CHESS

Vassily Ivanchuk's brilliant double victory at the prestigious Tal Memorial and at the blitz tournament in Moscow last week would normally steal the headlines. In each event, the Ukrainian grandmaster outpaced some of the world's best players by at least a full point. But today is September 1 and it brings different memories.

Georgia On My Mind

Forty years ago today, I left Czechoslovakia not knowing if I would ever be back. The city of Prague, my birthplace, was under siege of Soviet tanks. They rolled across the border on August 21, 1968, squashing any hope for freedom the Czechs and Slovaks had. Calling themselves liberators, the Soviets stayed for the next 21 years. The Russian tanks are now in Georgia. Garry Kasparov explained it in chess terms: "Georgia blundered into a trap." Moving its army to South Ossetia, Georgia triggered the Russian occupation. The Georgians are impulsive and passionate people and it was not easy for them to resist constant Russian harassment. And Russia waited for the right moment to move south. With its army still in Georgian territory, Russia is about to annex two Georgian regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Georgia faces a challenging future.

Two Amazing Women

On September 1, 1972, Bobby Fischer became the world chess champion. It was the title the Soviets regretted losing the most. They held it since 1948 and it became part of the cultural propaganda. Incredibly, one individual mind was able to defeat the Soviet chess machine. But Bobby's victory was only possible because his opponent, Boris Spassky, made a brave decision earlier in the match. He disregarded Moscow's orders to claim victory by forfeit and return home. Spassky, who in 1968 publicly denounced his country's occupation of Czechoslovakia, played the match and lost.

In 1978, the Soviets lost another important title. They finished second at the chess olympiad in Buenos Aires after the Hungarian team snatched the gold medals. The Soviet players also lost titles at the junior world championships and student olympiads. But they had a strong grip on the women's world championship, holding it without interruption from 1950 to 1991. Two Georgian women, in particular, held the title for nearly 30 years: Nona Gaprindashvili from 1962 to 1978 and Maya Chiburdanidze from 1978 to1991.

Georgia's Artist

Georgia was not only the bastion of women's chess, it was also home to some fine chess composers. One of the best was the late Gia Nadareishvili, a neurologist from Tbilisi who in 1969 composed a study featured in today's diagram (White: Ka1,Ba4,P:b3,c7,d7,e2,e7,f7,h7; Black: Ka3,Ra8,Rb8,Bh6,P:a2).

The white king in Nadareishvili's masterpiece is under a mating threat on the diagonal a1-h8. White can't promote any of his pawns into the most powerful piece, the queen. The road to victory is narrow and lies in underpromoting. It begins with the delicate 1.e8N! (White has to prevent 1...Bg7 mate.) 1...Rxe8 2.dxe8N! (Avoiding 2.fxe8N? Bg7+! 3.Nxg7 Rf8 and black mates on the first rank.) 2...Rxe8 3.fxe8N! (It seems that white succeeded in driving black back, but before he can celebrate victory, he has to do some more work.) 3...Bd2! 4.c8R!! (White has to be careful: 4.h8Q? or 4.h8B? leads to a stalemate after 4...Bc3+!) 4...Be3 5.h8B! (The final touch! Again 5.h8Q? or 5.Rd8? only draws after 5...Bd4+!) White wins.

Atlantic Open

Grandmasters Sergey Erenburg and Alexander Stripunsky won the 40th Atlantic Open with a 4 1/2-1/2 score. Played August 22-24 in the downtown D.C. Westin hotel, the traditional tournament attracted nearly 400 players in seven sections.