Tales from the riverbank - Bedford Chess Club

Neil shows his observation and analytical skills are still well-honed …

Leonard Barden had a rather unfortunate account yesterday of a Latvian/Czech GM being caught whatever the equivalent of red-handed is when someone points a camera over the side partition of the bog and catches you analysing your game on your phone. The man concerned had a rather good game a few years ago against Keith Arkell which Arkell is now convinced involved cheating; he also got quite neatly stuffed by one D. Ledger. Neither game really fits into the categories on the site, but hey…

[Event "Sunningdale"] [Date "2011.08.14"] [White "Rausis, I."] [Black "Arkell, K."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B10"] [Annotator "Hickman,Neil"] [PlyCount "55"] {Some years ago John Harbour inquired, probably in jest, as to when the collection of "Memorable Games" was going to appear in hard copy. Now that its compiler is retired and has time on his hands, the answer is that it will probably appear in print later this year. But one of the difficulties I have experienced is that as I tried to dig up what people had written about various memorable games, I kept coming across new ones. The final total is 90. Fortunately, this one came up after I had decided to draw a line and say "No more!" I say fortunately because it is memorable for all the wrong reasons. There have been minor allegations of cheating over the years, but as Leonard Barden reports in the Guardian, a spectacular case occurred at the Strasbourg Open where the Latvian-Czech grandmaster Igors Rausis was found to have been analysing on his phone while visiting the toilet. And this has drawn attention to a remarkable game which Rausis played against an English GM in the last round at Sunningdale 2011. Rausis and Keith Arkell, who was Black, had been fancied to win the tournament but Ameet Ghasi had had a very good week including defeating Rausis, and the two GMs came into the last round with nothing to play for. Grandmaster draw? As you will see, very far from it.} 1. e4 c6 2. c4 d5 3. cxd5 cxd5 4. exd5 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nxd5 6. Nf3 Nxc3 7. bxc3 g6 8. Bb5+ Nd7 9. O-O Bg7 10. Re1 O-O 11. Ba3 Re8 12. Ng5 h6 {Thus far a game Boros-Rausis, played earlier in the year.} 13. Nxf7 $3 ({Boros had played} 13. Ne4 {which Fritz13 appears to think is the best move and slightly better for White, but the game finished in a 19-move draw. Rausis comes up with a startling improvement.}) 13... Kxf7 {Comments a somewhat disgruntled Keith Arkell, as reported in a slightly bowdlerised version on the English Chess Forum, "I told Danny Gormally 5 days ago that Rausis would be caught very soon. The **** got too greedy... Me and Rausis were always about equal in strength, then suddenly... he beat me brilliantly with a 3 piece sacrifice. Something didn't feel right". That said, with most of Black's Q-side pieces still at home and White having a lead in development, I would be a bit surprised if a GM didn't look quite closely at the idea of sacrificing the N on f7...} 14. Bc4+ e6 15. Rxe6 Rxe6 16. Bxe6+ Kxe6 {For quite a long time Fritz13 gives this as equal, eventually shifting to +/-.} 17. Qg4+ $1 {An important point of detail. If White checks on b3, Black's King can take refuge on f6 and Black has just enough time to start unscrambling his pieces. It often happens that bishops, or Q and B, are at their deadliest when they catch the opposing King in a scissors action, as here.} Kf6 18. Qf4+ Ke6 19. Qd6+ Kf7 20. Qd5+ Kf6 { White is two pieces to the bad. If the King was out in the middle of the board the Queen and Bishop could finish the job, but as things stand the Rook needs to join in. White checks the King on to a square where it blocks the g7 Bishop and allows...} 21. Re1 {...this, bringing the last man to the party. Black has only one reply which doesn't lose instantly and catastrophically.} Bf8 {Now White has to find a difficult quiet move.} 22. Qg8 $3 {Wins in all lines.} Kg5 ({The best try was} 22... Nc5 {but White wins very easily with} 23. Bxc5) 23. h4+ Kh5 24. Qd5+ g5 {Mate is forced and Arkell allows Rausis to demonstrate it. } 25. Qf7+ Kxh4 26. g3+ Kg4 27. Re4+ Kh3 28. Qh5# {My sometime schoolfriend Nick Faulks observes on the English Chess Forum: "When Rausis himself [played 12.Nxf7] it was no doubt based on computer analysis, but done after the previous game. I thought that was called preparation, and what serious GMs are supposed to do?... Rausis-Arkell is a very instructive example, since the loser is convinced that he was defeated by cheating, whereas it is in fact quite clear that Rausis won because he had done his homework and Keith lost because he hadn't". And, as I find, you need to throw a pretty powerful computer at 12. Nxf7 to find it assessed as anything other than even.} 1-0

