ADDICTS’ CORNER

Mike Fox and Richard James neglect their development

Netanyahu v Sharansky
Before the recent Israeli General Election, former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Yisrael Ba’aliya party and Minister of Industry and Trade, held a chessfest to mobilise votes amongst Russian immigrants.
Sharansky, who trained himself to reach candidate master strength by playing blindfold chess in prison, played a match against top Israeli computer program JUNIOR, and games against opposition leader General Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Barak was mated in eight moves (we haven’t seen them yet) but Netanyahu held out for a draw after dropping a pawn early on.
Here’s the game:
Binyamin Netanyahu – Natan Sharansky
Tel Aviv 1999
Vienna Game
1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Nxe4 d5 5.Bb5+ c6 6.Ba4 dxe4 7.Qe2 Qd4 8.Bb3 Bf5 9.c3 Qd3 10.Qxd3 exd3 11.Nf3 Nd7 12.0-0 f6 13.Nh4 Bg4 14.f3 Bh5 15.Bc4 Nc5 16.b4 b5 17.Bxb5 cxb5 18.bxc5 Bxc5+ 19.Kh1 Kf7 20.g4 g5 21.Nf5 Bg6 22.a4 a6 23.Ba3 Bxa3 24.Rxa3 Ke6 25.Ng3 h5 26.gxh5 Bxh5 27.Nxh5 Rxh5 28.axb5 ½-½
But in his first game against the computer he was shot down in only 12 moves:

Natan Sharansky - Baby Junior
Tel Aviv 1999
Richter-Veresov Attack
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Bg5 Nbd7 4.f3 c6 5.e4 Qb6 6.Rb1 dxe4 7.fxe4 e5 8.d5 Bb4 9.dxc6 Nxe4 10.cxd7+ Bxd7 11.Qe2 Bxc3+ 12.Kd1 Nxg5 0-1

Three years ago, Sharansky took a game off Kasparov in a simul:

Garry Kasparov – Natan Sheransky
Jerusalem 1996
French Defence
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bd3 Be7 6.h3 Nc6 7.a3 Ne4 8.c4 Bf5 9.0-0 dxc4 10.Bxc4 0-0 11.d5 Na5 12.Ba2 c5 13.Re1 c4 14.Nbd2 Nxf2 15.Kxf2 Bc5+ 16.Re3 Bxe3+ 17.Kxe3 Re8+ 18.Kf2 Qxd5 19.Kg1 Rad8 20.Kh1 b5 21.Qf1 Bd3 22.Qg1 Nc6 23.Nb1 Nd4 24.Nxd4 Qxd4 25.Nc3 Qxg1+ 26.Kxg1 Re1+ 27.Kf2 Rde8 28.Nxb5 0-1

But Sharansky’s and Netanyahu’s chess prowess failed to impress the Israeli electorate. General Barak is the new Prime Minister.

Hawkeye

We are indebted to the Bard’s Guardian column for news of the World 1-minute Championship, played on the Internet. 126 players, including 5 GMs took part, but the winner, retaining his title, was 24-year-old German IM Roland ‘Hawkeye’ Schmaltz. Schmalz beat American GM Max Dlugy 10½-7½ in the final. The event was organised by the Professional Lightning Chess Organisation, of whose existence we were previously unaware.

Roland Schmaltz – Max Dlugy
World 1-min Championship 1999
Sicilian Defence
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Nf6 6.Nb3 e6 7.Bd3 Be7 8.0-0 0-0 9.f4 a6 10.Kh1 Qc7 11.Qf3 b5 12.Bd2 Bb7 13.Rae1 Rad8 14.Qh3 g6 15.f5 e5 16.Bh6 Rfe8 17.Bg5 d5 18.Bxf6 Bxf6 19.Nxd5 Rxd5 20.exd5 e4 21.dxc6 Qxc6 22.fxg6 fxg6 23.Be2 Bxb2 24.Bg4 Kg7 25.Bd7 1-0

Crossword

Continuing our occasional series of chess-related crossword clues, we had little difficulty in solving a clue from the Times Jumbo (22 May): Grand if he improves his performance on the board! (13,6).

Master Blaster

13-year-old James Goldsmith, from South East London, may have a famous name, but with a BCF grade of only 84 he’s not yet a famous player. But he’s currently unbeaten in seven simul games against GMs and IMs, with wins against Julian Hodgson, Graeme Buckley and Simon Williams to his credit. Is this, he asks, a record? Here’s one of his wins.

