Since the conclusion of the recent World Championship match, there has been much discussion on the correctness of its rather short 12 classical time-control games, and the use of rapid, blitz and an “Armageddon’’ game as tie-breakers. In our opinion, to decide a match of this importance with rapids and blitz games is unfair, as the time controls really create a different game. We saw this when Magnus Carlsen essentially “passed’’ as white in the 12th and last game, in order to head into the tiebreak, knowing these faster time controls favored him greatly.
Historically world championship matches have been 24 games, with the champion getting draw odds (which many thought unfair), but recently, in what seems to be an attempt to popularize the game and accommodate shortening attention spans, world championship matches have moved to a fewer number of games and with fast tie-breaks. I firmly believe that heads-up matches with slower time controls are the best way to determine the world champion; we just need to find the right length and a fair tie-breaking format.
Last week we reported on the record settling 12-board simul match between David Navarra and Sergey Movsesian and mentioned that the previous record holder was the Tal-Bronstein eight-board simul match in 1982. Thanks to Pavel Matocha, chairman of the Prague Chess Society, we can now offer the score of that match: Tal won the match with 4 wins, 2 loses, and 2 draws. And with many thanks to chess historian Jan Kalendovsky, we have one of the games, Tal–Bronstein, Tbilisi, 1982, 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3 d5 5.Nc3 Be7 6.cxd5 exd5 7.Bf4 0–0 8.e3 c5 9.Ne5 Bb7 10.Bd3 Nbd7 11.Qf3 Re8 12.0–0 a6 13.Qh3 Nf8 14.Bg5 cxd4 15.exd4 Ne4 16.Nxe4 dxe4 17.Bc4 Bd5 18.Qb3 Bxc4 19.Qxc4 Ne6 20.Nc6 b5 21.Qa2 Qd7 22.Nxe7+ Kh8 23.Bh4 g5 24.Nd5 gxh4 25.Nb6 Qb7 26.Nxa8 Nf4 27.b4 Rg8 28.d5 Rxg2+ 29.Kh1 Qd7 30.Qb2+ Kg8 31.Qb3 Nd3 32.Rg1 Rg4 33.Qc2 Kf8 34.f3 Rxg1+ 35.Rxg1 Qf5 36.Rf1 e3 37.Nb6 h3 38.d6 Nf2+ 39.Rxf2 exf2 40.Qxf2 Qd3 41.Nd7+ Ke8 42.Nf6+ Kf8 43.Nd7+ Ke8 44.Ne5 Qxd6 45.Qe2 Qe6 46.Qe4; 1-0
Winners: 3rd Spiegel Cup Qualifier, 12&U, 1st: Vineeth Nareddy; 11&U, 1st: David Katsman, 4-0; 8&U, 1st: Eric Li, 4-0; U1200: 1st: Sujith Yeruva, 4-0; U800, 1st: Alex Zhong, 4-0, U400; 1st: Luca Conigliaro, 4-0
Coming events: Dec. 23, Waltham FREE Wild Card #40, Waltham Chess Club, www.WalthamChessClub.org, Jan. 1, Herb Healey Open House, Boylston Chess Club, 40 Norris St., Cambridge, WWW.BoylstonChess.org;
Answer to today’s problem: The diabolical 1…Qf3! does the trick, as 2.gxf3 loses to 2…Nxf3+ 3.Kg1 Bh3! mate and there is no good defense to both Nxd3+ (or Qxd3) and Qxg2.
Chris Chase can be reached at BostonGlobeChessNotes@gmail.com.
