Chess

CONGRATULATIONS to Paul Motwani, who was ratified as Scotland's first grandmaster at the FIDE Congress in Manila. Softly-spoken, impeccably polite, with a genuine, self-deprecating modesty, Motwani has overcome all these natural defects to develop a vigorous and effective attacking style. In his win against Paul Lamford (Wales) in the EC Team Championship in Aosta, Italy, 1987, he gave a passable impersonation of Paul Morphy's famous game against the Duke of Brunswick.

Playing 6. g3, Motwani politely declined to enter the sharp theory of 6. Bc4 or 6. Bg5. Black knew that after 7. f3 Nxd4 8. Qxd4] Bxf3 9. Bb5+ Nd7 10. 0-0 White obtains a dangerous attack, but he did not know about 11. e5] dxe5 12. Qb4] which was Made in Motwani.

The theme is keeping the king in the centre, which 13. Rxd7] accomplishes admirably. After 14. Nd5, Black has no satisfactory way to defend e7. 14 . . . Bf6 is met by 15. Bb5 0-0 16. Qxe7] Bxe7 17. Nxe7+, with Nxc8 and Bxd7 to follow.

16. Rd1] brings another man into the attack without loss of time, leading to White's winning queen and pawn for two rooks, but after 21. Qa6, Black loses his a-pawn since 21 . . . Ra8 is met by 22. Bb6]

The finish comes quickly, through a blunder. Black could have staggered on for some moves with 27 . . . Bf8 28. c4, though his position is hopeless.

----------------------------------------------------------------- White: Motwani Black: Lamford ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1 e4 c5 16 Rd1 exd5 2 Nf3 Nc6 17 Rxd5 Rc8 3 d4 cxd4 18 Rxd7 Qxd7 4 Nxd4 Nf6 19 Bxd7+ Kxd7 5 Nc3 d6 20 Qxb7+ Rc7 6 g3 Bg4 21 Qa6 Rhc8 7 f3 Bd7 22 c3 Ke8 8 Be3 Nxd4 23 Bxa7 Ra8 9 Qxd4 g6 24 Qb5+ Rd7 10 0-0-0 Bg7 25 Bb8 Rxa2 11 e5 dxe5 26 Kb1 Ra8 12 Qb4 Qc8 27 Bxe5 Bxe5 13 Rxd7 Nxd7 28 Qxe5+ Re7 14 Nd5 Qd8 29 Qh8+ 1-0 15 Bb5 e6 -----------------------------------------------------------------