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Chess

William Hartston
Friday 26 September 1997 18:02 EDT
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Dmitry Tyomkin who, as regular readers will know, shares a name with the man who wrote the theme music for Rawhide, won the European Junior Championship, in an aggressive and uncompromising style. Today's game is one of his typical victories.

His opening was characteristically sharp. With 6...Bd6 Black announces his plan to exchange pawns with dxc4, then strike back in the centre with ...e5. White met this in a scientific manner, playing 7.b3, to ensure that he could recapture with a pawn on c4, then countered Black's aggressive intentions by meeting ...e5 and ...e4 with the interesting plan of c5 in conjunction with Nd2, Nc4, Ba3 and Nd6.

Part of the idea was to ensure that Black's dark-squared bishop would not be able to play any part in the attack - Black usually has a go at a quick assault with Ng4 and Qh4 - but there was also the idea of playing 24.d7 in order to weaken Black's Q-side pawn formation.

On the other wing, Black had been advancing menacingly, but with Bf1 and Ng1 White secured his defences. In the diagram position, after 26.Rb3, White must have considered his prospects good of tying Black to the defence of c6, then increasing his Q-side pressure.

Tyomkin, however, kept his doggies moving by rounding up the stragglers on the edges of his position. With 26...a5! and 27...a4, he forced the white rook away from b3, making a sacrifice on e3 more of a possibility. 28...h5 and 29...Re6 improved his preparedness, then 30.Kh2? gave him the chance he had been waiting for.

30...Ndxe3! led after 32...Qxe3 to a position in which Black threatened both Qxa3 and Ng3+ followed by Qf4. White's 33.Qc3 coped with both, but fell for a simpler solution. Cut 'em out! Ride 'em in!

White: A Shishkov

Black: D Tyomkin

Sicilian defence

1 d4 d5 19 Bf1 Qg4

2 c4 e6 20 Kh1 Qh5

3 Nc3 c6 21 Ne2 Nf5

4 e3 Nf6 22 Ng1 Nd5

5 Nf3 Nbd7 23 h3 Qg6

6 Qc2 Bd6 24 d7 Bxd7

7 b3 0-0 25 Rxb7 Bc8

8 Be2 Qe7 26 Rb3 a5

9 0-0 dxc4 27 Rdb1 a4

10 bxc4 e5 28 R3b2 h5

11 Rb1 Re8 29 Rc1 Re6

12 Rd1 e4 30 Kh2 Ndxe3

13 Nd2 Nf8 31 fxe3 Qg3+

14 c5 Bc7 32 Kh1 Qxe3

15 Nc4 Ng6 33 Qc3 Ng3+

16 Ba3 Qe6 34 Kh2 Nxf1+

17 Nd6 Bxd6 35 Kh1 Qf4

18 cxd6 Nh4 White resigns

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