CHESS

SIMPSON'S

IN-THE-STRAND

GARRY KASPAROV is beset from all sides. In terms of the two rival world cham- pionship cycles, that of the Professional Chess Association (PCA), held by Kaspar- ov himself, and that of Fide, the World Chess Federation, which is currently being fought in Kalmykia by Karpov and Kamsky, Kasparov's group has well and truly lost the initiative. While the PCA has lost its major sponsor, Intel, and has announced no plans at all for its qualifying tournaments or, indeed, the championship itself, which should be due next year, Fide has made giant strides. The Fide world championship has a prize fund in excess of $1 million, and Fide's eccentric multimil- lionaire president, Kirsan Ilumzinov, has already announced plans for the upcoming cycle with a prize fund of $5 million and Tokyo as the likely venue.

To make matters worse for Kasparov, his arch-enemy Karpov is slaughtering Kamsky by such an enormous margin in Elista that the Fide champion may well inflict the ulti- mate indignity of surpassing Kasparov in the all-time rankings. Karpov's margin of victory is, indeed, becoming so massive that he could smash Kasparov's previous world record rating figure of 2815. Kamsky appears to be able to do nothing right in Elista. Even when Karpov misses the right path, the young challenger still loses. Take game seven, for example.

Karpov–Kamsky: Fide World Champion- ship, Elista, Game 7, June 1996.

(See diagram) In this position Karpov could have decided matters at once with the fairly elemen- tary combination 35 Rxc8 Rxc8 36 Nxf5 Rxf5 37 Qe4 when White's diagonal pin guarantees a crushing win on material. Karpov, mildly short of time for his calculations, may have feared that the counter-sacrifice 35 Rxc8 hxg3 36 Rxa8 gxf2+ would give Black some chances against

Under siege

Raymond Keene

White's exposed king, but atter / Kxt2 Black's attack is exposed as a mirage. Instead of winning in this efficient fashion, Karpov liquidated with 35 NxfS, in the hope of ultimately exploiting Black's pawn weaknesses on both sides of the board. This procedure turned out to be relatively harmless and Kamsky missed several opportuni- ties to draw before eventually succumbing on move 71.

Game eight was a hard-fought draw, but in game nine Kamsky overreached himself and was not given a second chance.

Karpov–Kamsky: Game 9, June 1996. SIMPSON'S

IN-THE-STRAND

With his queen attacked Kamsky could now play the cautious 21 ... Qf6 when 22 Bd5 Nxe5 23 dxe5 QxeS or 23 Bxa8 Nc4 promise White noth- ing. Even if White were to play 21 ...Qf6 22 Bg5 Qf5 23 Bxe7 the resource 23 ... Nxe5 again comes to Black's rescue. Rejecting this, Kamsky tried a reckless queen sacrifice. 21 ...Nxe5 22 Rxb6 Nxc4 23 Qb4 Nxb6 24 Qxb6 a5 25 0-0 a4 26 Ral Bf5 27 h4 e6 28 Bf4 Be4 29 Bd6 RfcS 30 Qb5 Bch 31 Qb4 Kg8 32 Ra3 Rah For some time Kamsky has been trying to make something of his outside passed pawn. Now, frustrated by Karpov's blockade, he commits a terrible howler which allows Karpov to win a vital pawn and strip Black's king of its protection. 33 Qc4 RcaS 34 Qxe6+ Kh8 35 Be5 BxeS 36 Qxe5+8 37

ICg

h5 Be8 38 h6 R6a7 39 d5 Rb7 40 d6 Rd8 41 Rf3 Black resigns Black's king is hopelessly exposed and his passed pawn is no nearer to advancing than it was 16 moves ago.

The final straw for Kasparov is a blow aimed not just at his preferred style of play, which relies heavily on theoretical prepara- tion of openings, but at the very nature of chess as he plays it. This final cut comes from a most unexpected direction, no less than the former world champion Bobby Fischer himself. Still in his early fifties, Fischer is quite capable of challenging Kas- parov and Karpov over the board. Instead of doing this, and realising the dreams of innumerable chess fans around the world, Fischer has renounced chess as we know it and devised an entirely new version of the game, called 'Fischerandom'. In this new version of chess, which Fischer has vowed will be the only one he ever plays again, the pieces are shuffled at the start of the game, thus sidestepping the encyclopaedic open- ings preparation which has been Kaspar- ov's hallmark.

Fischer's new game is being launched in Buenos Aires this week. This is an impor- tant topic, to which I shall return in coming articles.