CHESS

Cunctator

Raymond Keene

THE FIRST SIX GAMES of the Kasparov—Anand World Championship match in New York have ended in draws. Many experts before the match predicted that Anand would have excellent chances if he could be level pegging at the midway stage, game 10. Perhaps inspired by the same thought, Anand's main ambition has been to batten down the hatches. He has certainly not accepted any of Kasparov's sacrifices, and only offered two himself, in game four and game six, where he was forced into a sacrifice to stay alive.

In game two, his first Black of the match, Anand demonstrated an apparently easy way to gain equality against a variation which Kasparov had used to plague Nigel Short in their London championship two years ago.

Kasparov—Anand: Intel World Champion- ship, New York, Game 2, 1995; Nimzo- Indian Defence.

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 Qc2 d5 5 cxd5 QxdS 6 e3 c5 7 Bd2 Bxc3 8 Bxc3 cxd4 9 Bxd4 Nc6 10 Bxf6 gxf6 11 Net Bd7 12 a3 Qe5 13 Nc3 f5 14 0-0-0 0-0-0 15 g3 Kb8 16 Be2 Ne7 17 Qd3 Qc7 18 Qd6 Bc6 19 Qxc7+ Kxc7 20 Rhel Rxd1+ 21 Rxdl Rd8 22 Rxd8 Kxd8 23 Kd2 Nc8 24 Kd3 Nd6 25 Kd4 b6 26 b4 Ke7 27 14 h6 28 a4 f6 29 a5 Bd7 Draw agreed.

Game three will form the major topic of this week's analysis. During its course Anand, consistently pursuing his Fabian strategy, missed a beautiful opportunity to win with a sacrificial attack.

Anand—Kasparov: Game 3; Sicilian Defence.

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Be2 e6 7 0-0 Be7 8 a4 Nc6 9 Be3 0-0 10 f4 Qc7 11 Khl Re8 12 Bd3 This move, pointing White's king's bishop aggressively at Black's king, is the first deviation from game 1 where 12 Qd2 was played. 12 ...Nb4 13 a5 Bd7 14 Nf3 Bc6 15 Bb6 Qc8 Kasparov's prepared improvement on the game Lobron–Spraggett, Wijk aan Zee 1985, where 15 Qd7 left Black's queen somewhat awkwardly placed. 16 Qel Nd7 The thematic continuation, but it turns out to be a dreadful mistake, which depletes the resources of his king's flank. Black should instead consider 16 ...Nxd3 17 cxd3 Nd7 followed by ...Bf8. 17 Bd4 Nc5 It is astonishing that Kasparov lands himself in hot water so soon after the end of his prepara- tion. 18 Qg3 f6 Now it is too late for 18 ...Bf8 since 19 f5 already threatens the sacrifice Bxg7 followed by f6. 19 e5! Anand spent almost half an hour over this move, one of the longest thinks of his chess career. It is a sign of his rapidly increasing maturity that he is no longer moving at blitz tempo in these vitally important games. If Black now plays the natural 19 ... dxe5 then White can launch a devastating attack by means of 20 Bxh7+ Kxh7 21 fxe5. This looks as if it should not succeed, since most of the classic pre- requisites for the `Greek' bishop sacrifice simply do not exist. This position is, though, an excep- tion, the reason being that Black's knights on the queenside have absolutely no say in the action. Here Black is in dire straits, as can be seen from the continuations 21 ...Bxf3 22 exf6 Bxf6 23 Bxf6 gxf6 24 Qh4+ Kg7 25 Rxf3. White enjoys an overwhelming attack and it should be noted that, in addition to his pressure against Black's

king, Black's knight on b4 is also hanging. The exposure of this piece also forms a leitmotif for future variations. In the middle of this attack Black can interpose the zwischenzug ...Bxg2+, but it makes no difference to the outcome. A secondary line, supporting White's win, is 19

dxe5 20 Bxh7+ Kxh7 21 fxe5 f5 22 Bxc5 Bxc5 23 Ng5+ Kg8 24 Qh4 Nd5 25 Nce4 with a devas- tating attack. 19 ... R18 This is the best defence. Some ill-informed reports claim that Kasparov made this move instantly so as to confuse Anand. In fact, he spent ten minutes over it. (Diagram) This is the crucial position where Anand throws away the win. Once again, there Position after 19 . . . Rf8

was a tendency on the part of critics to present this as if Anand had overlooked something triv- ial. In truth, the variations that justify the win are amazingly deep and complex, and it is not entirely surprising that Anand shied away from a line that gives up a piece and requires a number of problematic moves to force the victory. Nevertheless, White should have gone for broke with 20 061 Bxf6 and now the star move 21 Bxh7+1! Black must play 21 ...Kxh7 22 Ng5+ but here there is an element of choice: a) 22 ...Kg6 23 f5+ exf5 24 Nge4+ Kh7 25 Bxf6 and Black is crushed.

