Chess

ON TUESDAY, I looked at the recent Helsingor Quadrangular tournament, won by Curt Hansen. At almost exactly the same time another all-play-all tournament was also under way in Denmark, this one in Aarhus, on the east coast.

The 10-player category 9 event (average 2,457) ran from 16 to 24 October and resulted in a convincing victory for Alexei Fedorov from Belarus, who scored 7.5/9 ahead of two Danes, Peter Heine Nielsen and Steffen Pedersen on 6.5;

Viacheslav Dydyshko (Belarus) and Roy Harald Fyllingen (Norway) 5; Simon Bekker-Jensen and Erling Mortensen (both Denmark) 4.5; Allan Holst (Denmark) 3; Berge Ostenstad (Norway) 2.5; and Steen Grabov (Denmark) the magnificent total of 0/9! And there was also an International Master tournament - category 3, average 2,303) which was won by the Russian Igor Yagupov with a splendid 8.5/9.

Fedorov (whom I've met twice this year, at the Goodricke Open in Calcutta in February and at Katrineholm in May making a draw and a win) is a ferocious attacking player who likes to play the King's Indian as Black against 1 d4 and, most unusually today, is more than happy to undertake the ancient King's Gambit as White after 1 e4 e5. He used it twice in Aarhus, scoring 1.5/2, though the win in round four was certainly more convincing than the draw in the last round.

In round nine, Steffen Pedersen varied in the diagram with 12 ...Kf8 and after 13 g4 Nxd5 14 g5 Bf5 15 Bd2 Qd7 16 0-0-0 Re8 17 Qf3 Qa4 18 Bd3 Qxa2 19 c3 Bg6 20 Ne4 Nb6 21 Rde1 Na4 22 Nf6 Qxb2+ 23 Kd1 Qb3+ they agreed a draw since Black must take the perpetual.

But the really interesting theoretical question - which I can't easily answer - is Fedorov's intended improvement against 12 ...Rg6 intending to lure the pawn to 13 h5 so that after 13 ...Rg8 a later g4 will never threaten g5; for this is how the game of Westerinen vs Peter Heine Nielsen (who, after all, came second in Aarhus), Gausdal Masters 1995, continued, and Black later won.

As Holst played, White got a delightful position though 20...h5? was a blunder, losing immediately.

White: Alexei Fedorov

Black: Allan Holst

Aarhus 1999 (Round 4)

King's Gambit

1 e4 e5

2 f4 exf4

3 Nf3 g5

4 h4 g4

5 Ne5 d6

6 Nxg4 Nf6

7 Nf2 Rg8

8 d4 Bh6

9 Nc3 Nc6

10 Nd5 Nxd5

11 exd5 Ne7

12 Qe2 (see diagram)

12 ...c6

13 Bd2 f3

14 gxf3 Bxd2+

15 Kxd2 cxd5

16 Re1 Kf8

17 Kc1 Nf5

18 Qd2 Qf6

19 Ng4 Qxd4

20 Bd3 h5

21 Nh6 Rg2

22 Nxf5 Rxd2

23 Nxd4

1-0