Wednesday, November 29, 2017

How Chess Imitates Life

Artem Gilevych – Andrea Stella
77th Italian Chess Championship; Cosenza, November 29, 2017
Neo-Grünfeld Defence D70

The 77th Italian Chess Championship has started today in Cosenza, Italy, a very few days after a sentence on its own reliability. Everything began when ten top Italian players wrote an open letter denouncing unethical acts and behaviours by a group of unnamed fellow players. After months of investigations, the Sports Court (a quasi-judicial body), on behalf of the Federazione Scacchistica Italiana, in a secret trial, made its verdict. I don’t know the facts as well as they do, so for any details you may read the ruling of the Court. Regarding the moral issue raised by the signatories of the open letter, instead, I believe that the most important answer may lay between the lines of the ruling of the Sports Court: “A spontaneous and widespread rebellion has lately emerged in the chess world against what, at first, were only occasional immoral behaviours, but that, more recently, have unfortunately become in Italy widespread and constant unlawful practices”. Yes, we all live in a yellow submarine.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. f3 e6!? 4. Nc3 d5 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 Be7. 6. ... Bg7 7. e4 dxe4 8. fxe4 h6 9. Bh4 g5 10. Bg3 0-0 11. Be2 gives White a plus (Larry Kaufmann’s analysis). 7. cxd5. From a theoretical viewpoint, the exemplary reference should be 7. Qd2 Nbd7 8. Bg3 c6 9. e4 dxe4 10. fxe4 Bb4 11. Bd3 e5 12. a3 Ba5 13. d5 cxd5 14. cxd5 Nc5 15. b4 Nxd3+ 16. Qxd3 Bb6 17. Nf3 0-0 18. Nxe5 a5 19. b5 a4 20. Nc4± Nakamura – Safarli, 5th Chess World Cup, Tromsø 2013, match game 1. 7. ... Nxd5 8. Bxe7 Qxe7 9. e4 Nxc3 10. bxc3 c5 11. Qd2 Nc6. Black has a temporary advantage in development, which yields him at least equality. 12. Bb5 0-0 13. Ne2. 13. Qxh6 cxd4 14. h4 dxc3 15. h5 g5 doesn’t seem to lead to any particular benefit. 13. ... Rd8 14. h4. Who knows, with hindsight, castling Kingside could have been wiser. 14. ... cxd4 15. Bxc6. I have my doubts that this was necessary. 15. ... bxc6 16. cxd4 Ba6! Black has clearly taken command of the game, but White’s next moves precipitate the catastrophe. 17. Nc3? 17. Rc1 seemed the best to avoid the worst. 17. ... c5! 18. d5? Now White’s position quickly disintegrates. 18. ... exd5 19. Nxd5


19. ... Rxd5! 20. Qxd5 Rd8 0 : 1. For if 21. Qc6 then 21. ... Qe5! finis.

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