Round 12 8th March 2002

HASTA LA VISTA, BABY.

YOU couldn’t have written the script better if it were a Hollywood film being directed by Steven Spielberg: Gazza vs. Super-Mario in the penultimate round to more or less decide the tournament! Is Garry going to be praying things go his way (as usual), or will Super-Mario have the last laugh?

Mind you, it all fits in nicely with the Spanish film crew that’s been here from the start to make a docudrama about the ‘Wimbledon of Chess’. Clasto Productions from Madrid have a seven-strong film crew here, and along with their two camera crews, they’ve been putting Freddie Friedel of ChessBase to shame as they follow everything and anything that moves (or makes moves) at Linares, literally 24 hours a day: the player’s before a game, going to a game, during a game and after a game - and much, much more.

They even go behind the scenes at Linares to find out all the action in the press room (I hope they get my good side) and in the technical area that’s been responsible for transmitting the excellent live coverage for you at home. The film is being directed by Beltrán Rubio, who, according to his dedicated crew (a mutinous bunch if ever I saw one), is the Stanley Kuberick of Linares. He hopes that the film will be on general release within the next 4-5 months, and will have a running time of around 75 minutes.

The whole idea behind the project is to dispel the notion of chess players being ‘mad’ (I hope they haven’t been filming Big Chucky!), as they attempt to highlight the competitive side to the game we love so, so much - including all the tension, tears and histrionics. And that’s just the dedicated chess press trying to find a bar opened in Linares after 2.00am!

I’ve also discovered they are not the only ones interested in films in Linares - it seems the Ukrainians are also big film buffs. I heard a nice story recently that Big Chucky was discovered buying a collection of Blue Movies at an airport to take back home to Lvov after a tournament. Another player asked why he needed "those" films, and Big Chucky replied, "I don’t watch them - It’s to help with my analysis." Big Chucky is such a popular guy, apparently every time he returns from a foreign trip a large group of friends descend on his home. He explained that the only peace he gets to analyse his games is when he puts the Blue Movies on. For some reason it keeps his friends quiet for an hour or two!

Another film buff I’ve discovered is young master Ruslan Ponomariov. Since I’ve got the room next to Pono and broke the news about the mini-bar "incident", the assembled hacks in the press room thought it was my solemn duty to find out why, after each game, he wouldn’t stop to analyse his games or converse in idle chit-chat with the boys looking to fill in the white space on their respective organs. Oh, no. He would run as fast as his little legs could move to get back to his room.

I soon discovered what all the rush was about. He’s addicted to watching DVD films on his laptop - and we’re not talking Uncle Walt Disney here! Every day, Team Ponomariov has been visiting the Spanish equivalent of Blockbuster Videos to hire a film to watch in the evening. You can just picture Kasparov and Yuri crouched over an overheating laptop frantically searching for the latest blockbuster move, while just along the corridor at Team Ponomariov, they’re also similarly crouched over a laptop, where they’d be watching the latest Blockbuster movie!

This all came to light when, on seeing them taking their latest films back to the hire shop, I decided to be ‘right neighbourly’ by offering them one from my own on-the-road-collection. This is a necessity for all those foreign sojourns - there’s only so much CNN and the Enron scandal a guy can physically take. Among my collection for this expedition to Linares I had timeless classics, such as Lawrence of Arabia; This Is Spinal Tap; 2010: The Year We Made Contact; Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon; Young Frankenstein; The Red Planet and, of course, the obligatory film from that big chess fan himself, Arnie "I’ll be back!" Schwarzenegger’s, The 6th Day.

Being a connoisseur, I heartily recommended David Lean’s excellent Lawrence of Arabia; though did warn Pono that it lasted over 4 hours. In broken English, he laughed, and answered "Too long - not Fide time-control!", and settled for 90 minutes of spills and thrills with Arnie. The next day Pono seemed to treat local hero Paco Vallejo in much the same way as Arnie treats the baddies in his films.

