CHESS
All's fair
Raymond Keene
AFTER much prodding from the interna- tional chess press, a movement in which I hope this column has also played a part, an initiative is now in motion, in conjunction with the elite tournament in Linares, Spain, to determine a challenger to Garry Kaspar- ov's world title. The mooted plan is for the grandmasters ranked two and three on the world list, Vladimir Kramnik and Viswa- nathan Anand, to contest a ten-game match in Spain later this year, to determine who will eventually take on Kasparov for the world title.
This sounds like progress and, indeed, it is. The problem, though, is that Kasparov himself is selecting his opponent without exposing the process to any kind of demo- cratic input. No one can complain that Kramnik and Anand are being invited, but there is an obvious irony in the fact that Anatoly Karpov, the Fide champion, who defeated Anand at Lausanne earlier this year in the Fide final, has been utterly excluded. Statements from Kasparov to the effect that Karpov is now a `weak player', or by the defeated Anand, asserting don't think Karpov is world champion at all' or indeed by Kramnik, who, when referring to the Lausanne final said, 'It's a joke what happened in Lausanne. I for one don't con- sider Karpov as world champion. Probably he is even much weaker than Anand now,' all have the sinister ring of a self-congratu- latory coterie who have cunningly by- passed a real threat to their own supremacy.
Given the poor state of Karpov's rela- tions with Kasparov, and the obvious fact that Karpov is quite content to be Fide champion, and probably just as reluctant to face Kasparov as Kasparov is to face him, I consider it a certainty that Karpov would have declined any invitation to join Kramnik and Anand in an eliminator. Nevertheless, in the interests of fair play such an invitation should have been issued and it is still not too late to do so. Anand got off to a fine start in Linares, beating one of the lesser lights, a player rated at a mere 2710 with Black.
Shirov—Anand: Linares 1998.
Having just captured on c4, Shirov takes the plunge and banks on a possible defence in the difficult endgame which follows. 31... Qxf5 An excellent decision. Instead 31 . . . Rxc4 32 Qxc4 Qxf5 33 Qxd5 Qxh5+ would only be a draw. After the text Black can torture White with no danger of loss. 32 QxfS Rxc4 33 Qbl Rd8 A fea- ture of this endgame is that Anand is in no hurry to reap White's weak pawns. Since they are iso- lated, they cannot run away. 34 Qb7 Rxc3 35 Qxa7 RccS 36 a4 Ra8 37 Qc7 Rdc8 38 Qb7 Re8 39 Qc6 Rac8 40 Qd7 Rcd8 41 Qc7 (Diagram) Position after 41 Qc7 This type of endgame with queen plus four scat- tered pawns against two rooks and connected pawns has been known to be very difficult for the side with the queen, ever since the classic endgame of D. Byrne–Reshevsky, New York 1957. White's problem is that the black rooks can gang up in turn on each white pawn until they all drop off. Black only has to be careful that White does not get in the blow e6, trading his e-pawn for Black's f-pawn. Then it is possible that White might eventually, after various exchanges, escape into a drawable endgame of king and White's h-pawn against Black's king and g- and h-pawns. So far, though, Anand has meticulously avoided such a danger, unless White wished to play it as a pure sacrifice. 41 ... Rd5 42 a5 Rdxe5 43 a6 R5e7 44 Qc6 Rf8 45 Kh3 Raj 46 g4 Rfa8 47 Kh4 Rxa6 48 Qb7 Ra5 49 Qc6 Rf8 50 Qb6 Rg5 51 Qb3 Kh8 52 Qb4 Re8 53 Qa4 Rd8 54 Qe4 f5 After this, White cannot avoid the ultimate loss of all of his remaining pawns. 55 gxf5 Rf8 White resigns.
Anand also won in round two, thus establishing a clear early lead. The tourna- ment in Linares continues for the next week and a half , so there is plenty of time for the triumvirate of Kasparov, Kramnik and Anand to see sense and issue an invita- tion to the Fidd champion to join them in the resolution of the world championship.
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