NZ USTE~ vember 26, 19S3 .. Czechmate$ ., SINCE THE -revolution in Iran chess passed d-pa11:11. Instead 16 ... Nb7 has been. officially frowned on 'by the allows White to seize the offensive with Ayatollah Khomeini as 'it apparently ! 7.f4.' b5 18.fXe5 bXc4 19.d6.' or encourages people to "think injerrns 17 ... eXf4 18.BXf4 b5 19.Qb.J.' of war". Needless to say this pro• 17. dXc4 . Bd6I nouncement did not win the Ayatol• 18. f4? lah any awards for services to the This kingside weakening tells in the royal game in his home country and long run. some of I ran 's top· rnasters have left 18 .... exf4 indefinitely to. pursue their careers 19. 8Xf4 8Xf4 20. gXf4 Qd6I elsewhere. However, anyone who has 21. Qg3 Rfe8 experienced the aggressive com• 22. Bf3 Qd7 petitiveness of tournament play will 23. b3 Kf8 agree that chess is hardly the sport 24. Bh5 96 · 25. Be2 for pacifists. • Despite this there have always been Better was 25.Bf3: now Flohr can a small number of players who double rooks on the e-file. choose to rely almost exclusively on 25. Re7 26. Bd3 Rees subtle technical expertise rather than 27. Kf2 BXd3 direct attacks. One of the greatest ex- 28. QXd3 Qg4 . ponents of this style of play was the 29. Qg3· Qf5 Czech. Grandmaster Salo Flohr, who 30. Qf3 died earljer this year aged 74. Flohr, Korchnoi would dearly have liked born in •. Horodenk, Russian Poland, major exchanges with 30.RXel RXe7 succeeded to the stage where, in 1937, have he was-nominated as the challenger of world champion Alexander Alekhine. Regretfully the political turbulence of that period led to indefinite post• ponement of the match; more's the pity considering Flohr's consistent top form around that time. His succession of first places included Hastings 1931 (ahead of Alek hine), Moscow 1935, Margate 1936, Podebrady 1936, and Kerniri and Ostend in 1917. After the I Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1918 Flohr sought refuge in Scandinavia, and then in the 30; ... Re4I · Soviet Union where he was later nat• 31. RXe4 RXe4 uralised. One columnist described him 32. Kg3 g5I 33. fXg5 Qxgs ch as something of a punch-bag for his 34. Kf2 Rf4 ~. newfound compatriots to test their 35. Resjgns skills on. Former world 'champion * * Mikhail Botvinnik was mor~ polite, Finally a posiuon to show that, commenting that Flohr's' accurate when he wanted, Flohr could calcu• -style was an· ideal foil to the tactical late tactics as well as the next man. approach of the younger Soviet • FLOHR masters. In the following smooth positional win, played when Viktor Korchnoi still represented the USSR, watch how. White's game collapses within a few moves of, losing control of the open e-file. REVERSED KING'S INDIAN V. KORCHNOI S. FLOHR 1. Nf3 . d5 2. c4 . d4 3. g3 . cs 4. Bg2 Nc6 · s. o-o e5 . 6. d3 Nf6 GUDMUNDSSON (Iceland) 7. e4 · dXe3 e.p. Played at Stockholm 1937, Black to . 8. 8Xe3 Be7 play. Flohr embarks on his mating 9. Nc3 Bf5 combination wit h a rook sacrifice to · 10. Qb3 b6 11. Nd5 · decoy the white queen. 1. Rc8I Muscovite Grandmaster Simagin 2: exes Qe2 ch prefers II.Nh4 Bd7 12.N/5.' or II.Nd2 3. Kg1 Q><f3 Rc8 I 2.Nde4 with a grip on the central · 4. Be1 QXh3 white squares: · · 5. Rc2 Qe3 ch 6. Kf1 QXf4 ch 11. 0-0 12, Rfe1 ; .NXd5 7. Kg1. Qxg4 ch 8. Kh2 Ng5I 13. cXdS Na5 14. Qc'3 , f6 ·1, 9. Qc3 Nf3 ch 1 Resigns · . 15. ·Nd2 Res o. 16. Nc4 NXc4I . White must give up his queen or be A surprising capture which set; right mated: White's pawn structure, but is actually · MURRAY CHANDLER Black. 's best war ·. to blockade -the •. • , .