Ponomariov,R (2727) - Vallejo Pons,F (2629) [B43]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3 b5 6.Bd3 (Now here's the thing - Ponomariov's second, Moldavian GM Viktor Bologan, is a big player of the Kan Sicilian, and rates the white set-up as the most problematic for black. ) 6...Bb7 [An interesting in-vogue line these days is 6...Qb6!? 7.Nb3 Qc7] 7.0–0 Nc6 8.Nxc6 Bxc6 9.Qe2! [9.Re1 Ne7 10.Qh5 Ng6 11.a4 b4 12.Nd5 Bd6 13.Be3 0–0 14.Nb6 Rb8 15.a5 Nf4 16.Bxf4 Bxf4 17.e5 g6 18.Qg4 Qg5 19.Qxg5 Bxg5 20.Be4 Bb5 1/2–1/2 Ponomariov,R-Dao Thien Hai/New Delhi ITA 2000/The Week in Chess 316 (58). (57)] 9...Ne7 10.Bd2N [10.a4 b4 11.Nd1 a5 12.Ne3 Ng6 13.Bb5 Qc7 14.Nc4 Bc5 15.b3 0–0 16.Be3 Bxe3 17.Qxe3 Rfb8 18.Bxc6 Qxc6 19.e5 f6 20.f4 Rf8 21.Rad1 fxe5 22.fxe5 Nh4 23.Rf2 Nf5 24.Qf3 Qc5 25.Rxd7 Rad8 26.Rxd8 Rxd8 27.h3 Qd4 28.g4 Nh6 29.Nxa5 Qa1+ 30.Kg2 Rc8 31.Nc6 Kh8 1–0 Van Riemsdijk,H-Perdomo,C/Elista 1998/CBM 66 ext (31).; 10.f4 b4 11.Nd1 Ng6 12.Be3 Qa5 13.Nf2 Bc5 14.Ng4 h5 15.Nf2 Qb6 16.Nd1 e5 17.fxe5 Nxe5 18.h3 d6 19.Kh1 g6 20.Rf6 Qb7 21.Bxc5 dxc5 22.Ne3 0–0 1/2–1/2 Tolnai,T-Smirin,I/Komotini 1992/EXT 2000 (22).] 10...Ng6 11.a4 b4

12.Nd5! (Oops! Now we see the reason for Pono playing the novelty 10 Bd2. By delaying a4 (as in the game Van Riemsdijk-Perdomo above) until Ng6, white gets in this very annoying move.) 12...a5 13.c3 b3 [As Danny King would say in his excellent 'How Good is your Chess' column in Chess Monthly, deduct 5-points if you wanted to play 13...bxc3? 14.Bxc3 with a ready-made attack on the way.] 14.g3 Bd6 [14...Be7 15.Nxe7 Qxe7 16.f4 0–0 17.Be3 and black is already in a bad way - the weak b-pawn is the least of his problems.] 15.Ne3 0–0 16.Nc4 Bc5 17.Be3 Qe7

18.Nd2 Ne5? [Bad. Very bad - this simply losses the b-pawn. 18...Bxe3 19.Qxe3 Rfb8 and black's still in the game with a balanced position.] 19.Bxc5 Qxc5 20.Nxb3 Qd6 [20...Qb6 21.Nd4 Nxd3 22.Qxd3 Rab8 (22...Qxb2? 23.Rfb1!) 23.Rfd1 may have held out longer for black, but in the long run he faces a daunting task of defending a bad position a pawn down.] 21.Bb5! f5 [21...Bxb5 22.axb5 a4 23.Rfd1 Qc7 24.Nd4 and now the a-pawn is a liability.] 22.f4 Ng4 23.e5 Qd5 (and pray that he doesn't notice the mate on h1!) 24.Bxc6 dxc6 25.Nd4 c5 26.Nb5 Rad8 27.h3 Nh6 28.Rfd1 Qb3 29.Rd6! 1–0

