Independent Pursuits: Chess

THE MEDALS of the 33rd Olympiad at Elista have been awarded. The Russian men and the Chinese women will be treasuring their gold. Hopefully the 182 teams are safely homeward bound. We await the 34th in Istanbul in the year 2000.

But the medals in the main Olympiad were contested to the bitter end. The USA team faced China in the last round: Yasser Seirawan, as Black against Ye Jiangchuan, astutely realised that his 38... Rc1 tied up White's knight. The game went 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 Be7 4 Bd3 Nc6 5 c3 dxe4 6 Bxe4 Nf6 7 Bf3 0-0 8 Nc4 Nb8 9 b4 Nbd7 10 Ne2 Rb8 11 0-0 b6 12 b5 Nd5 13 Qb3 Bb7 14 Rd1 c5 15 Ne5 Nxe5 16 dxe5 c4 17 Qxc4 Rc8 18 Qb3 Qc7 19 Bb2 Rfd8 20 h3 h6 21 Rd2 Bg5 22 Rd4 Ne3 23 Bxb7 Qxb7 24 fxe3 Bxe3+ 25 Kh1 Bxd4 26 Nxd4 Qe4 27 Ba3 Rd5 28 Bd6 Qd3 29 Nc6 Rxb5 30 Ne7+ Kh7 31 Qa4 Rxc3 32 Qf4 Rb1+ 33 Rxb1 Qxb1+ 34 Kh2 Rc1 35 Qxf7 Rh1+ 36 Kg3 Qe1+ 37 Qf2 Qxf2+ 38 Kxf2 Rc1!! 39 a3 g5 40 Ke3 b5 41 Kd2 Rc4 42 Kd3 h5 43 a4 a6 44 axb5 axb5 45 g4 hxg4 46 hxg4 Kg7 47 Ba3 Rxg4 0-1. Despite this the Americans only drew 2-2.

Additional final scores: Jersey 20 out of a possible 52; Guernsey 181/2.

The board one game, Russia vs the Netherlands, gripped a wide audience. Timman, with 38... Rxc3! was obviously trying to win, but Svidler fought back with 45 Rdd3! A draw would have been a fair result.

Exhausted, Jan puts his bishop on a square where it can be taken for nothing. He quickly realised this and resigned. Russia's A team, without its stars Kasparov, Kramlik and Karpov, had shown the continuing depth of their strength.

Elista, round 13

White: Peter Svidler (Russia)

Black: Jan Timman (Netherlands)

Spanish Opening

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