Graeme Buckley – James Goldsmith
RJCC Simul 1998
Slav Defence
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Bg4 4.e3 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nbd7 6.Qb3 Qb6 7.c5 Qc7 8.Be2 Bxf3 9.Bxf3 e6 10.e4 e5 11.exd5 exd4 12.d6 Qa5 13.0-0 Nxc5 14.Re1+ Ne6 15.Qxb7 Rd8 16.Bxc6+ Nd7 17.Qb3 Qf5 18.Nd5 Bxd6 19.Bd2 0-0 20.Bb4 Bxb4 21.Bxc5 Nxc5 21.Qxb4 Kh8 22.Rad1 Nf6 23.Nxf6 Qxf6 24.g3 d3 25.Qc3 Nd4 26.Bg2 Ne2+ 27.Rxe2 Qxc3 28.bxc3 dxe2 29.Re1 Rd1 0-1

Short and Sweet

Since starting this feature I’ve (RJ) been especially careful not to resign before move 16, to avoid the ignominy of featuring in our own column. But I’d also failed to WIN a game within the proscribed number of moves. Until now. And against a sometime S ‘n’ S contributor as well.

Patrick O’Mara – Richard James
Richmond Juniors A v Addlestone A (Thames Valley League) 1999
Dutch Defence
1.d4 e6 2.Nf3 f5 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.Nbd2 d5 6.Bg2 0-0 7.0-0 Nbd7 8.c4 c6 9.a3 h6 10.Bxf6 Bxf6 11.Rb1 b6 12.b4 Bb7 13.Qa4 dxc4 0-1

Resignation seemed rather premature: he’s only losing a pawn and I’ve been known to lose far better positions than that.
My opponent explained that, while I was out of the room, he’d touched his Knight on d2, intending Nxc4, before noticing the impending pawn fork. As he could find no other safe square for the piece, he chose to resign. A well deserved FARCE norm, then, for honesty (and, yes, he did tell me I could use the game in AC). Unlike a friend (who had better remain anonymous) who admitted taking back a move in similar circumstances against an IM at the Lloyds Bank Masters several years ago.

From Hywel Davies Somewhere in Wales:

Hywel Davies – Uwe Aikelin
West Wales U1700 1999
Owen’s Defence
1.d4 b6 2.Bg5 Bb7 3.e4 Bxe4 4.Nd2 Bb7 5.Bc4 Bxg2 6.Ngf3 Bxh1 7.Bxf7+ Kxf7 8.Ne5+ Ke8 9.Qh5+ g6 10.Nxg6 d6 11.Ne5# 1-0


Calling all Moses

Our sister magazine, Bridge, recently published Ten Commandments for Bridge Players (e.g. no.2: Thou shalt not call a misdeal just because thou hast been dealt no picture cards; no.7: Thou shalt not resort to hand signals, meaningful looks, or kicks under the table to instruct thy partner; no.8: If thou breakest no.7, thou must not get caught.) The usual norms for publishable chess commandments.

Lennox

Here (turned the right way round) is the Lennox Lewis position we mentioned in the May issue.

XABCDEFGHY
8rsn-+kvl-tr(
7zppzp-+pzp-'
6-+-zpl+-zp&
5+-+-zp-+-%
4-sN-+PvL-+$
3+-+P+-+-#
2PzPP+-zPPzP"
1tR-+QmKLsNR!
xabcdefghy
Leonard Barden featured it in his column (a game preserve for that endangered species: Descriptive notation), and posed the following puzzle: in the picture, Lennox had the black queen in his hand, suspended above the board, obviously in mid-move. '...the game is hardly out of the opening. Not one of Kasparov's, of course, with White having played the strange manoeuvre Kt -QKt1-QB3-Q5-Kt4. But assuming that Lennox's queen can make any legal move in the diagram, what should he play to ensure at
least a small advantage?'
Answer on pxxx

(Answer: QxB when Black has BvKt, and an active position, while the white QKt4 knight is decentralised. Thanks Leonard).

(Note to ed - please keep to Barden's quaint notational style)

Q

A couple of things from the July issue of Q.
In a feature entitled 20 Great Triangles in History (1. The Bermuda Triangle, 2. The green one in Quality Street etc.), number 14 reads: "14. Triangulation. Well-known chess manoeuvre emplyed in the endgame whereby the king is moved three times in a triangular configuration and… you’ve stopped reading this one haven’t you?". Well. thanks for getting it roughly right, anyway, guys.
Krautrocker Manuel Göttsching’s 1979 album e2-e4 (see AC473) was selected as one of the Best Chill-Out Albums of All Time. ("… sythesisers and drum machines build up a simgle, burbling, trance-like riff, topped with fluid guitar.")

LASTBUR 42997

The Richmond & Twickenham Times’s supplement on the Twickenham Festival advertised the opportunity for punters to come along and challenge a chess expert (believed to be RJ) or play on a Giant Chess Set. In the accompanying photo, the GCS was set up the wrong way round. (We suspect this was taken last year before we arrived to put it right.)