Chess: How does White win? 07/06/2011

THE Chess Club and Scholastic Center in St Louis, Missouri, is fast becoming the main hub of attraction for chess in America. Not only is it a thriving club, it also hosts and sponsors the US Chess Championship. In mid-May, it also staged two major exhibition matches.

The top-billing saw Hikaru Nakamura, the US No 1 and emerging elite star, defeat former FIDE knockout champion Ruslan Ponmariov, 3.5-2.5 in classical games and 3-1 in rapid games – the classical games win boosting Nakamura's live rating to 2777, jumping to world No 6.

The supporting act was scheduled to be Viktor Korchnoi taking on Ben Finegold – the GM in Residence at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center in Saint Louis – but, unfortunately Korchnoi, 80, suffered a very minor heart ailment last month and was prevented from travelling to America on medical advice.

His last-minute replacement came from the opposite end of the generation gap, rising star Ray Robson – America's youngest ever grandmaster and still only 16 – standing in for the living legend. Robson beat Finegold by 4-2 in the classical match but the rapid match proved to be a much closer affair that ended tied at 2-2.

The classical match was decided by today's battle in the Sicilian Dragon. The consensus was that 26 Bc3 was correct when 26...Rxc3 27 Qxc3 f5 28 Qa5 Rc8 29 Rh2 fxg4 30 Rd8+ Rxd8 31 Qxd8+ Bf8 32 Qh4 Bg7 33 Qd8+ is a draw. The reason is that in the game 27 ...Re5! not only prevented Robson's pretty winning tactic but would also have turned the tables in favour of Black.

R Robson - B Finegold

St. Louis Match, (6)

Sicilian Dragon

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Nc3 g6 4 d4 cxd4 5 Nxd4 Bg7 6 Be3 Nf6 7 Bc4 0–0 8 Bb3 d6 9 f3 Bd7 10 h4 Nxd4 11 Bxd4 b5 12 h5 a5 13 hxg6 hxg6 14 Nd5 Be6 15 Nxf6+ exf6 16 Qd3 d5 17 Qxb5 dxe4 18 0–0–0 Bxb3 19 Qxb3 a4 20 Qe3 a3 21 b3 exf3 22 Qxf3 Re8 23 g4 Rc8 24 Kb1 Qe7 25 Qh3 Qe4 26 g5 Qxc2+ 27 Ka1 Re2 28 Qh7+ Kf8 29 Qxg7+! 1–0