US star rebounds
Yasser Seirawan of the United States rebounded from his sound 4-to-1 thrashing by British star Jonathan Speelman in their Candidates match to win World Chess Festival International No. 2 in Saint John, New Brunswick. Seirawan scored 7-2 in a powerful 184-player field to earn $10,000 (Canadian). Second and third, with 6-2 scores, were Soviet Grandmaster Smbat Lputian and Yugoslav International Master Branko Damljanovic. The multiple tie of players having six points included such big names as Mikhail Tal, Artur Yusupov, and Joel Benjamin. This return to form by Seirawan gave his admirers reason to hope his loss to Speelman was but a setback and his goal of becoming an eventual world titlist may not be too far-fetched.
Today's game from this event shows Yasser's positional understanding. Playing with lucid crystal clarity, Yasser defeats Hungarian Grandmaster Attila Groszpeter without the latter's making any obvious error. This is the product of supreme art, reminiscent of my boyhood ideal, Jos'e Raoul Capablanca.
Queen's Indian Defense
Seirawan Groszpeter 1. P-Q4 N-KB3 2. P-QB4 P-K3 3. N-KB3 P-QN3 4. N-B3 B-N2 5. B-N5 B-K2 6. Q-B2 P-KR3 7. B-R4 P-Q4 8. BxN (a) BxB 9. PxP PxP 10. P-KN3 O-O 11. B-N2 N-Q2 12. O-O R-K1 13. P-K3 P-B3 14. KR-Q1 P-QR4 15. N-K1 B-K2 16. N-Q3 B-KB1 17. P-QR3 B-R3 (b) 18. QR-B1 B-B5 19. P-QR4 B-N5 (c) 20. NxB PxN 21. P-N3 BxP (d) 22. QxB PxN 23. RxP N-N1 (e) 24. R-N1 Q-K2 25. B-B1 Q-R2 26. B-K2 QxP (f) 27. QxQ RxQ 28. RxNP K-B1 29. R/B-N3 R-QR1 30. R-N7 P-N3 31. K-N2 P-R4 32. P-R3 R-Q1 33. R-B7 K-N2 34. R/N-N7 R-KB1 35. P-N4 R-R7 36. B-B3 PxP 37. PxP R-QR1 38. P-N5 R-R6 39. B-N4 R-R3 (g) 40. B-K6 Resigns
A.White held off with this exchange until Black played P-Q4. Now he fixes the queen pawn and attacks the pawn skeleton, which explains the fianchetto of his king bishop.
B.Black logically activates his queen bishop and stalls White's intended minority attack, since 18.P-QN4, BxN costs White his QNP.
C.Black obviously underestimates the strength of White's 21st move or he would simply have marked time with 19.... R-B1.
D.The only way of maintaining material equality, since retreating the bishop loses a pawn after 22.N-R2.
E.This abject retreat is forced. 23.... R-QB1; 24.KR-B1 and then 24.... R-K3, 24.... Q-B2, and 24.... N-N1 all lose to 25.BxP.
F.Black must finally capture this pawn, else White plays 28.B-Q1 and subsequently gobbles up either Black's QNP or QBP.
G.Note that 39.... K-N1 would not prevent 40.B-K6, since 40.... PxB; 41.R-N7 ch, K-R1; 42.R-R7 ch, K-N1; 43.R/N-N7 mates.
International Grandmaster Arthur Bisguier is a former US champion and has won or shared the US Open title five times.
