by Aviv Friedman

Adams - Kasparov:

Adams - Kasparov:   What happens when a strong British GM plays against a Najdorf expert such as Kasparov? If you guessed the English attack, give yourself full credit. The dilemma is what to do to either improve on the known lines, which Garry would know well, or try and surprise with something less known. Adams chose the latter, in the shape of 7.Qf3, a very rare guest in top-level chess. Kasparov was not shocked and followed the normal reaction in that line with 7…Nbd7 and 8…h5!?. Usually, white goes 9.0-0-0 but in our game Adams 'played it safe' and went for another plan that made the position look like a hybrid of several Sicilian lines. After the game, Mickey was heard saying that the position was balanced. I suppose against Kasparov that is good enough. His 16.Nd2 was again quite consistent with this approach. For a while both sides held off on their castling, black had to maintain his pawn on h5 of course - and when white moved 0-0 on move 17, Garry quickly came with 17…Ng4!? While one would think it started some action, is actually good enough to maintain the balance while changing the character of the position. The key was to see the nice intermezzo 19…d5! releasing his position by threatening mate. Now the Queens went off too and the ensuing endgame was again dynamically equal. 26.Nxe4 Rh5! would have given black tons of play for the pawn and Mickey tried another approach. He said he might have done better to try 28.a5!? but when he saw 28.Nc4 was enough to guarantee the draw he decided to just go for that. 28.a5 Rd4 29.c3 Rd3 again seems to give black play for the pawn, and so it was an understandable decision considering the time situation and his opponent.

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