Round 2 7th July 2002

THE CANDIDATE

THERE’S a highly underrated Robert Redford film that, rather suitable for our purposes, is entitled The Candidate. In it, Redford does a fantastic take on Bill Clinton and his path to glory – spookily made in 1972, some twenty years before Bill realised you could do more with a cigar than just smoke it.

Redford plays Californian lawyer Bill McKay who fights for the little man. His charisma and integrity get him noticed by the Democratic Party machine and he is persuaded to run for the Senate against an apparently unassailable incumbent. It's agreed he can handle it his own way, on his own terms as he has nothing to lose. But once he's in the race and his prospects begin to improve, the deal starts to change when the party machine takes over the campaigning. The tagline for this movie is “Nothing matters more than winning. Not even what you believe in”.

At the end, when the inevitable happens and McKay wins the election, he turns round to his band of devious spin meisters, and quizzically asks “Ok, so what do we do now?” Like Billy McKay, I reckon this is exactly what many a Candidates’ winner must have enquired of their team after winning through for that once in a lifetime shot at the world title. So, since we are at the Candidates’ tournament, I thought we’d take a little walk down memory lane...

The first Candidates' tournament took place in Budapest in 1950 with the idea of providing a sort of Gladiatorial duel to find a challenger for Mikhail Botvinnik, who only a couple of years earlier had won the World Championship tournament following the inconvenient death of Alekhine – inconvenient for Alekhine, that is. David Bronstein and Isaak Boleslavsky tied for first in this 10 player event, and Bronstein later played his father-in-law to be (he married Bolesavsky’s daughter, Tatianna, at a later date) in a playoff match to determine who would be Botvinnik’s first challenger. Sammy Reshevsky was heavily tipped to be Botvinnik’s challenger (in the West anyway) but the U.S. government put the stepped in to stop him competing by refusing to grant Sammy a visa to Hungary.

Sadly we all know what happened to poor Bronstein – he tied the match 12-12 with Botvinnik (who thanks to FIDE managed to stack the deck in his favour with the champion-keeps-his-crown-in-the-event-of-a-tied-match-rip-off) and thus goes down in the annals of chess history as being the man who came the closest to never being world champion.

Next up was probably the most famous Candidates tournament of all-time, Zurich 1953 - Ah, the joys of editorial license! The venue was actually split between Neuhausen-Zurich, however that doesn’t exactly have the same ring to it as a book title as ‘Zurich 1953’ does. And while we’re on the subject of editorial license, Bronstein freely admits he wasn’t the only author of this famous tome. Apparently he only ever admitted to doing the annotations to the games, while someone else did the narrative and introductions to the games - but due to political problems was never named as a co-author. I’ll be honest here and tell you that Tom Furstenburg told me exactly who the co-author was, but unfortunately I can’t remember who. I’m sure all you budding Edward Winters out there will soon put me right

The successful winner of Zurich 1953 was Vassily Smyslov, who unlike Bronstein managed to win the title after beating Botvinnik. However, thanks to FIDE who managed to stack the deck in Botvinnik’s favour again with the defeated-champion-gets-an-automatic-return-match-within-a-year-rip-off, Smyslov lost the return match. And while we’re on the subject of ‘Smyslov’ and ‘Candidates’, dear old Vassily, at the age of 61 after coming second in the 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal, also goes down in history as the oldest player to play in the Candidates – his third attempt at playing for the crown stopped only in the finals by some up and coming star called Garry Kasparov.

The great Mikhail Tal won the Bled-Zagreb-Belgrade Candidates tournament of 1959, went on to electrify the chess world with a dazzling display to beat Botvinnik…only for Botvinnik to reach into his pocket for his ‘Get Out Of Jail Free Card’ to demand a return match same time next year. It was all enough to make a sane man turn to drink. Which funnily enough for Tal…

The last Candidates tournament, won by Tigran Petrosian, co-incidentally took place exactly 40 years ago in the Dutch Caribbean Island of Curaçao at the height of the Cold War in 1962. This was the one that was famed for Bobby Fischer’s claim in Sports Illustrated that those darn Russkies were stitching up the chess world with their downright cheating and collusion. As a matter of interest, this November in Curaçao there will be a special 40^th anniversary Open to commemorate this event, which will include Viktor Korchnoi (who began his world championship adventures there in 1962), Nigel Short and Jan Timman. Yuri Averbakh, who also competed in 1962, will be acting in his capacity as chief arbiter for the event, which will also include another 1962 veteran Pal Benko as commentator. You can obtain further details of this interesting event – Correct. I’m only plugging it so heavily because the nice organisers have arranged a freebie for me – at www.curacao.com/chess

From there the Candidates were played by matches on a knockout basis, and with some funny incidents along the way – mainly involving Tigran Petrosian. Playing against Germany’s strongest player Robert Huebner, the match was abruptly ended in Petrosian’s favour after the good Dr lost his nerve. After making a mistake in game seven, Huebner resigned and withdrew from the match. He said he was bothered by street noises. This didn’t really bother Petrosian – he simply turned his hearing aid down.