Adams,Mi (2742) - Kasparov,G (2838) [B90]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 (The English Attack. Players like Mickey Adams and Nigel Short pioneered this system in the early 1990s as a way of avoiding the reams of theory in the Najdorf. Their "quiet" system has now turned full circle to become the big theory line in the Najdorf.) 6...e6 7.Qf3!? (Not a great big hairy monster of a move, but it was enough to send Gazza into a deep 25 minute think. Meanwhile, in the press room, Ljubo Ljubojevic was quietly smiling to himself - he invented this quirky system way back in the early 1970s. The idea is to prevent black from playing b5.) 7...Nbd7 8.Be2 (The idea is to go for a quick strike with g4. So...) 8...h5!? (Preventing g4 and looking for a Ng4 in the future.) 9.Bg5!?N [Leading to another big Kasparov think-in: 9.0–0–0 Qc7 10.Rhe1 Ne5 11.Qg3 b5 12.f4 Neg4 13.Bxg4 Nxg4 14.Bg1 Bb7 15.Kb1 Rc8 16.e5 dxe5 17.fxe5 g6 18.h3 b4 19.Na4 Nf6 20.Nxe6 Qxc2+ 21.Ka1 Ne4 22.Qe3 fxe6 23.Rc1 Qxa4 24.Rxc8+ Bxc8 25.Qxe4 Kf7 26.Rf1+ Kg7 27.Be3 Be7 28.Qf4 Qe8 29.Rc1 g5 30.Qg3 Rg8 31.h4 Kh8 32.hxg5 Bb7 33.Rc7 Be4 34.Qh4 Bg6 35.g4 Rf8 36.gxh5 Rf1+ 37.Bc1 Bxh5 38.Qh3 Rf5 39.g6 Kg8 40.Qb3 Rxe5 41.Qc4 Bxg6 42.Qxa6 Bf8 43.Qc4 Qb5 0–1 Firt,S-Kalod,R/Opava 2000/CBM 76 ext (43).] 9...Qa5 10.Bd2 Qb6 11.Nb3 Qc7 12.a4 b6 13.Bg5 Bb7 (Black continues with standard Sicilian-type moves - the only difference being h5. The problem with this is black would really like to castle kingside, but can't as h5 would be a liability. Typically, Kasparov soon finds a way to solve everything.) 14.Rd1 Be7 15.Qe3 Nc5 16.Nd2 Rd8 17.0–0 Ng4! 18.Bxg4 hxg4 19.Bxe7

19...d5! (A nice little zwischenzug.) 20.Qg3 [20.g3 Qxe7 21.exd5 exd5 22.Rfe1 (22.Qxe7+ Kxe7 23.Rfe1+ Kf8) 22...Qxe3 23.Rxe3+ Kf8 24.Nc4 Ne6 25.Red3 d4 26.Ne2 Be4 27.R3d2 Rd5! (the rook is heading for h5!) 28.Nc3 dxc3 29.Rxd5 Bxd5 30.Rxd5 cxb2 31.Nxb2 Ke7 32.Nc4 Rc8 33.Ne3 Rc6 - black's very slightly better here, though nothing to write home about.] 20...Qxg3 (By now Kasparov was nervously looking in the general direction of Pono's board, as he was well on the way to beating Vallejo.) 21.fxg3! [21.hxg3? just might succeed in getting white mated down the h-file!)] 21...Kxe7 22.exd5 exd5 23.Rde1+ Kf8 24.b4 Ne4 25.Ncxe4 dxe4

26.Nc4 [Black has too much activity for white to make anything of the pawn: 26.Nxe4!? Rh5 27.Nc3 (27.Nf2 Rd2!) 27...a5 28.bxa5 (28.b5? Rc5!) 28...Rc5! 29.Re3 (29.Ne4 Rxa5!=; 29.Nd1 Rxa5 30.Rf4 Bc6 31.Ne3=) 29...bxa5 30.Rb1 Bc6=] 26...Rh5 27.Nxb6 Rd6 28.Nc4 [28.a5 Bc6! 29.Rd1 Rdh6 30.Rd8+ Ke7 31.Rc8 e3] 28...Rd4 29.Ne3 [All roads lead to the draw now: 29.Na5 Rxb4 30.Nxb7 Rxb7 31.Rxe4 Rc5 32.Rc1 Rb2=] 29...Rxb4 30.Rd1 Re5 31.Rd7 Re7 32.Rd8+ Re8 33.Rd7 Re7 34.Rd8+ ½–½

You can contact John Henderson at: jbhthescots@cableinet.co.uk

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of TWIC, Chess & Bridge Ltd or the London Chess Center.