Chess loss not acknowledged

Press, 15 April 1978, Page 6

Chess loss not acknowledged

PA Wellington Two chess games degenerated into frantic scrambles in the Burroughs grand master tournament in Wellington yesterday. Players were moving instantaneously, knocking pieces over and thumping the chess-clocks as they tried to make the necessary 40 moves in the first session without overstepping the time limit of two and a half hours each.

After five hours of deep thought and slow play the four players were forced to rely on reflexes, steady nerves and a bit of luck.

Richard Sutton, of Auckland, was the player who suffered most from the time scrambles. He began with an extra pawn in his adjourned game against Rico Mascarinas, of the Philippines, gave away a pawn and then was judged to have lost on time after the clock showed his limit had expired.

Both Sutton and Mascarinas had been moving so fast they had not been able to write their moves down, and it was not immediately clear whether Sutton had made his 40 moves.

The players tried to re- ■ construct the game from memory | to see how many moves had been made. The director of play, Mr Teddy Stallknecht, judged 1 that Sutton had made only 39' moves and awarded the game toi Mascarinas. Sutton did not I accept the decision and refused; to acknowledge the decision by | signing the scoresheet.

A committee of appeal was • considering the case late last night. I

The other time scramble I. volved the two Indonesian Herman Suradiradja and Jacobus, Sampouw. When their time was up they discovered that they had actually reached 43 moves, and that Sampouw had blundered away a pawn. The game was adjourned with Suradiradja holding a winning advantage. This excitement overshadowed an excellent win by the 23-year-old Christchurch player, Vernon Small, over the experienced Filipino international master, Rodolfo Tan Cardoso.

Small sacrificed a pawn to seize the initiative in a very complicated position. He then increased the pressure till Cardoso was forced to give up material. “It was my best game of the tournament,” Small said.

"Tire pawn sacrifice was pretty tricky but I think It was sound. All my pieces were very active after it.”

The international master, Murray Chandler, of Wellington, also played extremely well and when his game was adjourned his opponent, the Iranian international master, Mehrshad Sharif. seemed about to suffer his first defeat of the tournament.

The Filipino grand master, I Eugene Torre, adjourned with an extra pawn against the Iranian, Kamran Shirazl, and the Argentinian grand master, Miguel Quinteros, outplayed the New Zealander, Ewen Green, te win quickly.

The tournament situation is obscured by the unfinished games, but Quinteros seems be«t placed to take the lead, with Torre and Chandler maintaining their challenge.