Final Round 3 20th July 2002

DIE HARD

Vladimir Kramnik and Vitali Klitschko

THESE days you can’t turn up to a boxing match without a chess game breaking out. Only recently World Heavyweight Champion Lennox Lewis opted for a bit of chess psychology to defeat the aura and era of Mike “Bite Y’er Ear Off” Tyson.

Lewis endeared himself with the locals in Memphis before facing Tyson when, only days before his bout, he faced a chess challenge from members of the local Oakhaven High School Chess Team. Lewis of course lost; but the High School team won thanks to the publicity and sponsorship from the boxer.

Of course, not all of Lewis’ team thinks chess is a smart move in the seedy world of boxing, which almost seems to be as seedy as the world of chess – though thankfully for the chess world we don’t have anyone with a Don King haircut. Prior to his reclaiming the heavyweight title from Hasim Rahman some 14 months ago, Emmanuel Steward, who serves as Lewis' trainer, talked about the champion's affinity for playing chess before bouts. "I honestly don't like him playing chess,'' moaned Steward, ''I mean I see him sitting there for ten minutes thinking four moves ahead before he makes one. And he actually does the same thing in the ring - he thinks too much.''

Those of us in the chess world know that having a clear strategy is a vital part of the evolution of a competitive match. How is it that this trainer cannot understand that a great part of boxing is based on clear strategic thinking? In both chess and boxing, there are tactics, combinations, long-range planning, an endurance element, and of course knockouts – and not to mention rival world championship titles.

Kasparov and Vladimir Klitschko. Photo: Mig

Recently another brainy boxer, Vladimir Klitschko, a German-based Ukrainian heavyweight (who also has an older brother named Vitali who is also a Heavyweight Boxer and chess player) issued a challenge to Lewis – both in the ring and on the board! Klitschko claims to be the better chess player of the two; and even had one of his biggest fans, Garry Kasparov, at the ringside recently when he won the WBO Heavyweight Title in Atlantic City. Our thanks to Mig who was also at the ringside (acting as Garry’s cut-man) for the photograph of the two in the dressing room after the fight – Garry’s the one that doesn’t look battered and bruised!

In the good old days fighters would try to psychologically frighten the bejesus out of each other with a pre-fight fight during the press conference – now they are moving onto chess as an acceptable method of psyching each other out. Klitschko has suggested that if he ever fights Lewis he wants to play chess with him just before the bout, while Garry Kasparov watches! "Never in history have two fighters played chess before the fight," he said. "Chess is the mental part. Then we fight. That is the physical part."

Lewis retaliated with a statement saying he wasn’t going to give Klitschko a fight – rumour has it that the main reason was he was not scared of the possibility of losing the fight, but more worried about the thought of Klitschko winning the chess match beforehand!

Kramnik makes sure he gets his one minute

After his press conference yesterday with Madame Ojjeh, Big Vlady had to take off his jacket for a game against Klitschko’s older brother Vitali. Big Vlad seemed a bit perturbed about the time handicap of 5-1 by continually picking up the clock and looking at it, but we reassured him that this would all even up in the boxing match after the game because Klitschko would be at a similar disadvantage with having one hand tied behind his back!

Vitali and Vladimir

At least Big Vlady got into the spirit of the thing when interviewed by a German Radio Sports programme before Klitschko arrived. Asked what would happen in the game, Vlady replied “He’s going down by move 20!”. Finally Klitschko arrived and boy was he big – even Big Vlady had to look up to him. Things started ok as Klitschko opened up with 1 d4 Nf6 2 c3 d5 – but then he tried the unorthodox Southpaw approach by flicking in 3 Qa4+ (at least this was better than Boris Beckers idea of 1 e4 and Qh5 to mate Garry Kasparov a couple of year’s ago!). This seemed to unsettle Big Vlady – but believe me not as much as when Klitschko suddenly decided at this point to take his jacket off! Suffice to say Kramnik managed to survive the encounter to win the PR chess match.

Vitali takes his jacket off

After dealing with Klitschko, later in the evening Kramnik also had a major feature on one of Europe’s leading TV sports channel, ZDF. This weekly one hour programme airs to around 5-8 million viewers in Germany, Switzerland and Vienna. Big Vlady managed to get a valuable 10 minute slot on this programme (after Michael Schumacher) on chess, where he highlighted how physical fitness was one of the main reasons why he managed to beat Kasparov to win the crown.

Strange as it may seem for such a sedentary pursuit, to reach the top in chess you need to physically fit also – and its no coincidence that the two guys left playing for the right to meet Kramnik are the two fittest of the original eight player field – none more so than Veselin Topalov, as can be witnessed for his remarkable stamina in the tournament by playing 14 days without a break.

Yesterday he managed to stage a comeback by beating Leko to take the match into the final day. Afterwards at the hotel, I happened to get into the same lift as Topalov, who by this stage physically looked as if he’d gone 15 rounds with one of the Klitschkos. On entering the lift, Topalov lifted up his head and said to me “Did you ever see the film Die Hard?”

