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39th Chess Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 (Travel)

IM Malcolm Pein - Saturday 18th September 2010

Malcolm Pein looks forward to the Olympiad and looks back at another game from Bent Larsen.

Smaller playing venue. Photo © Albran.

Smaller playing venue. Photo © Albran. | http://www.chess.co.uk/twic

Players and officials are assembling at airports around Europe, en route to Khanty Mansisk in Siberia for the Chess Olympiad. The hosts have organised, and I use the word liberally, charter flights from several destinations but the timings have been changing continually. One of the return flights has been moved back, potentially ruining the travel arrangements of many countries who will miss their onward connections.

Round one is on Tuesday and the eleven round competition ends on October 3rd. The England team leaves tomorrow and my advice to International Director Lawrence Cooper is to up the limit on his credit card if he wants to be sure of getting the team both there and back.

The presidential election is far from being the foregone conclusion the FIDE top brass claim it is. Incumbent President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has been campaigning much harder than four years ago. He understands his fifteen year rule over the games's governing body is threatened. Karpov's campaign is much better organised than that of Bessel Kok, who lost to Ilyumzhinov last time at Turin.

The momentum is with Karpov's camp it seems, particularly after the Russian government decided not to renew Ilyuzhinov's governorship of Kalmykia, an autonomous republic on the Caspian Sea. It has been evident for many years that the man is a fantasist, his claim to have been aboard an alien spaceship, first made in 1997 is proof enough, but on Thursday there was another strange outburst.

Quoted by Russian new agencies, Ilyumzhnov said he had written to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and offered $10 million to buy the land at Ground Zero and turn it into a giant chess club.

"The amount of $10 million was set because last week American billionaire Donald Trump made a similar offer for $7.5 million, and we've decided to outbid him," Ilyumzhinov said. Bloomberg has yet to comment.

I continue my tribute to the 'Great Dane' Bent Larsen with his wonderful double victory over world champion Tigran Petrosian at the Piatigorsky Cup in 1996. Here he declines a queen sacrifice and offers his own lady for a mating attack. In the return Larsen played a strategic masterpiece. I will examine that game on Monday.

B Larsen - T Petrosian

Sicilian Accelerated Dragon

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.Be3 Bg7 6.c4 Nf6 7.Nc3 Ng4 8.Qxg4 Nxd4 9.Qd1 Ne6 10.Qd2 d6

(10...Qa5!? 11.Rc1 Bxc3 12.Rxc3!? Qxa2 is risky)

11.Be2 Bd7 12.0-0 0-0 13.Rad1!? Bc6 14.Nd5 Re8?!

(Larsen liked to play this line himself and secured a big advantage after 14...Nc5 15.f3 a5 16.Bd4? Bxd4+ 17.Qxd4 e5 18.Qd2 Ne6 Porath-Larsen Amsterdam 1964)

15.f4 Nc7

(15...Nc5 16.e5!)

16.f5 Na6 17.Bg4 Nc5 18.fxg6 hxg6

(18...fxg6 looks dangerous but after 19.Bxc5 dxc5 20.Be6+ Kh8 21.Rf7‚ Rf8 22.Rdf1 Rxf7 23.Rxf7 Qd6 24.Rxg7 Kxg7 25.Qc3+ Kh6 White seems to have no more than a draw)

19.Qf2 Rf8 20.e5!!

(Petrosian's defensive idea was 20.Bxc5 dxc5 21.Nf6+ Bxf6 22.Rxd8 Raxd8=)

20...Bxe5 21.Qh4 Bxd5 22.Rxd5 Ne6?

(22...e6! 23.Qxd8 Rfxd8 24.Rxe5 dxe5 25.Bxc5 Rdc8 26.Be7 Rxc4 was better)

23.Rf3! Bf6?

(23...f5 24.Rh3 Ng7! 25.Bf3!! Kf7 26.Rb5! Rh8 27.Bd5+ Ne6 28.Qg5 - Larsen)

24.Qh6 Bg7

Tigran Petrosian