The hapless Huebner was also knocked out of a Candidates match thanks to the Roulette table. During his 1982 match with Smyslov in Velden, Austria, the match was tied 7-7. To break the tie, both players agreed to use a roulette wheel to select the winner. Huebner's colour was black and Smyslov's was red. The wheel was spun and t it came up ‘0’ – by my reckoning this should have seen the Casino going forward. The second spin saw the ball land in ‘Red 3’ and Smyslov won.

Another Petrosian ‘incident’ occurred in 1980 when he was played his ‘good friend’ Viktor Korchnoi (who holds the record with 8 by playing in the most Candidates). Fearful of being assassinated after defecting, Korchnoi insisted on a bullet-proof screen put between him and the audience. Petrosian was said to not be bothered by the possibility of someone firing a gun – he simply turned his hearing aid down.

There’s much, much more we could go into in the history of the Candidates’, but on the whole they have at least given us that Gladiatorial duel before going on for the ultimate title challenge. Thanks to the combination of the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting and Einstein TV, we have at least got back to a combination of both Candidates Tournament and Matches to decide the rightful challenger for the crown – and with a return to the all-important Classical time controls. As the players admitted at the start, the set-up is new and they have never played in it before, but they feel sufficiently confidant that it will be a success.

And, like the tagline for the Redford movie where “Nothing matters more than winning. Not even what you believe in”, we’ve had two players looking like Group winners thanks to luck. Topalov looked to have been a likely candidate for defeat at the hands of Gelfand, who unfortunately lost his nerve in the time scramble to gift his opponent his second successive win. And the same could be said for Bareev, who similarly leads his Group with 2/2. Asked if he was surprised at his two wins, which include a gift in the first round from Morozevich who looked to be winning, Bareev smiled and said: "I was sure it would happen!"

Topalov,V (2745) - Gelfand,B (2710) [B12]

1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 e5 Bf5 4 Nc3 e6 5 g4 Bg6 6 Nge2 c5 7 h4 h5 8 Nf4 Bh7 [ 8 ..Nc6 is also a reliable option here] 9 Nxh5 [White may have won a pawn but the ensuing complications that follows gives Black excellent compensation.] 9 ..Nc6 10 dxc5 Bxc5 11 Bb5N [ 11 Bg2 Nd4 12 Bg5 f6 13 Nxg7+ Kf7 14 exf6 Qd6 15 Nh5 Nxc2+ 16 Kf1 Nxa1 17 Qxa1 d4 18 Ne4 Bxe4 19 Bxe4 d3 20 Qd1 Rd8 21 Kg2 d2 22 Qc2 Nh6 23 Bh7 Nf5 24 gxf5 Qd5+ 25 f3 e5 26 Bg6+ Kf8 27 Ng7 1–0 Grischuk,A-Bareev,E/Moscow RUS 2002/TWIC 396. ; 11 Bd3 Bxd3 12 Qxd3 g6 13 Ng3 Rxh4 14 Rxh4 Qxh4 15 Qb5 Bb6 16 Be3 Qxg4 17 Bxb6 axb6 18 Qxb6 Nxe5 19 Qxb7 Rd8 20 Qb5+ Kf8 21 Qb6 Nf3+ 22 Kf1 Rc8 23 a4 Nf6 24 a5 d4 25 Qb7 e5 26 a6 dxc3 27 a7 Qh3+ 28 Ke2 Nd4+ 29 Kd3 cxb2 30 a8Q bxa1Q 31 Qxa1 Qe6 32 Qaa6 Rc6 33 Qaa8+ Kg7 34 Qb4 Rd6 35 Qba5 Nc6+ 0–1 Nataf,I-Nielsen,P/Esbjerg DEN 2001/TWIC 349. The immediate capture on g7 only gains Black a vital tempo as he can attack the g7 knight: 11 Nxg7+ Kf8 12 Nh5 d4 13 Na4 Nb4! 14 Bd3 Nxd3+ 15 cxd3 Be7 16 g5 ( 16 b3 Qa5+ 17 Kf1 Qxe5) 16 ..Qa5+ 17 b4 ( 17 Kf1 b5! and White is dropping the knight.) 17 ..Qxe5+ 18 Kf1 Bxb4 with a big advantage.] 11 ..Qc7 12 Bxc6+ Qxc6 13 Qf3 0–0–0

