Pursuits: Chess

Jon Speelman
Monday 22 March 1999 19:02 EST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

ANOTHER BUNDESLIGA weekend and two more victories for Solingen as we move inexorably towards the showdown with Porz of Hamburg on April 18th. Regular readers will know the script which regrettably currently includes a loss as Black on Saturday by your columnist . My two England colleagues, Michael Adams and Matthew Sadler both made a point-and-a-half though, including this forceful victory.

Promoted above both Englishman Peter Wells, who had the better half of a draw with Robert Hubner, and the once world-class Czech Jan Smejkal, who recaptured a daunting amount of his former glory against me during this match, Peter Schmidt has become something of a sacrificial lamb, with, following a further defeat on Sunday, a total score of "minus nine" this season. Nevertheless, you still have to beat them and Matthew did so very cleanly.

After some sparring in the opening, 11.d5?! was weaker than 11.h3 b6 12.dxc5 Bxc5 13.e4 which the Indonesian Juswanto played against Sadler in the first round of the Erevan Olympiad in 1996 - Matthew won but only after surviving some tricky moments

13... Bf6 14.e4 Bg4 15.Be3 Nd4 16.Bxd4 Bxd4 17.h3 Bxf3 18.Qxf3 would be equal but Matthew wanted more. In the diagram 18.g5 was horrible. Instead 18.e5 is critical and very unclear. Matthew was thinking about Rae8 19.Bf4 Qc6 but then 20.Kg2 against ...Be4 may be quite strong.

If 19.Nxe5 Qxe5 20.f3 Bh5! is pretty strong though still preferable for White to the game continuation. At the end White's position quickly disintegrated.

White: Peter Schmidt

Bold: Matthew Sadler

Bundesliga 1999

Queen's Gambit Accepted

1.d4 d5

2.c4 dxc4

3.Nf3 Nf6

4.e3 e6

5.Bxc4 c5

6.0-0 Nc6

7.Nc3 a6

8.a4 Be7

9.Qe2 Qc7

10.Rd1 0-0

11.d5 exd5

12.Nxd5 Nxd5

13.Bxd5 Nb4

14.Bc4 Bf6

15.e4 Bg4

16.h3 Bh5

17.g4 Bg6

(see diagram )

18.g5?? Be5

19.Nh4 Rae8

20.Nxg6 hxg6

21.Qg4 Bd4

22.Bf1 Re6

23.Bg2 f5

24.exf5 Rxf5

25.Be3 Bxe3

26.fxe3 Qe7

27.h4 Nc2

28.Qc4 Nxe3

29.Rd8+ Kh7

White resigns

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in