Leko,P (2722) - Topalov,V (2745) [B42]

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 a6 [The Paulsen Variation - named after German player Louis Paulsen (1833-91), one of the great theoreticians of the game and one of the world's best player between the 1860 and 1870s.] 5 Bd3 Bc5 [Black is going into a Hedgehog formation, but first just wants to simply nudge the knight away from its best square of d4.] 6 Nb3 Be7 7 0–0 d6 8 c4 b6 [ 8 ..Nf6 is by far the most popular move here - but due to the match circumstances, Topalov needs to find something that will make Leko think.] 9 Nc3 Bf6N

[9 ..Bb7 10 f4 Nd7 11 Be3 Ngf6 12 Qf3 g6 13 Rad1 Qc7 14 Qh3 h5 15 f5 gxf5 16 exf5 e5 17 Be2 Rg8 18 Bf3 Bxf3 19 Qxf3 Rb8 20 Nd2 b5 21 cxb5 axb5 22 Nde4 b4 23 Nd5 Nxd5 24 Rxd5 Nf6 25 Rc1 Qb7 26 Nxf6+ Bxf6 27 Rcd1 h4 28 Bf2 Kf8 29 Qh3 Rd8 30 Bc5 Rg5 31 Be3 Rg8 32 Bc5 Rg5 33 Qd3 Rd7 34 Bf2 Rg8 35 h3 Qc6 36 Qe4 Rc7 37 Qxb4 Be7 38 Bxh4 f6 39 R1d2 Qc1+ 40 Kh2 Rc4 41 Qb8+ Kf7 42 Qb3 Qf1 43 Rf2 Qc1 44 Rd1 1–0 Shirov,A-Agrest,E/Leon 2001/CBM 86 no vc (44). ] 10 Qc2 Ne7 11 Be3 Qc7 12 Rfd1 Nd7 13 Qd2 Bb7 14 Be2 Be5 15 Bd4 Rd8 16 Rac1 Bxd4 17 Qxd4 Nf6 18 Na4 Nc8 19 e5 dxe5 20 Qxd8+ Qxd8 21 Rxd8+ Kxd8 22 c5 b5 23 c6 Ba8 24 Nac5 Kc7 25 Nxa6+ Kb6 26 Bxb5!

26 ..Nd6 [ Taking the piece was never an option if Black still has hopes of winning: 26 ..Kxb5 27 Nc7+ Kb6 ( 27 ..Kb4?? 28 Rc5 Bb7 29 cxb7 Nd6 30 Na6+ Ka4 31 Ra5#) 28 Nxa8+ Ka7 29 Nc7 Kb6 30 Nxe6 fxe6 31 Nc5 and white holds a small advantage.] 27 Be2 [ It all starts to go wrong for Leko here. The immediate 27 a4! looked best for White in the present match circumstances: 27 ..Nxb5 28 axb5 Kxb5 29 Nc7+ Kb6 30 Nxa8+ Rxa8 31 Nd2 and the best Black can hope for here is a draw.] 27 ..Bxc6 28 Nb4 Bd5 29 Nd2 Nf5 [Ultimately White should hold the advantage here with the two outside passed-pawns, but Black is managing to create some problems with the centralisation of his minor pieces.] 30 Nc4+ Bxc4 31 Rxc4 Nd4 32 Bf1 Rd8 33 Nd3 Nc6 34 a4 e4 35 Nc5 Na5 36 Rb4+ Kxc5 37 Rb5+ Kc6 38 Rxa5 Nd5! 39 Rb5 Nf4 [The White pawns look powerful - but Black's king easily deals with them as his knight moves menacingly into d3.] 40 Rb4 f5 41 Rc4+ Kb7 42 g3 Nd3 43 a5 g5 44 Be2 Rd5 45 b4 Ne5 46 a6+ Kb8 47 Rc2 g4 48 Rc5?

[ The game should peter out to a draw after 48 Kg2! Nd3 ( 48 ..Nf3 49 Rb2 Ne1+ 50 Kf1 Nd3 51 Rb3 Nc1 52 Rc3 Nxe2 53 Kxe2 Rb5 54 Rc6 leads to much the same.) 49 Rc6 Rb5 50 Rxe6 Rxb4 51 Bxd3 exd3 52 Rd6=] 48 ..Nf3+ 49 Kf1 [ 49 Kg2 Rd2 50 Kf1 Ra2 51 Rc1 Nxh2+ 52 Ke1 Nf3+ and Black's well on top.] 49 ..Nxh2+ 50 Ke1 Nf3+ 51 Bxf3 exf3 52 Rc6 Re5+ 53 Kd1 h5 54 b5 Rxb5 55 Rxe6 Rb2 56 Ke1 Rb1+ 57 Kd2 Rf1 58 Re5 f4 59 gxf4 Rxf2+ 60 Ke3 Re2+ 61 Kd3 Ra2 0–1

You can contact John Henderson at: jbhthescots@blueyonder.co.uk

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of TWIC, Chess & Bridge Ltd or the London Chess Center.