2003 City of Linares Tournament

The Arbiters

The after shocks of yesterday's historic upset are still resonating! Every topic of conversation was related, directly or indirectly to the Kasparov loss. True, there were some sad faces like Kasparov's mom, Klara and his coach Yuri Dokhoian (and of course the man himself was in an understandably miffy mood) but many were quite pleased with it. Hey, it IS nice to see he is human at chess sometimes you know! Radja meanwhile, dining with his mom was quite cheery looking. He was quite modest about this win, but inside one could sense the feeling of 'YES! I DID IT!'. I am not sure if he enjoyed dinner that much with all the well-wishers coming to shake his hand in congratulations, but doubt he minded too badly. Of course, it is early enough in the tournament to 'fix'things for Garry, but it would take all his might and maybe some risk taking to claw his way back up. Naturally, it was 'trivia time' for many of us. Many tried to remember when was the last time that Kasparov lost with the white pieces to a human in

(1) Kasparov,G (2775) - Kramnik,V (2775) [D48] It, Dos Hermanas ESP (6), 1996

after 20. f3

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5 8.Bd3 Bb7 9.0-0 a6 10.e4 c5 11.d5 c4 12.Bc2 Qc7 13.Nd4 0.04 13...Nc5 14.b4 cxb3 15.axb3 0.05 15...b4 0.18 16.Na4 Ncxe4 17.Bxe4 Nxe4 18.dxe6 0.06 18...Bd6 0.40 19.exf7+ 0.30 19...Qxf7 1.07 20.f3 20...Qh5 1.08 21.g3 0.41 21...0-0 1.16 22.fxe4 0.41 22...Qh3 1.26 23.Nf3 0.53 23...Bxg3 24.Nc5 0.53 24...Rxf3 1.40 25.Rxf3 0.53 25...Qxh2+ 26.Kf1 Bc6 1.40 27.Bg5 1.10 27...Bb5+ 1.45 28.Nd3 1.10 28...Re8 1.49 29.Ra2 Qh1+ 30.Ke2 Rxe4+ 31.Kd2 Qg2+ 32.Kc1 Qxa2 33.Rxg3 Qa1+ 34.Kc2 Qc3+ 35.Kb1 Rd4 1.18/1.55 0-1

The next trivia question was when did he last lose with white in a classical time control, period? This is easy, I am sure, it wasn't that long ago:

(387708) Kasparov,G (2847) - DEEP JUNIOR [D45] FIDE Man-Machine WC New York USA (3), 30.01.2003

after 31. ..Qd7

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Nf3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 b6 7.cxd5 exd5 8.Bd3 Be7 9.Bd2 0-0 10.g4 Nxg4 11.Rg1 Ndf6 12.h3 Nh6 13.e4 dxe4 14.Bxh6 exd3 15.Rxg7+ Kh8 16.Qxd3 Rg8 17.Rxg8+ Nxg8 18.Bf4 f6 19.0-0-0 Bd6 20.Qe3 Bxf4 21.Qxf4 Bxh3 22.Rg1 Qb8 23.Qe3 Qd6 24.Nh4 Be6 25.Rh1 Rd8 26.Ng6+ Kg7 27.Nf4 Bf5 28.Nce2 Ne7 29.Ng3 Kh8 30.Nxf5 Nxf5 31.Qe4 Qd7 32.Rh5?? Nxd4 33.Ng6+ Kg8 34.Ne7+ Kf8 35.Nd5 Qg7 36.Qxd4 Rxd5 0-1

Last time he lost with white to a human in ANY time control? Also pretty recent:

(381491) Kasparov,G (2838) - Karpov,A (2688) [C42] x3dworld rapid New York USA (2), 19.12.2002

after 42. Rb2

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.0-0 Be7 8.c4 Nb4 9.Be2 0-0 10.Nc3 Bf5 11.a3 Nxc3 12.bxc3 Nc6 13.cxd5 Qxd5 14.Re1 Rfe8 15.Bf4 Rac8 16.c4 Qe4 17.Be3 Bf6 18.Rc1 b6 19.h3 Bg6 20.c5 Ne7 21.Ba6 Rcd8 22.Bg5 Qc6 23.cxb6 Qxb6 24.Bxf6 gxf6 25.Qa4 c6 26.Bf1 Kf8 27.Re3 Rb8 28.g3 Red8 29.Bg2 Nf5 30.Rxc6 Qb2 31.Rec3 Kg7 32.Qxa7 Qa1+ 33.Rc1 Rb1 34.Rxb1 Qxb1+ 35.Kh2 Qa2 36.Qc7 Re8 37.Rc2 Qxa3 38.Rd2 Nd6 39.Qc5 Qa6 40.Nh4 Rc8 41.Qd5 Rc1 42.Rb2 42...Be4 43.Qxe4 Nxe4 44.Nf5+ Kf8 45.Bxe4 Rc8 46.d5 Qa4 47.Bf3 Qa3 0-1

Finally, when is the last time he lost to a human in a regular time control, with either color?

