Chess

Grandmaster Tigran Petrosian, white, moves in Petrosian-Fischer, Candidates Tournament, 1956. What is the best move?

Corey Butler, William Gallagher and Maynard Jalbert tied with 3-1 scores in the UM June Quick Chess Rating Tournament June 9. Fourth place also was tied by Craig Deschaine and Ghezai Menelik.

Quick chess, played at 15 minutes a game, requires psychological adjustment. While there is time to develop a game plan, execution must be fast. Ghezai Menelik was outplaying all opponents in the first 12 or 13 minutes of his 15 minutes. In his game against Butler he moved too fast and Butler won. In his game against Deschaine, he allowed a draw in the final minute. In his game against Gallagher, he lost on time while in a clear winning position.

Most players end up with quick rating about the same as regular ratings. The United States Chess Federation has a separate rating system for game-30 or 30-30 or other variations allowing at least a minute per move, using its regular rating system. FIDE has a seperate rating system for so-called “action” chess of game-30 to game-60.

The UM Chess Club will run an action tournament at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 14 in the FFA Room of the Memorial Union. Bring USCF membership cards and $3 to compete. Cash prizes are offered.

Solution: Tigran played 1.Kh1! to remove the threat by grandmaster Robert (Bobby, to Americans) J. Fischer’s trap. The trap was set up by black’s last move, Qg6. He hoped Tigran would miss Nxf3+!! and Nxe1! winning the white queen.

Tigran saw the trap and unpinned the pawn. He went on to win in five moves in the actual game. Tigran became world champion in 1963 by defeating world champion Mickhael Botvinnik.

Bobby Fischer got his revenge by defeating world champion Boris Spaski in 1972. He never agreed to the forfeit of his title by FIDE. He claimed to be the undefeated world champion and defended that claim by giving Boris Spaski a rematch last year.