Pursuits: Chess

Bob Wade
Thursday 08 October 1998 23:02 BST
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ENGLAND ARE paired with Russia I in round 9 of the Elista Olympiad. With 13 rounds to be played, USA led with 22 points out of a possible 32, Russia I and Bulgaria had 211/2, and England, France and Russia II

21. The Americans are paired with France and Russia II with Bulgaria.

Scotland and Wales, both with 151/2, play each other, while Jersey (101/2) meets Seychelles, and Guernsey (10) Mali. The Irish, doing fantastically well with 171/2, meet the Yugoslavs.

China already has a 31/2 point lead over Romania in the Women's Olympiad with Georgia, Russia and the Netherlands(!) a 1/2 point farther back. The English women have 121/2, the Scots 111/2, the Welsh 101/2.

Today, Indian Defences, involving the fianchettos of bishops, bear little relationship to earlier forms played in India, circa AD500-1000. Two examples from the Olympiad illustrate their violent counter-attacking nature.

Yevgeny Bareev (Russia) vs Liuban Spassov (Bulgaria) reached our diagram position after 9 b4, as the Savchenko-Hebden game, though by a different move order. They had continued 9... Nh5 10 Re1 Nf4 11 Bf1 a5 12 bxa5 Rxa5 13 a4 f5 14 Ra3 h6 15 exf5 Nxf5 16 Ne4 g5 17 g3 Ng6 18 c5? Around about here, as Bareev confessed, he was distracted by the disaster engulfing his neighbour's (Svidler's) board. 18... dxc5 19 Bc4 Nd6 20 Nfd2 b6 21 Ba2 Bf5 22 Bb2 Kh8 23 Nxd6 cxd6 24 Nc4 Ra7 25 Ree3 Raf7 26 Bc3 Nf4! 27 Be1 Nh3+ 28 Kg2 g4 29 Re2 Qf6 30 Bb1 Qg6 31 Bxf5 Rxf5 32 Nd2 Ng5 33 h4 gxh3+ 34 Kh2 e4 35 Ra2 Qh5 0-1. That contributed to Russia's 3-1 defeat in round 7.

Mark Hebden's win decided their round eight match against Ukraine in favour of England. Savchenko seemed, about moves 14-17, to mix systems for White to exert pressure on the queen's wing, and Mark by vigorous play had built up a dominating position by 26... Ndc3!

White: Stanislav Savchenko (Ukraine)

Black: Mark Hebden

King's Indian Defence

1 Nf3 Nf6

2 c4 g6

3 Nc3 Bg7

4 e4 d6

5 d4 0-0

6 Be2 e5

7 0-0 Nc6

8 d5 Ne7

9 b4 (see diagram) Kh8

10 c5 Neg8

11 a4 Nh5

12 Nd2 Nf4

13 Nc4 f5

14 cxd6 cxd6

15 Nb5 fxe4

16 Nbxd6 Nf6

17 Bb2 N6xd5

18 Nxe4 Bf5

19 Bf3 Qh4

20 Ncd6 Rad8

21 Qb3 Qe7

22 Rad1 Be6

23 b5 g5

24 g3 g4

25 Bg2 Ne2+

26 Kh1 Ndc3

27 Qa3 Nxd1

28 Rxd1 Nd4

29 Bc1 h6

30 Bd2 Bd5

31 Ba5 b6

32 Bb4 Nc2

33 Rxd5 Nxa3

34 Bxa3 Qe6

35 Rd3 Qa2

36 Bc1 Qc2 0-1

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