Too much guts…

I attended a product proposal a few weeks ago where the presenter solemnly told me that “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change” (Charles Darwin), together with pictures showing a monkey evolving into a tab-carrying business executive.

I could not help but giggle a bit inside for one of the philosophies of my life is “no guts, no glory” but make sure to always temper it with a bit of caution, as expressed in the epilogue, “too much guts, you become gory.”

All this came back to me because of an article by GM Alex Baburin in his newsletter Chess Today. First, a bit of background. Here is one of the most brilliant games I have ever seen.

Short, Nigel D (2660) — Timman, Jan H (2630) [B04]

Tilburg (4), 1991

1.e4 Nf6

The reader will recall that the Alekhine used to be GM Eugene’s main weapon with Black against 1.e4. In GM circles though the opening has become a rarity. Even Torre stopped playing it after some rather heavy losses, especially against Anatoly Karpov in the 1973 Leningrad Interzonal. In 1991 though Jan Timman used it with good effect against Robert Hubner in their 1991 Candidates match, so Nigel Short had to prepare against it. 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 g6 5.Bc4 Nb6 6.Bb3 Bg7 7.Qe2

Karpov-Torre went 7.Ng5 d5 8.f4 Nc6 9.c3 f6 10.Nf3 Bf5 11.0–0 Qd7 12.Nbd2 fxe5 13.fxe5 0–0 14.Rf2 Na5 15.Bc2 Bxc2 16.Qxc2 Qf5 17.Qd1 e6 18.Nf1 c5 19.h3 cxd4 20.cxd4 Nc6 21.b3 Nd7 22.Ba3 Rf7 23.g4 Qe4 24.Ng5 1–0. Karpov, A. (2645) - Torre,E. (2430) Leningrad 1973. 7...Nc6 8.0–0 0–0

[8...Bg4? 9.Bxf7+!] 9.h3!

Now that Black is really threatening to play ...Bg4 White prevents it so as to maintain his bulkhead on e5. 9... a5 10. a4 dxe5 11. dxe5 Nd4!

12.Nxd4 Qxd4 13.Re1 e6 14.Nd2! Nd5 15.Nf3 Qc5 16.Qe4 Preventing 16...b6 because of 11.c4.

16...Qb4 17.Bc4!

An excellent move preventing the queen exchange. 17.Bxd5 exd5 18.Qxd5 Be6 frees up Black’s position. 17...Nb6 18.b3! Nxc4 19.bxc4 Re8 20.Rd1 Qc5 21.Qh4

Now the storm clouds over the Black King are gathering.

21...b6 22.Be3 Qc6 23. Bh6 Bh8 24. Rd8! Bb7 25.Rad1 Threatening Qe7! and, if necessary, Rd1– d7.

25...Bg7 26.R8d7! Rf8

Alternatives: Timman intended to play 26...Qe4 here but suddenly noticed 27.Rxf7!;

26... Bxe5 ( hoping for 27. Nxe5?? Qxg2 mate) is refuted by 27.Rxf7! Kxf7 28.Nxe5+ with a family fork. 27.Bxg7 Kxg7 28.R1d4

Preventing ...Qe4 once and for all.

28...Rae8 29.Qf6+ Kg8 30.h4 h5 <D>

POSITION AFTER 30...H5 And now we see a beautiful finish. 31.Kh2!!

Why does this move deserve two exclamation points? You have to understand the underlying idea — the king is on its way to h6! 31... Rc8 32. Kg3! Rce8 33. Kf4! Bc8 34.Kg5!! 1–0

Truly an amazing finish. Now, back to the present. GM Baburin pointed out this game from the

recently concluded 1st Sharjah Masters in the United Arab Emirates.

