MARK RUBERY CHESS

In 1980 Efim Geller convincingly won the Soviet championship and followed this by a board prize at the European team championship. With one round to play at the Lone Pine tournament (then regarded as the strongest open tournament in the world) he was sharing the lead and had yet to concede a single loss and thus opined Tony Miles “With $10,000 at stake I figured he was due for one”.

A picture of these two gladiators shows Geller with his habitual cigarette and Miles with his glass of milk!

Miles,anthony J (2545) - Geller,efim P (2565) [A14]

Lone Pine Lone Pine (9), 1980

1.c4 e6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.Nf3 Be7 5.b3 0–0 6.Bb2

(The double fianchetto was a favourite device Miles to avoid major theory and begin strategic trench warfare)…c5 7.0–0 Nc6 8.e3 d4 9.exd4 cxd4 10.Re1 Re8 11.a3 a5 12.d3 Bc5 13.Nbd2 e5 14.Ng5 Bg4 15.Bf3! (Parting with this bishop might seem strange but it greatly improves White’s piece coordination and gives good play on the light squares-miles)…bxf3 16.Qxf3 h6 17.Nge4 Nxe4 18.Nxe4 Bf8 19.Bc1 Re6 20.h4 Be7 21.h5 Qf8 22.Qf5 Rb8 23.g4 b5 24.Kh2 bxc4 25.bxc4 Rb3 26.Rg1 (Now g5 is coming with a bang-miles)…bxa3 27.Rxa3 Rxa3 28.Bxa3 Qxa3 29.g5 Qf8 30.Nf6+! (I remember while thinking of this move, glancing up at many spectators-i could almost read it in their eyes’ What on earth are you thinking about you idiot, isn’t obvious?’-miles)…gxf6 31.gxh6+ Kh8 32.Rg7 Qxg7 33.hxg7+ Kxg7 34.Qg4+ Kh7 35.h6! (The point of the combination)… Kxh6 36.Qg8! (The queen gets into the heart of the position and Black’s structure collapses)…re7 37.Qc8 Re6 38.Qh8+ 1–0

Tony Miles became a grandmaster at the age of twenty, achieving his final norm at a tournament in Dubna, in the Soviet Union-a barrier which yielded to only a few in those times. ‘If you are successful, please send us a telegram’, the Secretary of the British Chess Federation asked him before this trip. The telegram which arrived at the federation contained only one word: ‘Telegram’ and signified the arrival of the first British grandmaster and his particular brand of humour.