Comments from Daily Telegraph Chess Correspondent Malcolm Pein.

Kasparov and his second Yury Dokhoian after his loss to Akopian. Photo © Eugeny Atarov ("64")

The shock results kept coming on day three of the Alfa Bank Russia v Rest of the World rapid chess match at the Kremlin Palace. The Rest of the World led 25.5-24.5 overnight and increased their lead to 41.5-38.5 with two rounds to go. ROW had been buoyed by the terrible form of the three Russian world champions Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik and this trio fared even worse on day three having been thoroughly humbled the day before. The Ukrainian pair of Vassily Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov; losing finalist and victor respectively in the Fide championship this year led the way for the ROW with individual performances of 5/8.

Playing hall Photo © Eugeny Atarov ("64")

In round six Nigel Short drew the ''short straw'' and had to play world number one Garry Kasparov who had had the previous evening to reflect on his loss to Judit Polgar. To make matters worse the England number two had black. The infamous prediction ' It will be Short and it will be short' from the then world champion in 1993 before the pair met in the WCC final sprang to mind but Short surprised his opponent with Alekhine's Defence, grabbed a pawn in the opening and nearly won. Kasparov was struggling for the half point at the end.

Things became even grimmer for Kasparov in the next round when he was outplayed again with white and was very fortunate hold off the fifteen year old prodigy Teimour Radjabov. The great man was clearly on the ropes but in round eight there was an even greater sensation. ROW team captain Yasser Seirawan cannily decided to put in a reserve player against Kasparov, who must have been in a pretty foul mood by then. Seirawan chose the Fide finalist in 1999 and former World Junior champion Vladimir Akopian.

Final game to finish in Round 8 Grischuk - Leko. Photo © Eugeny Atarov ("64")

Like Polgar the day before Akopian went into the game with 0/2 and then thrashed the greatest player in the history of the game in only twenty five moves. Polgar nearly did the double over the world champions but Vladimir Kramnik, also in terrible form, escaped with a draw in a rook and pawn endgame despite being a pawn down. Kramnik then lost badly to Ilya Smirin in round eight to drop below 50%

The scores of the world champions are: Anatoly Karpov 3/7, Garry Kasparov 3/8, Vladimir Kramnik 3/7

Round six: Russia 5-5 ROW.
Round seven: Russia 5-5 ROW
Round eight: Russia 4-6 ROW

Overall score Russia 38.5-41.5

Two rounds and twenty games remain.

Akopian,V (2678) - Kasparov,G (2838) [B30]
RUS vs. ROW Moscow RUS (8), 10.09.2002

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6 4.0-0 Nge7 5.b3 a6 6.Bxc6 Nxc6 7.Bb2 b5 8.c4 bxc4 9.bxc4 Rb8 10.Bc3 d6 [ 10...Qc7 11.d3 Rg8 12.Nbd2 g5 13.Ne1 Rg6 14.Nc2 Bd6 15.Qh5 h6 16.Nf3 Bb7 17.Ne3 Ne5 18.Nxe5 Bxe5 19.Bxe5 Qxe5 20.Rab1 Qd6 21.Ng4 Bc6 22.Rxb8+ Qxb8 23.Nxh6 Qb2 24.Ng4 d6 25.e5 Qd4 26.Qh8+ Ke7 27.exd6+ Qxd6 28.Ne5 Rf6 29.Re1 Be8 30.Qh3 Qd4 31.Qe3 Rf4 32.g3 Rf5 33.g4 Rf4 34.Ng6+ 1-0 Shirov,A-Kramnik,V/Frankfurt GER 1996 (34)] 11.Na3 [ 11.d3 e5 12.Nbd2 Be7 13.Ne1 f5 14.exf5 Bxf5 15.f4 0-0 16.g4 Bd7 17.Ng2 exf4 18.Ne4 g5 19.h3 Rf7 20.Ne1 h5 21.a3 hxg4 22.hxg4 Qc8 23.Kf2 Bxg4 24.Rh1 Ne5 25.Nf3 Qf5 26.Ra2 Rh7 27.Bxe5 dxe5 28.Rxh7 Qxh7 29.Qg1 Bxf3 30.Nxg5 Bxg5 31.Qxg5+ Kf7 32.Kxf3 Qxd3+ 0-1 Girinath,P-Goloshchapov,A/Calcutta IND 2002/The Week in Chess 384 (32). ] 11...e5 12.Nc2 Be7 13.Ne3 0-0 14.d3 Qe8?! 15.Rb1 Rxb1 16.Qxb1 Bd8 17.Nd2 g6 18.Nd5 f5 19.exf5 gxf5 20.f4! Rf7 21.Qe1 Rg7 22.Nf3 Qg6 23.g3 Rf7?

A move that leads directly to Kasparov's defeat. Black has quite a few moves that keep him going here. 24.fxe5 f4 25.exd6 fxg3

25...fxg3 26.Qe8+ Rf8 27.Qxf8+ Kxf8 28.Ne5+ wins the Queen with interest. 1-0

Shirov,A (2697) - Motylev,A (2634) [C42]
RUS vs. ROW Moscow RUS (6), 10.09.2002

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Nxc3 6.dxc3 Be7 7.Bf4 0-0 8.Qd2 Nd7 9.0-0-0 Nc5 10.Be3 Be6 11.Kb1 a6 12.Nd4 Bd7 13.f3 Re8 14.h4 Na4 15.Bg5 b5 16.Bd3 Nb6 17.Qf4 c5 18.Nf5 Bxf5 19.Bxf5 d5 20.Rhe1 g6 21.Bh3 Bxg5 22.hxg5 Re7 23.Bg4 Qe8 24.Rh1 Qf8 Black has been doing OK to here. Now he loses. 25.Qf6 Nd7 26.Bxd7 Rxd7 27.Rxh7

A crowd pleasing finish that earned him the game of day 3 prize. 1-0