CHESS BY MARK RUBERY

During the 1981 SA Closed tournament held in Cape Town, the eventual winner, Charles De Villiers, defeated Guy De Marigny in spectacular style. Playing like ‘Tal’, De Villiers launched a sacrificial attack that caused much ink to be shed in the SA Chess Player magazine, as various annotators gave their interpretation of events. David Walker, who wrote a lengthy article on the game in the Feb 1982 SA Chessplayer, was one of this country’s most prominent players before disappearing from the chess scene some 30 years ago …

De Villiers,C – De Marigny,G [B89]

RSA ch XXXIII Cape Town, 1981

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4

Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Be3 Be7

8.Qe2 (Introducing the Velimirovic Attack-a line as uncompromising as its creator) ... a6 9.0–0–0 Qc7 10.Bb3 0–0 11.g4 Na5 (11 … Nxd4 is justifiably more popular) 12.g5 Nxb3+ 13.axb3 Nd7 14.Rhg1 b5 15.Rg3 Re8 16.f4?! (16 b4 was more circumspect, now White has to go to great lengths to maintain the initiative) … b4 17.Na4 Bb7 18.f5 e5 19.g6 (The point of no return) … exd4 20.gxh7+ Kh8 21.Rxg7!? (Attempting to rip open the Black defence at all costs, while at the same thrusting a difficult decision on De Marigny. Pretoria’s top player at the time, Pieter Aalbersberg wrote “This is a difficult position for White and the move played deserves at least one ‘shriek mark’ as Frank Korostenski used to call it”) … Kxg7? (The debate raged over which defence, if any, refutes White’s ambitious concept: 21 ... dxe3 22.Rdg1 Nf6 23.Qxe3! Bxe4 24.c4 bxc3? 25.Nxc3 is winning for White-D.Walker; however

24 ... Bxf5 25 Qh6 Ng4 26 R1xg4 Bg6 turns is better for Black-Fritz. 21 ... d3! is the move that eluded both players, and after 22 Rxd3 Ne5 23 Bb6 Nxd3+ 24 Qxd3 Qxb6 25 Nxb6 Kxg7 26 Nxa8 Bxa8 results in a deliciously unbalanced yet equal position) 22 Qg4+ (Now the game ends swiftly and prosaically) … Kh8 23.Rg1 Bf6 24.Bh6 Kxh7 25.Bg7 1–0

The following piece was taken from the August 6, 1892 edition of the Cape Argus, where the editor suggests that ladies should take part in a forthcoming chess match …

“Invaluable service might possibly be rendered to the team thus honoured by reducing a retiring but chivalric opponent to a hopeless condition of nervousness through the close propinquity to the fascinations of a fair antagonist, who could utilise strategic manoeuvres other than are to be encountered by the mere moving of little oddly-shaped bits of wood on a board of small squares”.