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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). Win
prizes in the Telegraph chess challenge on the Chess Club pages. 13th Round Saturday, 8th March 2003. World champion Vladimir Kramnik missed a great chance to take a half point lead into the last round of the 20th Linares Supertournament when he failed to convert an endgame with an extra pawn against Teimour Radjabov. The game ended in a draw after nearly all the pawns were exchanged but Kramnik's cause was boosted by the other results as co-leader Vishy Anand lost to Peter Leko and Garry Kasparov could not overcome Francisco Vallejo-Pons. Kasparov played white but could not secure an advantage. He grabbed a pawn but then allowed a threefold repetition of moves at the time control and shook his head in frustration as his last chance for outright victory at Linares disappeared. Kasparov's four year winning run at elite events is now probably over. The Spaniard scored two draws against the world number one and his play has been inspired at times. If he avoids defeat against Ruslan Ponomariov in the last round, Vallejo will embarass the Fide champion and push him down to fifth place. Leko's victory over Anand means he has to hold Kramnik with black in the last round to be assured of a share of the first prize. The twenty three year old Hungarian, ranked world number five won the Candidates tournament at Dortmund last year and will play Kramnik for the world title later in the year. He has added a sharpness to his play since he became known as the master of the draw a couple of years ago. Leko's win came in a rook and pawn endgame after an uncharacteristic blunder from Anand. The Indian defended with the solid Petroff Defence and stood only slightly worse when he made a calculated decision to go for a position with queens and rooks in which Leko could force a passed pawn on the seventh rank. Anand then smoothly headed for a rook endgame less a pawn, which is known to be drawn. What happened next was inexplicable and Anand was mortified afterwards. In such endgames with three pawns each on the kingside and a passed rook's pawn on the queenside the defending side must place his rook behind the passed pawn. This forces the superior side to defend their extra pawn by placing the rook in front of it and blocking it. For some reason Anand moved his rook away and Leko manoeuvred his rook to a better position - see below. Round thirteen results: Kasparov draw Vallejo, Caro Kann Advance Variation, 40 moves; Leko 1-0 Anand, Petroff Defence, 65; Radjabov draw Kramnik, Queen's Indian Defence, Petrosian Variation, 4.a3, 48; Ponomariov Bye; Scores with a game to play: 1-2 Kramnik (Russia), Leko (Hungary), 6.5/11; 3-4 Anand (India), Kasparov (Russia) 6/11; 5 Vallejo-Pons (Spain) 5/11; 5 Ponomariov (Ukraine) 4.5/11 6 Radjabov (Azerbaijan) 4.5/12 (Radjabov's final score); Leko,P (2736) - Anand,V (2753) [C42] XX SuperGM Linares ESP (13), 08.03.2003 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.0-0 Be7 8.c4 Nb4 9.Be2 0-0 10.Nc3 Bf5 11.a3 Nxc3 12.bxc3 Nc6 13.Re1 Re8 14.cxd5 Qxd5 15.Bf4 Rac8 16.Bd3 [ 16.c4 Qe4 17.Be3 Bf6 18.Ra2 b6 19.h3 Na5 20.g4 Bg6 21.g5 Be7 22.Ne5 Bd6 23.Nxg6 hxg6 24.c5 Bf8 25.Bg4 Rcd8 26.Rae2 Qc6 27.cxb6 1/2-1/2 Anand,V-Adams,M/Linares ESP 2002/The Week in Chess 383 (27). ] 16...Qd7 17.Rb1 Bxd3 18.Qxd3 b6 19.d5 Bf6 20.c4 h6 21.h3 Re7 22.Rbd1 Rd8 23.Rxe7 Nxe7 24.Ne5 Bxe5 25.Bxe5 Re8 26.Bg3 Nf5 27.Bxc7 Qxc7 28.Qxf5 Qxc4 29.d6 Rd8 30.d7 Qc6 31.g3 a6 32.h4 b5 33.Rd5 a5 34.Rxb5 g6 35.Qd5 Qxd7 36.Qxd7 Rxd7 37.Rxa5 Kg7 38.a4 Rd1+ 39.Kg2 Ra1 Black should now draw. 40.g4 Kf6 41.Kg3 Rc1 42.Rb5 g5 43.Rf5+ Kg6 44.h5+ Kg7 45.a5 Ra1 46.Kg2 Re1 47.f3 Re6 If this is forced then things have already gone wrong. 48.Kf2 Kf8 49.Rb5 Kg7 50.Rf5 Kf8 51.Rc5 Kg7 52.Rb5 Kf8 53.Rb6 Re5 54.a6 Kg7 55.a7 Ra5 56.Rb7 Ra3 57.Ke2 Kf6 58.Kd2 Ke6 59.Kc2 f6 60.Kb2 Ra4 61.Kb3 Ra1 62.Kb4 Kd6 63.Rh7 Ke5 64.Kb5 Ra2 65.Kb6 Kd5  Final position after 65. ..Kd5. The white king heads for b8 and the passed pawn costs Black his rook. 1-0 |
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| All material © Mark Crowther |
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