MARK RUBERY CHESS

The following extract, with a South African angle, is taken from Hans Ree’s popular column in the magazine ‘New in Chess’ where he reviews ‘Ivan’s Chess Journey- Games and Stories’ by Ivan Sokolov…

Being paired as Black against Genna Sosonko in the first round of his first Dutch Championship, Ivan was eager to spring a novelty in the Grunfeld on him. The day before the game Ivan visited Jan Timman, who was not playing in the tournament, to have his novelty checked. He writes: ‘The former ‘Best in the West’ welcomed me in a jovial mood…Ahaa Ivan, look, this is Meerlust Rubicon, an excellent wine from South Africa…yes…yes…interesting novelty… ahaa…let me give you some more wine…yes…sure…it will work perfectly against Genna (!) …should I open another bottle ?...The more we were drinking the more my novelty was looking better… The next day Sosonko needed only 45 minutes to dismantle my novelty and win the game.’

Sosonko,Gennadi (2525) - Sokolov,Ivan (2650) [D96]

NED-ch NED (1), 1994

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Qb3 c5?! (The dubious novelty that, one imagines unbeknownst to Sokolov, was first used by Cortlever to get a draw against Max Euwe in 1939) 6.cxd5 0–0 7.e3 Nbd7 8.Be2 cxd4 9.Nxd4 Nc5 10.Qa3 Nce4 11.Nxe4 Nxe4 12.0–0 Re8 13.Qb3 Qd6 14.Rd1 a5 15.Qc2 Nc5 16.e4 Bd7 17.Be3 Rac8 18.Rac1 Ba4 19.b3 Nxb3 20.Qxc8 Nxd4 21.Rxd4 1–0