Chess: How does White win?

AMID a bloody civil war, with Nato and allies engaged in daily bombing raids, the controversial World Chess Federation president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov made a visit to Tripoli to play a highly publicised game of chess with his "good friend", the embattled Libyan leader, Muammar al-Gaddafi.

The "chess move" by Ilyumzhinov was not the sort of news the game should be associated with, and many national federations are expressing their condemnation of the visit, which they believe to be highly embarrassing.

This is just the latest in a series of incredible decisions by Ilyumzhinov in his 17-year reign as the head of the governing body of chess, whom many western federations tried to oust last year for fear he was "unstable" and frightening away commercial sponsors.

Even before the visit Gaddafi knew what an endgame was. In 2004 Ilyumzhinov – who in 1996, tried and failed to hold the Fide world championship in Baghdad under the patronage of Saddam Hussein – came to his aid by having him host and sponsor the 128-player Fide world chess championship in Tripoli.

It is volatile decisions like this that has made top players, such as Magnus Carlsen, walk away from playing in the recent world championship candidates' matches in Kazan, as he said Fide are just too difficult to deal with – and no wonder, when you have at the helm a controversial president in Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

V Ivanchuk - T Radjabov

5th Kings Tournament, (1)

King's Indian Def., Averbakh

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 Be2 0–0 6 Bg5 Na6 7 f4 c6 8 Qd2 Nc7 9 Bf3 Ne6 10 Bh4 c5 11 dxc5 Nxc5 12 Rd1 Be6 13 b3 a5 14 Nge2 Qc7 15 0–0 a4 16 f5! gxf5 17 exf5 Bxf5 18 Bxf6 exf6 19 b4 Ne6 20 Nb5 Qb6+ 21 Kh1 Ng5 22 Bxb7 Qxb7 23 Rxf5 Ne4 24 Qd3 Rfe8 25 Ned4 Rac8 26 Rf4 Bf8 27 Rdf1 Re5 28 a3 Kh8 29 Nf5 Rd8 30 Nc3 Nxc3 31 Qxc3 Rde8 32 Rg4 Qc8 33 Qg3 h5 34 Rg8+ Kh7 35 Rxf8 1–0