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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).2nd Round Sunday, 23 Feb 2003. Teimour Radjabov, a fifteen year old boy from Baku, already singled out as a potential world champion by Garry Kasparov scored the most sensational result in the history of top level chess since the appearance of Bobby Fischer when he decisively defeated his mentor in the second round of the Linares tournament. Kasparov does not hand out compliments lightly, the first player he suggested would unseat him as world champion, Vladimir Kramnik, did exactly that just over two years ago. However Kasparov is still the world's highest rated player and for him to lose with the white pieces in such drastic fashion to a child, albeit one ranked in the world's top seventy players, is incredible. The youngster actually came close to defeating Kasparov in rapid chess last year but also suffered a horrible defeat at a fast time control. In their first match in Classical Chess, Radjabov played very bravely and seized the initiative in the middlegame with a speculative piece sacrifice that clearly unnerved the world number one. Kasparov declined the sacrifice but then blundered horribly in an unclear position and lost a knight. There are eerie similarities between the two. Apart from sharing the same birthplace they even attended the same chess school in the Azerbaijani capital, indeed Radjabov's father was also a pupil there. In the other games Classical Chess World Champion Vladimir Kramnik outplayed Fide champion Ruslan Ponomariov rather easily with black and the Spanish representative Francisco Vallejo Pons made an impressive start but should have played on for the win against Vishy Anand instead of agreeing a draw. Linares round two The tournament is Fide category 20 with an average rating of 2733 Kasparov 0-1 Radjabov, French Defence, 39 Ponomariov - Kramnik, Sicilian Rossolimo, 40 Vallejo Pons draw Anand, Queen's Indian, 30 Leko - Bye Scores: Anand (India), Kramnik (Russia) 1.5/2; Leko (Hungary) 1/1; Radjabov (Azerbaijan) 1/2; Vallejo Pons (Spain) 0.5/1; Kasparov (Russia) 0.5/2 Ponomariov 0/2; Kasparov could have accepted the sacrifice, see analysis but the game is settled by a blunder as Kasparov misses the deadly swing of the queen from b6-g6 and cannot simply recapture after 28. ..Bxg3. In the final position it is not obvious, but White will be forced to exchange one of his bishops and the black rook will reach the seventh rank. Ultimately the b2 pawn will fall. Kasparov,G (2847) - Radjabov,T (2624) [C11] XX SuperGM Linares ESP (2), 23.02.2003 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 a6 8.Qd2 b5 9.a3 Qb6 10.Ne2 [ 10.Qf2 Qa5 11.Rb1 b4 was eventually 1/2-1/2 Polzin,R-Schmittdiel,E - Frohnleiten AUT 2002.] 10...c4 11.g4 h5 12.gxh5 Rxh5 13.Ng3 Rh8 14.f5 exf5 15.Nxf5 Nf6 16.Ng3 [ 16.exf6 Bxf5] 16...Ng4 17.Bf4 Be6 18.c3 [ 18.Bg2 intending 0-0 was safer.] 18...Be7 19.Ng5 0-0-0 20.Nxe6 fxe6 21.Be2 Ngxe5 22.Qe3 [ 22.dxe5  22...d4 was dangerous because Black has the threat of pawn to d3 or pawn to g5, Bxg5 dxc3 with confusion. 23.cxd4 Rxd4 24.Qc1 ( 24.Qe3 Rf8 25.Bg5 Bxg5 26.Qxg5 Qa5+ wins. With the white king is in a rook sandwich.) 24...Na5! 25.Be3 Nb3 26.Bxd4 Qxd4 27.Qd1 when: 27...Nxa1 ( 27...Qe3! is strongest here. ) 28.Qxd4 Nc2+ is very pretty. 22.Bxe5 Nxe5 23.dxe5 Qc7 24.0-0-0 Bxg5 25.Kb1 looks critical but Black has two pawns and a lot of dark square control for the knight. Not 24.Qe3 Bc5 25.Qg5 Be7 which draws. ] 22...Nd7 23.Qxe6 Bh4 24.Qg4 g5 25.Bd2 Rde8 26.0-0-0 Na5 27.Rdf1?  [ 27.Kb1 if 27...Qg6+ 28.Ka2 Bxg3 29.hxg3 Rxh1 30.Rxh1 Qc2 then 31.Qxg5! when white is attacking with 31...Rxe2 32.Rh8+] 27...Nb3+ 28.Kd1 Bxg3 29.Rf7 [ 29.hxg3 Qg6 wins. This may be what Kasparov missed.] 29...Rd8 30.Bxg5 Qg6 31.Qf5 Qxf5 32.Rxf5 Rdf8 33.Rxf8+ Nxf8 34.Bf3 Bh4 35.Be3 Nd7 36.Bxd5 Re8 37.Bh6 Ndc5 38.Bf7 Re7 39.Bh5 Nd3  [ 39...Nd3 40.Kc2 Rh7 41.Bg4+ Kd8 42.Be3 Ne1+ 43.Kd1 Ng2 forces the exchange of a bishop.] 0-1 |
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| All material © Mark Crowther |
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