   [Event "Sunningdale Open"] [Date "2011.05.27"] [White "Ledger, D."] [Black "Rausis, I."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B12"] [Annotator "Hickman,Neil"] [PlyCount "95"]   {e2e4, who organised some rather good tournaments in England a few years ago, including one in Bedford, organised two in Sunningdale in 2011 within a few months of one another. Igors Rausis, later to find notoriety as a cheat, played a rather good game against Keith Arkell in one of them. In the other, he beat Arkell and Crouch, and drew with Hebden, finishing with a very respectable 5.5/7.  But in Round 5 he encountered a FIDE Master by the name of Dave Ledger, rated some 250 points below him (though with Rausis perhaps one does not mention ratings)...} 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nc3 e6 5. g4 Bg6 6. Nge2 {A wild line very much in Dave Ledger's style, but which has also been played by Caruana, Anand, Grischuk, Aronian and others...} f6 ({More usual is}  6... c5 {but 6...f6 is also fairly common.}) 7. Nf4 Bf7 ({Or} 7... fxe5 {when White has the interesting choice between Nxg6 and Nxe6 but Black in practice seems to do quite well.}) 8. Nd3 Nd7 9. Bf4 h5 10. h4 Qb6 ({Perhaps Black should try} 10... hxg4 {though it's understandable he doesn't rush to open up lines in front of his uncastled King.}) 11. g5 O-O-O {The point of the Queen move.} 12. Rg1 fxe5 13. Bxe5 Bg6 14. Bh3 Re8 15. Rg3 Ne7 16. Bxe6 Nf5 17. Bxf5 Bxf5 18. Re3 Nxe5 19. Nxe5 Qxb2 20. Rb1 Qxc2 21. Qxc2 Bxc2 22. Rc1 {Fritz13 reckons Black is a bit better} Bf5 23. Nxd5 g6 $2 ({Understandable - he wants to get his two bishops into play. But he doesn't have time for this. He needed to play} 23... Rd8) 24. Nf6 Bb4+ 25. Ke2 Re7 $4 26. Nd5 $1 {Give Dave Ledger a tactical opportunity, even if you are a GM, and you will live to regret it.} Rxe5 {There is nothing better.} 27. dxe5 Bf8 {And the bishop doesn't get into play after all.} 28. e6 Bd6 29. Nf6 $1 {The most accurate. Black will not be allowed to bring his remaining Rook to the queening square.} Be7 30. Rd1 Rd8 { There's nothing better.} 31. Rxd8+ Kxd8 32. Ng8 Ke8 33. Kd2 {The most logical. Black's King is tied down; White gets his into the game.} a5 34. a4 Bc5 35. Re5 Bd6 36. Re2 {Threatening, of course, to shove the Pawn to e7.} Be7 37. Kc3 b5 38. axb5 cxb5 39. Kd4 a4 40. Ke5 a3 41. Rd2 {Dave Ledger has seen that his Rook can hold up the Queen-side Pawns for long enough to ensure that before either of them can queen, he will get in R-d7-a7-a8 mate, or similar.} b4 42. Nxe7 ({According to Fritz,} 42. Nf6+ {is mate in 17, but the move played is quite good enough.}) 42... Kxe7 43. Rd7+ Ke8 44. Ra7 b3 45. Kf6 ({United Passed Pawns on the 6th beat a Rook if neither of them can be captured; and of course if} 45. Rxa3 b2 46. Rb3 $4 {the b-Pawn would queen. But White has bigger game to hunt.}) 45... Be4 46. Rh7 Kd8 47. e7+ Kd7 48. Rh8 {It's mate in 12, apparently. Anyway, Rausis had seen enough.} 1-0