Chess - The Scotsman 12/06/13

LE Quang Liem’s World Blitz victory in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, completed the world twin-speed competition, the Vietnamese star scoring 20.5/30 in the double-round event to claim the crown by a half point ahead of the chasing pack of Alexander Grischuk, Ruslan Ponomariov and Ian Nepomniachtchi.

The Khanty-Mansiysk event, though, lacked elite star status, and certainly it came nowhere near Bobby Fischer’s famous win in the unofficial contest at Herceg Novi, Yugoslavia, in 1970 – a

victory that caught the imagination of the media and public and could be arguably said to have put the fast and furious form of the game firmly on the map as a legitimate contest.

Fischer scored 19/22, to win by 4.5 points ahead of Mikhail Tal, and reportedly never took more than two and a half minutes of his allotted five for any game.

He wiped out the Soviet contingent of three world champions and two challengers by 8.5-1.5. Fischer later went on to pioneer the design of the digital chess clock – with time increments – now universally adopted in the game (such as was used in Khanty-Mansisyk, allowing a time control of three minutes and two seconds per move).

There is more high-level blitz action in the Walkers Shortbread Scottish Blitz Championship at Surgeon’s Hall, Edinburgh, on Saturday.

The strong field is led by British No.1 Michael Adams and defending champion Arkadij Naiditsch, of Germany.

• Further details are available at www.scottishblitz.com.

Le Quang Liem - S Movsesian

FIDE World Blitz Ch., (30)

Slav Defence

1 Nf3 d5 2 d4 Nf6 3 c4 c6 4 Qb3 e6 5 Bg5 Nbd7 6 e3 h6 7 Bh4 g5 8 Bg3 Ne4 9 Nc3 Qa5 10 Bd3 h5 11 h4 Nxg3 12 fxg3 g4 13 Ng5 Be7 14 cxd5 cxd5 15 0–0 Bxg5 16 hxg5 Qb6 17 Nb5 0–0 18 Qa3 a6 19 Rac1 Qd8 20 Nc7 Rb8 21 g6 Nf6 22 Rf4 fxg6 23 Bxg6 Kg7 24 Bb1 Rf7 25 Rcf1! Qxc7 26 Qd3 Kf8 27 Rxf6 Rxf6 28 Rxf6+ Ke7 29 Rf7+ 1–0