Salem, AR (2652) — Vignesh, N R (2405) [E12]

1st Sharjah Masters 2017 Sharjah UAE (1.18), 23.03.2017

As many of our readers know, GM Salem AR Saleh is an attacking master and the strongest player ever to come out of the UAE. He invariably does well in these giant opens but in this game he got a little too inspired.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3 Bb7 5.Nc3 d5 6.Qc2 Be7 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8. e4 Nxc3 9. bxc3 0– 0 10. Bd3 c5 11.0–0 cxd4 12.cxd4 Qc8 13.Qe2 Ba6 14.Rd1 Bxd3 15.Rxd3 Nd7 16.e5 b5 17.Bg5 Qd8 18.Bxe7 Qxe7 19.d5 exd5 20.Rxd5 a6 21.Qe3 Rfc8 22.Rad1 Nc5 23.Nd4 g6 24.Rd6 Nb7 25.Rf6 Re8 26.Nc6 Qc5 27.Qb3 Qc4 28.Qf3 Rac8 29.h3 Nd8 30.Nxd8 Rcxd8 31.Rxd8 Rxd8 32.Rxa6 b4 33.Qf6 Re8 34.axb4 Qxb4 35.f4 Qc4

POSITION AFTER 35...QC4

White is a pawn up and has good winning chances, but now a diabolical idea gets into his head — how about Short’s maneuver? What if he can get his king to h6? 36.Kh2 Qc7 37.Kg3 Qc3+ 38.Kh4? h6!

That is a big difference between this and the Short game — Black’s pawn is on h7 instead of h5 and can take away the g5 square from White’s king. 39.Ra7 Qe1+ 40.g3

[40.Kg4 Qe2+ (40...h5+?? 41.Kg5 and White’s dream comes true) 41.Kg3 Qe3+ snags White’s rook on a7]

40...Rf8 41.Re7? [41.e6 draws but White is playing for a win] 41...Qe2! 0–1

And now, to white’s horror, he is mated. Yup, too much guts...

Some news on the local chess scene. Do you guys remember Jess Torre? He is a strong chessplayer and the eldest brother of GM Eugene. Jess was the visionary who organized the Philippine National Chess Club ( PNCC) in Fiesta Carnival, Cubao, back in the ’70s and ’80s. They organized hundreds of tournaments and events for aspiring chessplayers. His most famous member is Vishy Anand who lived in Manila for a few years (this was when he was barely 10 years old) when his father was working with the Philippine National Railways. Vishy was a very active member and Jess even arranged for the late National Master Victor Cabrido to give him lessons.

Anyway, after a few years’ sojourn in Jakarta, Jess is back in the Philippines and active once again in chess organization. I would suggest for the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) to consider him for the position of Executive Director, a position vacated by GM Jayson Gonzales who chose to concentrate on his coaching career in Far Eastern University (FEU).

Jess Torre recently announced that the once popular, prestigious and muchawaited Chess Team tournament by our local chess players, the INTER-COMMERCIAL CHESS TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP will be revived starting this year. This will be a one- day 7- round Swiss system event to be held on Sunday, May 28 at the Meralco Multipurpose Hall in Ortigas, Pasig.

Each team will be composed of four players who have been regular employees of their company for at least six months prior to the start of the tournament. To further level the playing field, each team will be allowed to field only one titled player. Each player will be allotted 25 minutes for the game with five seconds added after every move starting move 1.

Opening ceremonies will start at 8:30 a.m. This tournament is sanctioned by the NCFP and all participants will be rated by the NCFP. In addition to that, the tournament will be registered with FIDE ( World Chess Federation) for possible rating if the players are qualified. Trophies, medals, digital chess clocks and a limited special edition GTD chess set signed by GM Eugene Torre will be awarded to the top 7 teams which will automatically qualify to participate in a matchup against the top seven teams of the INTRA- GOVERMENT CHESS TEAM billed as the “2017 CHESS SHOWDOWN” this coming November 2017.

In addition to all of that, GM Eugene Torre will give a free 20 board simultaneous exhibition to 10 executives and managers and 10 children of the employees of the top seven chess teams as part of their prizes. Trophies and medals will be awarded to participants of this exhibition to those who could beat or draw with GM Torre.

All participants will be provided free catered lunch, dinner, and snacks in the morning and afternoon. Part of the proceeds of this tournament will be donated to One Meralco Foundation, one of whose projects is to promote chess in general and chess in public schools in particular.

Among the teams expected to participate are the MVP Group of Companies, the National Grid Corp., Shell Philippines, Petron, Caltex Philippines, drug companies, call centers, banks, manufacturing and service companies.

Due to limited logistics, the tournament will be limited to the first 50 registrants on a first come first serve basis. For registration and further information call Jess Torre at cell no. 0977307-7659 or e-mail him at jot251939@ yahoo.com.

So c’mon, let us all support this new initiative. Make your move! No guts...