b) 22 ... Bxg5 23 fxg5 Kg6 (to prevent White from playing g6+ and Qh4) 24 Rf6+11 gxf6 25 gxf6+ Kh5 26 Qh3+ Kg5 27 Rfl Qd7 (if 27 ...e5 28 Be3+ Kg6 29 Qh6+ Kf7 30 Qg7+ Ke6 31 Qe7 mate) 28 Rf411 (the only move to win the threat is Qg3+ and Rh4 forcing checkmate) 28 ...10d4 (28 ... Bxg2+ is also hopeless) 29 Qh4+ Kf5 30 Qh5+ Kf4 31 Ne2+ Ke4 32 Qf3 mate.

c) 22 ...Kg8 23 Qh4 Bxg5 24 fxg5 Qe8 (Diagram) (Once again to stop g6. If instead 24 Rf5 25 g6 e5 26 Qh7+ Kf8 27 Bxc5 dxc5 28

Analysis diagram, variation (c)

Qh8+ Ke7 29 Qxg7+ with a massive attack; also very strong is 27 Qh5) 25 Rxf8+ and now: cl) 25 ... Qxf8 26 g6 Qf5 27 Qh7+ Kf8 28 Qh8+ Ke7 29 Qxg7+ (not 29 Qxa8 on account 29 ...Qg4) 29 ...Kd8 30 Bxc5 QxcS (30 ... dxc5 allows 31 Rdl + winning) 31 Qf8+ Kc7 32 g7 (again not 32 Qxa8 which this time fails to 32 Qf2 33 Rgl Bxg2+ 34 Rxg2 Qfl+ forcing perpetual check) 32 ... Qg5 33 Qf7+ Bd7 34 Ne4 Qf5 35 Nf6 e5 36 c3 Nc2 37 Nd5+ and now White either queens a pawn with check or forks Black's king and queen.

c2) 25 ...Kxf8 26 Rfl+ Kg8 (Black cannot instead try 26 ...Ke7 27 g6+ Kd7 28 Rf7+ Kc8 29 Bxg7 Nd7 since 30 Qxb4 wins easily) and now 27 Bxg7 Kxg7 28 Qh6+ Kg8. At this point I at first thought that White could win with 29 g6 fol- lowed by Rf7 but David Norwood pointed out to me that there is an even simpler win with 29 Rf61 for example 29 ...Rc8 30 Rg6+ Qxg6 31 Qxg6+ Kh8 32 Qh6+ Kg8 33 g6 Rc7 34 Qh4 threatening Qd8+ and Qxb4 and if 34 ... Rg7 35 Qd8 is mate.

20 Bxc5 Anand consumed a further 20 minutes over this capture, thus definitively undermining his reputation as a demon of speed play. 20 ▪ ..dxc5 21 Bc4 Bd5 Squashing White's ambitions against the weak black pawn on e6. 22 NxdS exd5 23 Bb3 c4 24 Ba4 Nc6 25 c3 It was worth considering the pawn sacrifice 25 Rael here. 25 f▪ xe5 Kasparov declines the bait on a5. 26 Nxe5 If White wanted to win he had to try 26 fxe5, avoiding exchanges. After Anand's choice in the game the contest quickly fizzled out to a draw. 26 ... Nxe5 27 fxe5 Qe6 28 Bc2 Rxfl+ 29 Rx11 Rf8 30 Red+ Bx18 31 Qf4 g6 32 Bdl Q11 33 Qd4 Qfl+ 34 Qgl Qxgl+ 35 Kul Kf7 36 Bg4 b6 Draw agreed.

In game four Anand made his first sacri- fice of the match, giving up a central pawn to achieve a fortress position based on opposite coloured bishops.

Kasparov—Anand: Game 4; English Opening.

1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 g3 0-0 5 Bg2 d5 6 Qb3 c5 7 0-0 Nc6 8 d3 h6 9 e3 ReS 10 a3 dxc4 11 dxc4 Bxc3 12 Qxc3 e5 13 b4 e4 14 Nd2 Qe7 15 b5

Ne5 16 Nxe4 Nf3+ 17 BIM Nxe4 18 Bxe4 Qxe4 19 f3 Qe7 20 e4 Be6 21 Be3 Draw agreed In the final position Black will play ...b6 ...f6 and

Qf7. Tied to the defence of his pawn on c4, White can achieve very little.

Game five saw Kasparov improve on his crabbed defence from game three, and the resultant easy draw left honours even after the first quarter of the match.

Anand—Kasparov: Game 5; Sicilian Defence.

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Be2 e6 7 0-0 Be7 8 a4 Nc6 9 Be3 0-0 10 f4 Qc7 11 Khl Re8 12 Bd3 Nb4 13 a5 Bd7 14 Nf3 Rac8 15 Qe2 Bc6 16 Bb6 Qb8 17 Nd4 Nxd3 18 cxd3 d5 19 Qf3 Nd7 20 Nxc6 bxc6 21 Na4 Qd6 22 Qe3 Qb4 23 Rfcl c5 24 Qf3 Nf6 25 Nc3 Bd8 26 exd5 exd5 27 NxdS NxdS Draw agreed.

So far, the motto for the match might be Alexander Pope's line: 'Willing to wound and yet afraid to strike'. With game six drawn as well (played too late to include in this column), the opening shots in New York are a curious echo of the final phase of Kasparov's title defence against Nigel Short two years ago, when the champion could do no better than a series of perfunc- tory draws in the closing stages.