Chess: Shoot-out follows thriller in Tilburg

ANATOLY KARPOV moved smoothly into the final of the Tilburg tournament by defeating Alexander Belyavsky by 1 1/2-1/2 . In the other semi-final, Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexei Shirov drew both games and must now decide matters with a quick-play shoot-out. Their first draw was the most thrilling game of the event so far.

The real fun began when Shirov played 17 . . . Nf5?] inviting a pawn fork with g4. This does not work at once since 18. g4 is met by Nd4, threatening Bxe4 or Nxe2+, but 18. Nc5 attacked a piece while making g4 a genuine threat. The next few moves piled up the tactics: 18 . . . e4 threatened Bxc3; 19 . . . Rac8 pinned one knight to the other; 20. g4 left three black men under attack; 20 . . . a5 threatened axb4 attacking three white men in exchange.

Ivanchuk threaded his way through the complications to emerge with two pieces for rook and pawn, with his own passed a-pawn looking likely to decide the game. Shirov gave up rook for bishop to eliminate the dangerous pawn and confuse the issue in his opponent's intense time-trouble. In the final flurry of moves, Ivanchuk permitted the exchange of all his pawns to force a draw.

----------------------------------------------------------------- White: Ivanchuk ----------------------------------------------------------------- Black: Shirov ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1 d4 Nf6 21 Nxb7 axb4 2 c4 g6 22 Rb3 Nd4 3 Nc3 Bg7 23 Rxb4 Rxc3 4 e4 d6 24 Rbxd4 Bxd4 5 Nf3 0-0 25 gxh5 Rc2 6 Be2 e5 26 Kf1 Ra8 7 0-0 Nc6 27 a5 Be5 8 d5 Ne7 28 a6 f5 9 Nd2 c6 29 Be3 Rxe2 10 dxc6 bxc6 30 Kxe2 Rxa6 11 b4 d5 31 Rd8+ Kf7 12 a4 Nh5 32 Rd7+ Kf6 13 exd5 cxd5 33 Rxh7 Ra2+ 14 cxd5 Bb7 34 Bd2 gxh5 15 d6 Qxd6 35 Nc5 Bxh2 16 Nde4 Qxd1 36 Rxh5 Bg1 17 Rxd1 Nf5 37 Nb3 f4 18 Nc5 e4 38 Kd1 Bxf2 19 Ra3 Rac8 39 Bxf4 e3 20 g4 a5 40 Bxe3 draw -----------------------------------------------------------------