PHOTO : ARCHIVAL |
By the mid 1980s , many Americans already knew of Anand ’ s phenomenal talent . Actually , the maestro from Madras made his debut at the World Open not in 1987 but in the previous year , where he dispatched the great Gyula Sax ( who would soon claim Interzonal fame at Subotica ). A month after our 1987 showdown , Anand would cruise to clear first place at a star-studded World Junior Championship in Baguio City , scoring 10 out of 13 ahead of the likes of Vassily Ivanchuk , Gregory Serper , Wolff , Vladimir Akopian , Simon Agdestein , Jeroen Piket , Pavel Blatny , and others . I entered the Adam ’ s Mark Hotel with a score to settle ( actually , an annual racquetball contest with Alex Fishbein ) and the hope that I would get a chance merely to witness the mighty Anand blitz his opponents to smithereens .
This year marks the silver anniversary of a most intriguing World Open contest . As many remember , the event was a great success for Boris Gulko and Tony Miles , who shared $ 16,000 apiece with 8-2 scores . Gulko , who went on to defeat Miles in a
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playoff game , became a close friend and briefly my chess teacher while I was attending Harvard . What makes Philly ’ 87 remarkable was the uncharacteristically large number of upsets . Third-place finisher Larry Christiansen somehow managed a miracle comeback after dropping his second and third games ; my perennial racquetball roommate Fishbein coughed up losses in his first two ; even Yasser Seirawan , Yehuda Gruenfeld , Doug Root , and John Donaldson got off to rocky starts . But back to Anand ... this was to be one of the worst showings in his career . The champ from Chennai lost his first round to Marcel Sisniega , the ingenious Mexican international master , and then stumbled on the black side of an Exchange Ruy against grandmaster-slayer Alex Sherzer . Anand picked up his first point from an expert but then had an unbelievable setback at the hands of local master Anthony Randolph in a sparkling King ’ s Indian Attack game where the Indian ace was mated on move 31 . Then three wins in a row brought Vishy back to form . I would meet him with black in round eight . |
French Defense ( C19 ) IM Viswanathan Anand ( 2630 ) Dan Edelman ( 2436 ) World Open ( 8 ), Philadelphia 1987
1 . e4 e6 2 . d4 d5 3 . Nc3 Bb4 4 . e5 c5 5 . a3 Bxc3 + 6 . bxc3 Ne7 7 . Nf3 Nbc6 8 . a4 Qa5 9 . Qd2 Bd7 10 . Bd3 f6
This is old school French ... nowadays , few play the white side of the Winawer without 7 . Qg4 . Those that embark on the positional main lines mix things up with an early h4-h5 for White , or 9 . Bd2 Bd7 10 . Bb5 instead of 10 . Be2 , or 8 . Be2 Qa5 9 . Bd2 shunning the move a3-a4 altogether .
11 . exf6
The more ambitious plan is 11 . 0-0 against which I was planning the unusual 11 . ... 0 – 0 – 0 !? 12 . Re1 fxe5 13 . dxe5 h6 14 . Ba3 Rdf8 15 . Qe3 c4 16 . Bf1 Rf7 17 . Reb1 Nf5 18 . Qe1 g5 19 . Rb5 Qa6 20 . Rab1 b6 21 . R5b2 g4 . Black crashes through and White really has no attack
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