match against Kramnik in June 1998. Kasparov
then claimed that no sponsors were interested in a match
between him and Shirov. Kasparov later invited Viswanathan
Anand of India (who had given him a good run for his money in
New York in 1995), but now claims that Anand's lawyer had too
many conditions. Anand did not take part in Las Vegas in
August 1999, as he was preparing himself for Kasparov.
Alxander Khalifman won in Las Vegas. We further have Bobby
Fischer now residing in Hungary, who claims he is still World
Champion because he never lost. He won the 'rematch' with
Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia. Chess has become like boxing; the
politics are probably a bit more interesting too. Karpov has
legal reasons to still call himself FIDE-champion. And IBM Big
Blue beat Kasparov in an official match. That makes five World
Champions. When shall we have the unifying tournament?
It was therefore gratifying to see Shirov win the Melody Amber
tournament in Monaco in March. He scored 8.5 points in the
Rapid section ahead of Ivanchuk (8), Topalov and van Wely
(6.5), Gelfand and Kramnik (6), then Anand (5.5), Karpov (5),
Piket (4.5), Nikolic (3.5), and finally Lautier and Ljubojevic
(3). In the blindfold section, Kramnik came first with 7.5,
Anand and Topalov followed with 7, Shirov (6.5), Gelfand and
Piket (6), then Ivanchuk (5.5), Karpov (5), Lautier (4.5),
Ljubojevic and van Wely (4) and Nikolic 3. Overall winner was
thus Shirov (15); 2-4. Ivanchuk, Kramnik and Topalov (13.5);
5. Anand (12.5); 6. Gelfand (12); 7-8. Piket and van Wely
(10.5); 9. Karpov (10); 10. Lautier (7.5); 11. Ljubojevic (7),
and 12. Nikolic (6.5).
The advantage of publishing on the internet is of course more
space. Every inch of a newspaper is allocated strictly based
on cost. Today two of Shirov's games. (Rapid) Shirov -
Ljubojevic 1.e4,c5 2.Nf3,e6 3.d4,cxd4 4.Nxd4,Nc6 5.Nc3,a6
6.Be2,Nf6 7.Nxc6,bxc6 8.e5,Nd5 9.Ne4,Qc7 10.Nd6+,Bxd6
11.exd6,Qb6 12.c4,Nf6 13.0-0,0-0 14.Be3,Qxb2 (Diagram 1.)
15.Bd4,Qa3 16.Bxf6,gxf6 17.Qd4,Rb8 18.Rac1,e5 19.Qg4+,Kh8
20.Qf5,Kg7 21.Rcd1,e4 22.Qg4+,Kh8 23.Qxe4 (1-0)
Diagram 1 Diagram 2
(Blindfold - round 1) Shirov - Lautier 1.e4,c5 2.Nf3,Nc6
3.d4,cxd4 4.Nxd4,Nf6 5.Nc3,e5 6.Ndb5,d6 7.Bg5,a6 8.Na3,b5
9.Bxf6,gxf6 10.Nd5,f5 11.Bxb5?! (Shirov showed in this game
and a few others he played later on that he was not afraid of
playing variations that had been shown to be theoretically not
exactly sound, and thus not popular.) 11...,axb5 12.Nxb5,Ra4
(Shirov knows the draw-backs. He played as Black 12...,Ra7 in
Mitkov-Shirov, France 1994; 12...,Qg5 is also better for
Black.) 13.b4,Rxb4 17.Nbc7+,Kd7 15.0-0,Rb7 16.Qh5,Ne7
17.Qxf7 (Diagram 2. The critical position. Now 17...,Rxc7!
18.Nf6+?!,Kc6 19.Rab1,d5 20.c4,d4 21.Ne8,Ra7 becomes
problematic for White. Better is 18.Nb6+,Kc6 19.Rab1,Ba6
20.Qb3 with good chances. But Black blundered:) 17...,Kc6?
18.Rab1,fxe4 19.Rxb7,Kxb7 (Black loses also after 19...,Bxb7
20.Rb1,Qxc7 21.Nf6,d5 22.Qe6+. The game ended:) 20.Rb1+,Kc6
21.Rb6+,Kc5 22.Rb3,Kc6 23.Rc3+,Kb7 24.Nxe7,Bxe7
25.Qd5+,Ka7 26.Qa8+ (1-0).
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