John Henderson Linares Reports

Round 5 28th February 2001

I KNOW HIM SO WELL

MARCH ALREADY! Time to rush out and buy a birthday card for Bobby Fischer, so that it reaches him in darkest wherever before his 58^th birthday on the 9^th. GM Ian Rogers informs me that down under they have already given Bobby an early birthday present – a recent pop song about him in the charts!

According to Ian, there’s a new Aussie pop group (or, as we fogies would say, a popular beat combo) called Lazy Susan, who got a lot of airplay recently with their debut single, Bobby Fischer. The catchy little ditty tells of the plight and struggle of our beloved Bobby in his quest to become world champion, and yearns for him to make a comeback – don’t we all, boys? Obviously a chess-minded outfit, apparently the Sydney-based groups debut album, Canada, also has songs with further references in the lyrics to Fischer and other world champions. If you want to find out more about Lazy Susan, the youngsters who obviously decided to name their band after a night at the Chinese restaurant, you can check-out their website at http://www.lazy-susan.net/ls/home.htm, where you can even get a sample on MP3 of the opening few lines of the Bobby Fischer song at http://www.lazy-susan.net/ls/bobbyfischer.ram. I wonder how long it’ll before Bobby asks for a cut of the royalties from the song?

Tim Rice and two blokes from Abba

Of course, this isn’t the first pop song to feature chess. Apart from the late, lamented Kirsty McColl classic, There’s A Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He’s Ehlvest, who could forget some of the classics from Chess: The Musical, by Tim Rice and those two blokes from Abba (I can only ever remember the girls: Agnetha Fältskog and Frida Lyngstad)? Songs like One Night In Bangkok by Murray Head and the perennial favourite from those two divas Barbara Dickson and Elaine Paige, I Know Him So Well.

The reason for mentioning this is that Mike Fox and Richard James in their superbly entertaining book, The Even More Complete Chess Addict, firmly believe that I Know Him So Well could easily be the theme song for Garry Kasparov and the man he calls his ‘perpetual opponent’, Anatoly Karpov, as they battled it out in those many, many, many games from their matches between 1984 and 1990.

The first match was the all-time classic. Deciding to after all use the Fischer first to six wins determines the champ, the match lasted exactly five months and 48 games before it was controversially abandoned by the then Fide president Florencio Campomanes, with the score at 5-3 to a withering Karpov, who had been leading by 5-0.

Like most world championship matches between two Soviets, it started off at the impressive Hall of Columns in Moscow. As the Commie good-guy, when Karpov got to within reach of retaining his title at 5-0, a delegation from the Soviet politburo arrived en masse to crown their golden boy. This is when Garry decided to dig in with a rearguard action that made the Battle of Stalingrad look like a Sunday afternoon picnic. He delayed the inevitable first by days, and then weeks and ultimately months as, one-by-one, he saw all the Soviet officials (and not to mention Western journalists) depart the scene. Next to leave was the players themselves. They had to vacate the Column of Halls for the less than impressive Hotel Sport on the outskirts of Moscow because they couldn’t delay the funeral of General Ustinov any longer – apparently he’d been lying in state at the local mortuary for over a month before he got the traditional Soviet send-off. The legend of the rivalry between the two K’s came from this first, abandoned match - any further meeting between the two was big, big news thereafter.

Despite the fact that they rarely meet these days (last classical game Las Palmas, 1996; last meeting Frankfurt Giants, 1999), it seemed like old times as they squared up for the fifth round at Linares. A very noisy crowd had turned up in there hundreds for the encounter between the two K’s. From nowhere a bus turned up outside the Hotel Anibal just before the start of play, and out ran loads of kids from local chess schools in the Jaen Province, who’d been treated to a day at the chess to witness (perhaps for the last time) the two titans in action. Coupled with the influx of extra hacks and photographers looking to record the event for posterity, this led to pandemonium in the playing hall. Whilst we pros faithfully lined-up beside the K-K board to take the pics, we were ambushed by the kids who decided to jump in front of us with their Kodak ‘Happy Snaps’ cameras to get the best pictures. It was a job for the organisers to get them off the stage and behind the exclusion zone before the players came out, but somehow they managed it.

The next problem came when they did come out. Karpov first, who sat down at the board amidst a blinding light from the camera flashes. A minute or two later came Kasparov. When they sat and shook hands there was enough light from the cameras to illuminate darkest Calcutta. And after making his first move, Kasparov simply got up and moved to the private area for the players. Now we only have three minutes at the start of play to take photographs, and after five minutes had passed and Kasparov hadn’t came back, the organisers started to usher us off of the stage and out of the building.

Leontxo Garcia and Juan Vargas

But was the game good, I hear you ask? As the song goes: “Oh, so good…”, but not if your name was Karpov!

Now fast approaching the big Hawaii Five-0 and in the twilight years of his illustrious chess career, Karpov was simply outplayed and overwhelmed by the man who took his world crown in 1985. It could be the passing of an era in Linares as, with Karpov not a force he once used to be and running out of invites as his Elo plummets, their round 9 meeting could be the last time that the two titans meet over the board at classical chess.

