CHESS
Lottery
Raymond Keene
IN SPITE OF the impressive prize fund lavished on it, which ran to several million dollars, FIDE's version of the world cham- pionship in Las Vegas has proven once again that the title is meaningless without the co-operation of the world's best players. The World Chess Federation failed to per- suade either Garry Kasparov (currently in London for a press conference), Viswanathan Anand or Anatoly Karpov (its `defending' champion) to appear in Las Vegas and, with grandmasters such as Michael Adams, Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexei Shirov and Vladimir Kramnik eliminated by the vagaries of the knockout system, the final clash between Vladimir Akopian of Armenia and Alexander Khalifman of Germany lacked all credibility as a decider for the World Championship.
Khalifman—Akopian: FIDE World Championship Final, Las Vegas 1999; King's Indian
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 Be2 0-0 6 Nf3 e5 7 Be3 exd4 8 Nxd4 Re8 9 13 c6 10 BC The point of this move is to remove the bishop from latent attacks by the black rook. In some cases Kasparov has even been known to give up his rook for White's dark-squared bishop as a sacrifice. For example, 10 Qd2 d5 11 exd5 exd5 12 0-0 Nc6 13 c5 Rxe3 14 Qxe3 Qf8 15 Nxc6 bxc6 16 KM Rb8 17
Diagram 1 Na4 Rb4 with excellent compensation, Karpov–Kasparov, World Championship, New York 1990. 10 ...d5 11 exd5 cxd5 12 0-0 Nc6 13 c5 Nh5 14 Qd2 Be5 Long-term White has the advan- tage. He has Black's d5-pawn isolated and secure- ly under blockade. There are also plans of advanc- ing the white queenside pawns or manoeuvring a knight round to the d6-square. Meanwhile, Black seeks to orchestrate counterplay by attacking the dark squares in the vicinity of White's king. 15 g3 Ng7 16 Rfdl (Diagram 1) Interestingly, this is all known theory. A game Gelfand–Topalov played at Dos Hermanas 1997 continued 16 ... a6 17 BO, Be6 18 Nxe6 bte6 19 f4 B16 20 Rabl g5 and was eventually drawn. 16 ...18e6 17 Nxe6 Another Gelfand game had gone 17 f4 Bxd4 18 Bxd4 Nf5 19 1312 d4 20 Nb5 0e7 and was also eventually drawn. 17 ...fxe6 18 14 Bt6 19 Nb5 Here we see the difference from the game Gelfand–Topalov previously cited. Akopian's decision to omit the move . – a6 has permitted White to advance his knight to an aggressive post. 19 ...fte7 20 Racl a6 21 Nd4 Strategically Black's position is now criti- cal. His pawn structure is broken up, his minor pieces are on passive squares and White possesses the useful advantage of the bishop pair in an open position. 21 ...Bf6 22 Nf3 Qa5 23 QxaS Nxa5 24 b4 Nc6 25 Rbl h6 26 a4 White adds a mobile queenside pawn majority to his other advantages. 26 ... g5 27 fxg5 hxg5 28 g4 An important little move which immobilises Black's knight on g7. 28 ... Ne5 29 Nxe5 BxeS 30 Be3 Rf8 Black sets a trap hoping for 31 Bxg5 Bxh2+ 32 Kxh2 Rf2+ confusing the issue. However, White is alert to this possibility. 31 Rfl Bf4 32 Bxf4 gxf4 Black now has three connected passed pawns in the centre. However, his knight is far inferior to White's bishop while White's pawn majorities on both flanks are extremely dangerous. Finally, Black's mass of passed pawns is disjointed and hard to advance. 33 Bf3 Rf7 34 a5 Rd8 35 Rbel d4 36 Re4 d3 37 Bdl d2 38 Rfxf4 Rxf4 39 Rxf4 Ne8 At the cost of a pawn, Black has man- aged to charge forwards with his passed d-pawn. Far flung though it is, this is also now exposed to possible capture. 40 Kf2 Nc7 41 h4 e5 42 Rc4 Nd5 43 Kf3 Rf8+ 44 Ke2 Rd8 45 KL3 Rf8+ 46 Ke2 Rd8.47 Rc2 Nf4+ 48 Ke3 Nd5+ 49 Ke2 Nf4+ 50 IC13 Kf7 51 c6 After a few false starts represented by the recent repetition of moves, White concedes that he cannot surround the black pawn on d2. He seeks instead to make the most of his own pawn majorities. 51 ...bxc6 52 Rxc6 Rd3+ 53 Ke4 Ke7 54 h5 Rd4+ 55 KxeS Rxb4 56 Rc7+ Kf8 57 Rd7 Ng2 58 h6 White's threats become paramount. 58 ...1Cg8 59 g5 Ne3 60 g6 Rb5+ 61 Ke4 Black resigns The final result of the match: Khalifman 3in; Akopian 21n. This means that the World Chess Federation is now claiming that the world champion is the player ranked number 47 on its own rating list. It may as well give away titles with packets of cornflakes.
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