Il miglior fabbro

Lothar Schmid, chess grandmaster, the world’s greatest collector of chess books and the only arbiter trusted by Bobby Fischer, died earlier this year, and the chess world lost one of its great characters.
 
Schmid (born 1928) officiated as arbiter at three of Fischer’s matches, including the 1972 Match of the Century, where Fischer wrested the crown from Boris Spassky. The difficulties and challenges in 1972 would have exhausted the patience of a stylitic anchorite, but he went on to arbit further stormy matches between Karpov, Korchnoi and Kasparov.
 
Schmid returned as arbiter for Fischer’s 1992 swansong against Spassky in the former Yugoslavia, but this time he faced no problems. The players were on their best behaviour during the match because of the $5 million world record prize fund. At the press conference Fischer hurled most of his abuse in the direction of the United States. In fact he was playing in violation of a prohibition by the US State Department, which later resulted in his incarceration in a Japanese jail, before he was freed after the grant of Icelandic citizenship.
 
Over the board, Schmid excelled at team chess and this week’s game is a win by him against a three-times world championship candidate from the European team championship, Bath 1973.
 
Schmid-Szabo: European Team Championship, Bath 1973; Sicilian Defence
 
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Be2 g6 7 Be3 Nc6 Black mixes his systems. If one wishes to combine the Dragon and the Najdorf the black queen’s knight belongs on d7 and not c6. Hence Black should prefer 7 … Bg7. 8 Nd5 Nxd5 9 exd5 Ne5 10 0-0 Bg7 11 c4 0-0 12 h3 e6 13 dxe6 fxe6 14 Qd2 Nf7 15 Rad1 Qf6 16 b3 Bd7 17 f4 Rad8 18 a4 Bc8 19 Bf3 Qe7 20 Rfe1 e5 21 Nc2 exf4 22 Bxf4 Ne5 23 Bd5+ Be6? (see diagram 1) A serious mistake which permits White to establish a knight on e6. Better prospects are offered by 23 … Kh8. 24 Nd4 Bxd5 25 cxd5 Rde8 At least he should contest the c-file with 25 … Rc8. 26 Ne6 Rf5 27 Rc1 Qh4 28 Rf1 Nf7 29 g4 Rf6 30 Kg2 g5 (see diagram 2) Black’s situation is becoming desperate but he has to do something against the threat of Rc7. 31 Bg3 Qh6 32 Rfe1 Ne5 33 Bxe5 dxe5 34 Rc7 Rf7 35 Rxf7 Kxf7 36 Rf1+ Kg8 37 Rf5 Bf6 38 Qf2 Be7 39 Rf7 Bd6 40 Qf5 Rc8 41 Nxg5 Black resigns White will continue with the decisive 42 Rxh7, e.g. 41 … Re8 42 Rxh7 Qf8 43 Rh8+ Kxh8 44 Qh7 mate.
 
The centenary British championship is currently in progress in Torquay. This week’s puzzle shows a clash between two future British champions.