Kasparov,G - Karpov,A [B12]

1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5 3 e5 [The last time these two titans had a Caro-Kann in Linares, Kasparov served us up with a classic: 3 Nd2 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Nd7 5 Ng5 Ngf6 6 Bc4 e6 7 Qe2 Nb6 8 Bb3 h6 9 N5f3 c5 10 Bf4 Bd6 11 Bg3 Qe7 12 dxc5 Bxc5 13 Ne5 Bd7 14 Ngf3 Nh5 15 0–0–0 Nxg3 16 hxg3 0–0–0 17 Rh5 Be8 18 Rxd8+ Kxd8 19 Qd2+ Bd6 20 Nd3 Qc7 21 g4 Kc8 22 g5 Bf8 23 Rh4 Kb8 24 a4 Be7 25 a5 Nd5 26 Kb1 Bd8 27 a6 Qa5 28 Qe2 Nb6 29 axb7 Bxg5 30 Nxg5 Qxg5 31 Rh5 Qf6 32 Ra5 Bc6 33 Nc5 Bxb7 34 Nxb7 Kxb7 35 Qa6+ Kc6 36 Ba4+ Kd6 37 Qd3+ Nd5 38 Qg3+ Qe5 39 Qa3+ Kc7 40 Qc5+ Kd8 41 Rxa7 1–0 Kasparov,G-Karpov,A/Linares 1992/CBM 28. 3 e5 must have come as a surprise to Karpov. Kasparov has never played the Advanced Variation, one of the most aggressive systems against the Caro, instead preferring the main line systems with 3 Nc3. These days Karpov is so predictable; Kasparov has obviously prepared a minefield for him - the only question is: When is he going to step on it? 3 ..Bf5 4 Nc3 e6 5 g4 Bg6 6 Nge2 Ne7 [There was a funny incident at this stage in the press room. One of the hacks had tuned in for the ICC coverage of the game and after he had "fingered" the K-K match, he almost fell off his seat when he saw that Karpov's king was wandering around the board! Turns out that, instead of the live coverage, Tony Miles was looking at some analysis on the Advanced, which featured a famous encounter between Braga and Timman!: 6 ..c5 7 Be3 Nc6 8 dxc5 Nxe5 9 Nd4 Nf6 10 f4 Nexg4 11 Bb5+ Ke7 12 Bg1 Qc7 13 c6 b6 14 Qe2 Qxf4 15 c7 Ne4 16 Nc6+ Kd6 17 h3 Qg3+ 18 Kf1 Qf4+ 19 Ke1 Qg3+ 20 Kf1 Qxc3 21 Qxg4 Qxb2 22 a4 Qxa1+ 23 Kg2 f5 24 Qh4 Qf6 25 Bh2+ Kc5 26 Nb8 Qxh4 27 c8Q+ Kb4 28 Rb1+ Ka3 29 Ra1+ Kb4 30 Rb1+ Ka3 31 Ra1+ Kb4 ½–½ Braga,F-Timman,J/Mar del Plata 1982/MCL (31). ] 7 Nf4 c5 8 dxc5 [8 h4 cxd4 9 Nb5 Nec6 10 h5 Be4 11 f3 Bxf3 12 Qxf3 Nxe5 13 Qg3 Nbc6 14 Nd3 Nxd3+ 15 Bxd3 e5 16 0–0 Bc5 17 Rf5 0–0 18 h6 g6 19 Rxe5 a6 20 Na3 Qc7 21 Bf4 Nxe5 22 Bxe5 Qb6 23 Rf1 Rae8 24 g5 Re6 25 Qf4 f5 26 gxf6 Kf7 27 b4 Bd6 28 Nc4 dxc4 29 Bxc4 d3+ 30 Kh2 Rfe8 31 Bxd6 dxc2 32 Bc5 Qc6 33 Bd5 Qd7 1–0 Kotronias,V-Karpov,A/Athens 1997/EXT 98 (33). ] 8 ..Nd7

[There was an interesting aside here. After the game, Alexei Shirov one (if not THE) world expert on this line, asked the hacks in the press room after the game if Karpov hadn't seen Kasparov's own analysis to his game with Bareev at KasparovChess.com, where Garry had mentioned the possibility of an impending disaster in this line for Black after 9 h4? Good question, Alexei! But I replied that after Karpov's disastrous computer handling during his Advanced Match in Leon with Anand in 1999, I wasn't so sure that Karpov might know what the Internet was! For the record, here's Shirov-Bareev game from New Delhi. 8 ..Nec6 9 h4 Qc7 10 Bg2 Qxe5+ 11 Kf1 d4 12 h5 Bxc2 13 Qxc2 dxc3 14 Nd3 Qd4 15 Be3 Qc4 16 Qxc3 Qxc3 17 bxc3 Na6 18 Rb1 0–0–0 19 Bxc6 bxc6 20 Ne5 Rg8 21 Nxf7 Rd7 22 Ne5 Rb7 23 Rxb7 Kxb7 24 Nd3 e5 25 Ke2 Be7 26 Kf3 Kc7 27 Ke4 Re8 28 Rh3 Kd7 29 Nxe5+ Kc7 30 Rf3 Bf6 31 Rf5 h6 32 f4 1–0 Shirov,A-Bareev,E/New Delhi IND 2000/The Week in Chess 318 (32). ]