[All the fun starts here as Gelfand sacrifices a second pawn, hoping that he'll have more than enough compensation with his active bishop-pair and strong passed d-pawn.] 14 Nxg7 d4 [ Also worth looking at was keeping the Queen's on with 14 ..Bd4!? 15 Bg5 ( 15 Bf4 Be4! 16 Nxe4 dxe4 17 Qe2 Bxb2 18 Rb1 Bc3+ 19 Kf1 Ne7) 15 ..Rd7 with an interesting struggle ahead] 15 Qxc6+ bxc6 16 Na4 Bf8 17 Nh5 Bxc2 18 b3 Rd5 19 Bf4 Bb4+ 20 Ke2 d3+ 21 Kf3 d2

[Admittedly Gelfand's position looks strong. Remarkable as it seems, Topalov seems to have everything under control.] 22 Rad1 Ne7 [ Taking on d1 doesn't lead to glory for Gelfand as eventually White's h- and g-pawn will be as strong as black's on d2, both of which will cancel each other out: 22 ..Bxd1+ 23 Rxd1 Ne7 24 Nf6 Rd4 25 Be3 Rdd8 26 h5 and if anything it's White who has winning chances.] 23 Nf6 Rd3+ 24 Ke2 Nd5 25 Bg5 Bxd1+ 26 Rxd1 Rh3 27 h5 Be7 [ 27 ..Nxf6 28 Bxf6 Rg8 29 f3 Rh2+ 30 Kd3 Rf2 31 Ke3 Rg2 32 Kd3= and no progress can be made due to the strength of both passed pawns.] 28 Rxd2 Bxf6 29 Bxf6 Nf4+ 30 Kd1 Rg8 31 Nc5

31 ..Rxg4?? [Calamity! With around three minutes to get to the time control, Gelfand snatches defeat from the jaws of victory] 31 ..Nd5= ] 32 Rd8+ Kc7 33 Rd7+ Kb6 [ 33 ..Kb8 34 Rxf7 Rg8 35 Be7 Nd3 36 Bd6+ Ka8 37 Nxd3 Rxd3+ 38 Ke2 Rh3 39 Re7 Rxh5 40 Rxe6 and the f- and e-pawns win the day.] 34 Be7! [Threatening mate with Rb7+ and b4 mate!] 34 ..Nd5 35 Rb7+ Ka5 36 Rxa7+ Kb5 37 Rb7+ Nb6 [ 37 ..Ka5 38 Bd8+ Nb6 39 Rxb6! Rd4+ 40 Ke2 Rxd8 41 Rb7 and the Black King is still in a mating net: 41 ..Rd4 42 a3 and there's no way of preventing b4.] 38 a4+ Ka5 39 Kc2 and there's no way to stop Ra7+ followed by Nd3 mate. 1–0

Bareev,E (2726) - Leko,P (2717) [E32]

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Qc2 0–0 5 a3 Bxc3+ 6 Qxc3 b6 7 Bg5 Bb7 8 e3 d6 9 f3 h6 10 Bh4 Nbd7 11 Bd3 c5 12 Ne2 Rc8 13 0–0 Ba6 14 b4N ["Nothing special in this TN," explained Bareev after the game, "just something to make Leko think - which it did."] 14 ..cxd4 15 Qxd4 Ne5 16 b5! Nxd3 17 Qxd3 [Bareev felt he had a "slight advantage" here with more space and well-developed pieces.] 17 ..Bb7 18 e4 [Bareev has a big clamp on the Black position with the light-squared bishop rendered useless coupled with the defence of d6.] 18 ..Qc7 19 Rac1 Rfd8 20 Rfd1 Rd7 [Criticised by Bareev - "A move that shows he doesn't have any clear plan."] 21 a4! [Bareev's intended winning plan is 22 a5 bxa5 23 Bxf6 gxf6 24 c5!] 21 ..Qc5+ 22 Bf2 Qb4 23 Qc2 d5? [Unnecessarily opening up the game - and to Black's disadvantage.] 24 c5!

24 ..Rdc7 [ 24 ..bxc5 25 e5 Ne8 26 Be1 and the Queen's lost] 25 c6 Bxc6 [ 25 ..Ba8 didn't even bare thinking about] 26 Bg3! [Bareev felt that Leko had overlooked this move, which wins two exchanges and with it the game. The rest is simply a formality to get to the time control.] 26 ..Bxb5 27 Bxc7 Rxc7 28 Qxc7 Bxe2 29 Re1 Bc4 30 Qxa7 h5 31 e5 Nh7 32 Rb1 Bb3 33 Kh1 Qxa4 34 Qxb6 Bc2 35 Qd8+ Nf8 36 Rb8 Qa3 37 Qd6 1–0

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

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