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Chess by Malcolm Pein of the Daily Telegraph
 Malcolm Pein writes for the Daily Telegraph (telegraph.co.uk)
you can read his chess columns along with those of Nigel Short and David
Norwood at their new
Chess
Club (to read the columns you need to register which is free).1st Round Saturday, 22 Feb 2003. The drawing of lots pitted Vladimir Kramnik against Garry Kasparov in the first round at Linares. Kramnik is seeking to regain his form after a poor result at Wijk aan Zee in January, his first Classical Chess event in eighteen months. Playing white in what was a real grudge match, Kramnik, the world champion took no chances and a draw was agreed after only eighteen moves in a position where there was still a lot of play. There was plenty of entertainment in the other two games as Peter Leko defeated the sixteen year old debutante Teimour Radjabov with black after surviving what appeared to be a very dangerous attack skilfully whipped up by his young opponent. Radjabov must be on his guard now, any sign of early weakness is nearly always seized upon by your rivals at Linares and there are no easy games. Following his defeat Radjabov has the awesome prospect of black against Kasparov. Vishy Anand made a winning start and while he did not exactly storm Ruslan Ponomariov's Berlin Defence, he was always exerting some pressure in the endgame and gradually dominated the position with his knight pair and advanced kingside pawns. The Spanish representative Francisco Vallejo Pons had the bye. Linares round one The tournament is Fide category 20 with an average rating of 2733 Kramnik draw Kasparov, Queen's Gambit Accepted, 18 moves Radjabov 0-1 Leko, Queen's Indian Defence, Petrosian System 4.a3, 46 Anand 1-0 Ponomariov, Ruy Lopez, Berlin Defence, 64 Scores: Leko (Hungary), Anand (India) 1/1; Kramnik, Kasparov (Russia) 0.5/1; Vallejo Pons (Spain) 0/0; Radjabov (Azerbaijan) 0/1; Radjabov,T (2624) - Leko,P (2736) [E12] XX SuperGM Linares ESP (1), 22.02.2003 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.Nc3 Bb7 5.a3 d5 6.cxd5 Nxd5 7.Qc2 Nxc3 8.bxc3 Be7 9.e4 0-0 10.Bd3 c5 11.0-0 Qc8 12.Qa2 Rd8 13.Rd1 Ba6 14.Bxa6 Nxa6 15.Qe2 Qb7 [ 15...cxd4 16.cxd4 Qb7 17.Bb2 Bf6 18.h4 was played in the game Lautier,J - Leko,P 1/2-1/2 Cannes FRA 2002.] 16.h4 [ 16.Bf4 cxd4 17.cxd4 Rac8 18.Rd3 Nc7 19.Ne5 Ne8 20.Qh5 Bd6 21.Rg3 f6 22.Rh3 g5 23.Bxg5 Bxe5 24.dxe5 fxg5 25.Qxg5+ Kh8 26.Qh6 Qe7 27.Rf3 Nc7 28.Qf6+ Qxf6 29.exf6 Nb5 30.g4 Nd4 31.Rh3 Rg8 32.f3 e5 33.Rh5 Rg6 0-1 Gershon,A-Gurevich,M/Antwerp BEL 1999. ] 16...Nc7 17.h5 h6 18.Ne5 Ne8 19.Bb2 Nf6 20.Re1 b5 21.Rad1 cxd4 22.cxd4 b4 23.a4 Rac8 24.Rd3 Rc7 25.d5 exd5 26.exd5 Rxd5 27.Nxf7  27...Rxd3 28.Nxh6+ [ 28.Qxd3 Kxf7 29.Qg6+ Kf8 30.Bxf6 gxf6 ( 30...Bxf6 31.Re8#) 31.Qxh6+ Kg8 32.Qg6+ with a draw and if the King runs to the center the h-pawn will advance.] 28...Kf8 29.Qxd3 Qd5! Well calculated. If [ 29...gxh6 there will be perpetual in a similar way to the above variation.] 30.Qg3 [ 30.Qxd5 Nxd5 31.Nf5 might have given White enough counterplay to hold the draw, even though he is a pawn ahead the passed pawn is very strong and h5 is weak.] 30...Bd6 31.Qh3 Qxh5 32.Qxh5 Nxh5 33.Nf5 Bf4 34.Re4 Bd2 35.Nd4 Kf7 36.Re2 Bc1 37.Nb5 Nf4 38.Re4 Rc2 39.Nd6+ Kg6 40.Bxc1 Rxc1+ 41.Kh2 Nd5 42.Nb5 b3 Finally the passed pawn created on move 22. comes into its own. 43.Re6+ Kh7 44.Re2 Rc2 45.Re1 b2 46.Rb1 a6 
After the white knight moves Nd5-c3 follows and the pawn promotes. 0-1 |
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| All material © Mark Crowther |
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