9 h4 Nxe5 10 Bg2 h5 11 Qe2 N7c6 12 Nxg6 Nxg6 13 Bg5N

[And here's the minefield. Kasparov and the team had found a big improvement from Karpov's game last year against Shirov: 13 Nxd5 Bxc5 14 Bg5 Nge7 15 Qb5 f6 16 Qxc5 Nxd5 17 0–0–0 Qe7 18 Qb5 0–0–0 19 Bd2 hxg4 20 Qc4 Nb6 21 Qxg4 Rd4 22 Qg3 Rhd8 23 Bc3 Rxd1+ 24 Rxd1 Rxd1+ 25 Kxd1 Na4 26 Bxc6 ½–½ Shirov,A-Karpov,A/Monaco 2000/CBM 75 (26). ] 13 ..Be7 14 gxh5 Nf8? [It was only by now that Karpov was seeing the power of Kasparov's TN. He's in a difficult position, and his only real alternative (bad as it was) was to try: 14 ..Nge5 15 f4! (15 h6? Bxg5 16 hxg7 Rg8 17 hxg5 Qxg5µ; 15 Nb5 Nc4!³; 15 Bxe7 Qxe7=) 15 ..Nd7 16 0–0–0 Nxc5 17 Bxd5! Qb8 18 f5 Bxg5+ 19 hxg5 Qf4+ 20 Rd2 Qxf5 21 Qe3! 0–0–0 22 Bxc6 Rxd2 23 Bxb7+ Kxb7 24 Kxd2±] 15 Nb5! Nd7 16 h6! Strong - very strong. 16 ..Nxc5 [16 ..g6 17 Nd6+ Kf8 18 Bxe7+ Qxe7 19 h5! Nxc5 20 hxg6 fxg6 (20 ..Qxd6? 21 g7+ Ke7 22 gxh8Q Rxh8 23 0–0–0+-) 21 Qf3+ Kg8 22 Qg3! Kh7 23 0–0–0±] 17 Bf4!

[The position wasn't without its dangers for Kasparov either. We found the following amusing line in the press room before Kasparov found the correct reply: 17 hxg7 Rg8 18 Bf4 (18 Bh6 a6 19 Nc3 Nd4 20 Qd2 Nf5=) 18 ..Rc8 19 0–0–0 Nb4 20 a3 (20 Nxa7 Nb3+ 21 axb3 Rxc2+ 22 Qxc2 Nxc2 23 Kxc2 Qa5 24 Be3 Rxg7÷) 20 ..Nb3+ 21 Kb1 Rxc2 22 Qh5 Bf6 23 Be5 Rc1+ 24 Rxc1 Nd2+ 25 Ka1 Nb3+ 26 Kb1 Nd2+ 27 Ka1 Nb3+=] 17 ..Kf8? [Black's only hope was to try and survive with: 17 ..Na6 18 hxg7 Rg8 19 0–0–0! Rxg7 20 Rhg1! Rc8 21 Qh5±] 18 hxg7+ Kxg7 19 0–0–0 Kf8 [Kasparov is now crashing through in all lines: 19 ..a6 20 Nc3 Bxh4 21 Qg4+ Kf8 22 Nxd5! exd5 23 Rxd5+-] 20 Kb1 Not only looking to further open up the game with c4, but also avoiding any chances of the fantasy lines given to the note to move 17. 20 ..a6 [20 ..Rc8 21 c4! d4 22 Bxc6 d3 (22 ..bxc6 23 Nxa7+-) 23 Qe5 f6 24 Qe3 Rxc6 25 Qg3 e5 (25 ..Rg8 26 Qf3+-) 26 Rhg1! Kf7 27 Qg6+ Ke6 28 Bxe5! Rxh4 29 Bxf6 Bxf6 30 Rge1++-] 21 Nc7 Rc8

22 Bxd5! exd5 23 Rxd5 Qxc7 [There was no other option. Trying to save the queen lost the king! 23 ..Nd7 24 Ne6+!! fxe6 25 Qxe6 Ncb8 26 Bd6 Rh7 (26 ..Bxd6 27 Rf5+ Nf6 28 Rxf6++-) 27 Rg1+-] 24 Bxc7 Rxc7 25 Rf5 Rd7 26 c3 f6 27 Rg1 Nd8 28 Qg4 Ke8 29 Rh5 Rf8 30 Rxc5 Bxc5 31 Qh5+ 1–0

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

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