🚀 go-pugleaf

    Reproduced here in full is yesterday's Miles Kington "Moreover" column
    from the London Times. 

	    H o w   R e a g a n   c o u l d   b e   r o o k e d
	    ---------------------------------------------------

    Chess fans will be glued to their teleprinters today for the start of the
    long-awaited world championship between Russian maestro Mikhail Gorbachov
    and the whirlwind American master Ronald Reagan. Both are recognized as
    being the best in the world today, so many people are forecasting a long
    series of draws, but the battle for supremacy should provide many moments
    of excitement and play of the highest quality.

    Their styles provide an absorbing study of contrasts. Gorbachov is a
    typical product of the Soviet chess machine, methodical, thoughtful and
    bent on gradual domination of the board by any means. Previous encounters
    between East and West have been overshadowed by the tendency of the Russian
    champion to die just when things were getting exciting, but the Russians
    have cleverly chosen a young man this time, and whatever Gorbachov lacks,
    it will not be stamina.

    Reagan, by contrast, is a much more mercurial player, some would say
    distrait. He tends on occasion to forget that he is playing a game of chess,
    or to get the name of his opponent mixed up with somebody completely
    different, but his huge following insists that he represents all that is
    best about America and no other American has close come to challenging him.
    Here, for instance, is a recent game in which Reagan skilfully exploits his
    opponent's conventional approach to strategy.

		White Reagan; Black Mondale
		Nicaraguan Defence

	1	P-K4	P-QB4		2	P-K4	P-Q3
	3	P-K4	N-KB3		4	P-K4	resigns

    Maddened by Reagan's brilliant option of doing the same move over and over
    again, the usually unflappable Mondale blows up and resigns. This tactic
    of saying or doing the same thing over and over again is one invented by
    Reagan. Some experts call it innovatory, others say it's because he doesn't
    know any other move, but this is disproved by another recent Reagan game.

		White El Salvador; Black Reagan
		White House Offensive

	1	P-K4	P-K5!		2 	resigns

    Here, Reagan uses another tactic of his own invention, that of moving the
    other man's pieces. There is no answer to this, especially whwn Reagan owns
    the chess board, the chess pieces and the chess officials. Another pretty
    example of Reagan's fresh approach to the game comes from a very recent
    short encounter with Prince Charles.

		White Prince Charles; Black Reagan
		Nancy Variation

	1	P-K4	Q-SW1!		2 	draw agreed

    Reagan prefers short, sharp games, as if he cannot conceive of any chess
    encounter going on much beyond five moves, but Gorbachov is an
    intriguingly different customer. Here is an excerpt from a game played
    last month, starting at the 25th move.

		White Gorbachov; Black Rest of the World
		KGB Gambit

       25	Q-B6	PxQ!	       26	Q=Q!!

    What this unusual sign means is that Gorbachov suddenly revealed that his
    opponent's Queen had been working for the Russians all along! In an
    amazing press conference in Moscow, the so-called Black Queen testified
    that she had been drugged and forced to play for Black against her will,
    and that from now on she would be playing for White. This turned the whole
    game in Gorbachov's favour.

    Here is another eaxample of the wily Russian's play, from a recent game in
    the Kabul championships.

		White Gorbachov; Black Afghanistan
		Tank Defence

       36	RxB,R,P,P

    What seems to have happened here is that Gorbachov actually orders part of
    the chess board to be blown up, an unconventional move but one which does
    not actually seem to be against the local rules. We have a picture,
    in fact, of two players who on their own terms are unbeatable but who
    have never met any player of their own class before, nor one so much
    outside their own experience. Our experts will be on hand to analyse every
    move between the irresistible Gorbachov and the veteran Reagan, who is
    said to be perfecting a new Star Pawn defence which Gorbachov can never
    pierce. Whatever happens, it is certain that neither side will admit
    defeat.

    (C) Times Newspapers, 1985.

     Wednesday 20-Nov-1985