Chess ranking boosted

Press, 12 May 1984, Page 72

Chess ranking boosted

NZPA London The New Zealand chess grandmaster, Murray Chandler, has been encouraged to set his sights on a place in the world top ten after his excellent showing in the International Kings Chess Tournament in London. Chandler is poised to finish second to the Soviet Union world champion, Anatoly Karpov. “That would be an exceptional result for me,” said Chandler. “My current world ranking is 55 and my performance here should take me up to around 30,” the 24-year-old Wellington player said. "To get up to about that ranking was my goal at the beginning of the year. Now I want to get into the world top ten if at all possible.” Chandler said it was difficult to pinpoint exactly the reason for his success in

what he believes is possibly the strongest tournament of the year. But it could have been significant that last year he realised his cherished ambition of becoming New Zealand’s first chess grandmaster, the highest title in the game outside world champion. “I felt a lot of pressure come off me when I got the title. It meant I could concentrate only on chess,” he said. Grandmaster status was a prerequisite for entry to the international Kings tournament in which Chandler, despite defeats by Karpov, and the Soviet defector, Viktor Korchnoi, has accrued seven and a half points after 12 rounds. He is in second equal place with the Soviet grandmaster, Lev Polugaevsky, starting the final round in

which he will meet Jonathan Mestel (England), who has just 3% points with two games adjourned. Karpov has B¥2 points and will probably need only a draw today against John Nunn (England) to ensure ■ victory. Chandler’s performance is easily his best since he opted last year to play for England rather than New Zealand. “It was a difficult decision to make but I thought it was necessary to play for England from a career point of view. A player must align himself with a strong national association if he wants to play the best in the world. “England is up with the Russians. It also has a professional organisation and I get fees as a matter of course which I didn’t get in New Zealand,” he said.