(220239) Kramnik,V (2770) - Kasparov,G (2849) [E54] Braingames WCC London ENG (10), 24.10.2000

after 14. .. Nxf6

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3 d5 6.Nf3 c5 7.0-0 cxd4 8.exd4 dxc4 9.Bxc4 b6 10.Bg5 Bb7 11.Re1 Nbd7 12.Rc1 Rc8 13.Qb3 Be7 14.Bxf6 Nxf6 15.Bxe6 fxe6 16.Qxe6+ Kh8 17.Qxe7 Bxf3 18.gxf3 Qxd4 19.Nb5 Qxb2 20.Rxc8 Rxc8 21.Nd6 Rb8 22.Nf7+ Kg8 23.Qe6 Rf8 24.Nd8+ Kh8 25.Qe7 1-0

All kidding aside, this dude is one tough guy to beat! Like him or not, root for him or not, I think his 'chess respect' is well earned.

The games of the round:

Radjabov-Ponomariov:

GM Radjabov vs GM Ponomariov

What do you get when you mix one dose of 2 goose eggs with one dose of 'a little heaven'? The speediest draw I can recall in Linares! It looks like Teimour didn't feel like playing a long game today, as in a known line of the Queens Gambit declined, he offered the trade of Queens and offered a draw that Ponomariov couldn't refuse. Clearly after 2 bad losses a half a point and a little rest is just what the doctor ordered. Luckily to the two 'youngins' Don Rentero, the founder of Linares isn't running things, or they both would have fined! Draws are not popular in Linares and 11 move draws are considered 'no play'! If to sum up: a real dud of a game.

Leko - Kasparov:

GM Leko vs GM Kasparov

By now, continuing the ongoing discussions in the Najdorf Sicilian, is almost an obligation for these two! Castling in opposite sides and VAMOS! Time to attack! The normal question is which sub variation of this well analyzed variation will we see. Sometimes white plays with an a3 move, preventing at the cost of a tempo the black …b4 idea, but not here today. Of course allowing it is hardly new but 16…Bc6 looks like the new move, changing from an earlier Adams - Kramnik game that came out of some transposition, where Kramnik played 16…d5. Then we witnessed an exciting race of attacks where Leko played very energetically and interestingly and seem to be outplaying Garry. After 21.Nb6!? and 22.h6! White's initiative looked quite serious! Of course 21.Bxb5? Nxf3 with Nxd4 and b6 hangs. Now if 21…g6 22.Bxb5 Nxf3 23.Qf2 Nxd4 24.Qxd4 (eyeing g7) e5 25.Nd5! looks awesome. It would be very presumptuous of me to analyze here at length (see brave GM Alterman's analysis on our pages for his views on this crazy game) and

GM Kramnik and GM Vallejo

and there are many lines possible, so I will limit myself to saying that looking back 21…Ra5!? Looks saner than 21…Rab8 And 22…axb3 might have been a good interpolation opening lines. Gazza sure was walking a tightrope but he did it knowingly! He avoided playing Rxb6 on a few interesting occasions, and then came Leko's 28.f5! Pacifying the Bishop's long diagonal. 29…Rfd8? Looks scary to me! More analysis will tell for sure but I think it was a bad mistake. In mutual time trouble, Leko missed his chance to cash in big time: True that 37.R6xd6!? was possible but probably drawish after 37…Qxa4! 38.Qxf7 (what else?) 38…Rxb3+! 39.Ka1 and now 39…Rb1+! But if he had a few more seconds, he surely would have calculated 38.Nd5! winning! With one move he would protect b3, threaten Rc7 and defend his c6 R since 38…Qxc6 39.Nxb4! and black can't recapture! Instead he went 38.Rcxd6?? which loses to 38…Rxb3+! Leko kept his composure and found 41.Rb6! the only way to pose some problems to his tricky opponent. Everything was forced, including the strong (and only!) 49.a4! as without it, black can go into a pawn ending where his K could stop the a pawn and thus win even more easily. Oddly enough, just when black reached a clearer ending with enough time, he went for 50…Kg7?! Instead of 50…g5! Remember Garry!! Passed pawns must be pushed! D'oh! Now it was a crazy endgame where only fresh analysis could tell if Garry actually had any wins in it. White's front running a pawn was no less dangerous now than all 3 of black's! In the eventual pawn race both sides Queened, and black couldn't trade since white always had this neat Qg5+ perpetual idea! Eventually black had to give up a pawn to try to make any progress, but then the Q trade was an easy draw, one that Peter handled superbly even without any time left! In the final position, there was a 4-time repetition (!), which was claimed. Garry tried to argue a bit but had to accept his fate. Drawn on move 87! A crazy, wonderful game, not clean of mistakes but awesome to watch with a probably deserving result. Analysis by Alterman & Doss.

Kramnik - Vallejo: A typical Vlad-style QGD Semi Slav with a risk free very slight edge in the opening. Normally white goes e3 and develops his light squared B that way, but the set up with g3/Bg2 is quite legit also. Kramnik tried to improve on the previously played 13.Qe2 with 13.Qb3 but Paco came with a nice idea of 13…Be6!? And after the testing move of the position 14.dxe5 a wholesale of exchanges occurred. When the Rooks were all traded on the (only) open d file, a B vs N arose. Opinions varied between just a draw and some pull for white, one thing for sure, after white went b4 black's awesome maneuver of Nb8 aiming for a6 was ensuring black's happiness and indeed a draw was agreed not long after.

Vishy Anand checking out ICC on Aviv's laptop