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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. 3rd Round Monday, 24 Feb 2003. There was more frustration for Garry Kasparov in the third round at Linares as he pressed world number six Peter Leko of Hungary for 87 moves and missed a win in the sixth hour before being forced to accept a draw. Having outplayed his opponent for most of the game, Kasparov could not avoid a repetition of moves with Leko having just seconds remaining in the sudden death time control. Leko is due to challenge Vladimir Kramnik for the world title later this year and missed a trivial win against Kasparov in their last meeting at the Chess Olympiad at Bled last November. He took on Kasparov's Sicilian Najdorf and in common with most players who attempt this at Linares, he soon found himself in dificulties. Kasparov gave up a pawn to sideline Leko's knight on the queenside and correctly ignored Leko's attempts to sacrifice the hapless steed but the position was still balanced until Leko missed a tactical point just before the time control at move forty. Kasparov may have missed the best continuation but he did force a queen endgame with two extra pawns and what looked like every prospect of victory. However, sometimes in queen and pawn endgames it is not the number of pawns you have that matters but rather the number of passed pawns and how advanced they are. Leko had one passed pawn to Kasparov's three but it was one square further down the board. Kasparov was very unlucky, despite having more cover for his king afforded by his extra pawns he found Leko still had threats of perpetual check. In the race to promote a pawn Leko got there first and when Kasparov made his second queen he lost a pawn with check. There was a flurry of moves as Leko nearly lost on time but the position with queen and pawn against queen was a draw, Kasparov's last pawn could not advance. Linares round three Leko draw Kasparov, Sicilian Najdorf, 87 moves; Radjabov draw Ponomariov, QGD, 11; Kramnik draw Vallejo Pons, Slav Defence, 30; Anand bye Scores: Kramnik (Russia) 2/3; Anand (India), Leko (Hungary) 1.5/2; Radjabov (Azerbaijan) 1.5/3; Vallejo Pons (Spain) 1/2; Kasparov (Russia) 1/3 Ponomariov 0.5/3; Leko,P (2736) - Kasparov,G (2847) [B80] XX SuperGM Linares ESP (3), 24.02.2003 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f3 e6 7.Be3 Nc6 8.Qd2 Be7 9.0-0-0 0-0 10.g4 Nxd4 11.Bxd4 b5 12.g5 Nd7 13.h4 Qc7 14.Kb1 b4 15.Na4 Bb7 16.b3 Bc6 17.Nb2 a5 18.h5 Ne5 19.Be2 a4 20.Nc4 Bb5 21.Nb6 Rab8 22.h6 Bxe2 23.Qxe2 g6 [ 23...Rxb6 24.hxg7 with the threat of f4 and Qh5/h2 wins for white.] 24.f4 Nc6 25.Nxa4 Nxd4 26.Rxd4 e5 27.Rc4 Qa5 28.f5 Bxg5 29.Rc6 Rfd8 30.Qg4 Be7 31.Rd1 Qa7 32.c3 Bf8 33.fxg6 hxg6 34.h7+ Kh8 35.cxb4 Rxb4 36.Qf3 Rdb8 37.Nc3 Qb7 38.Rcxd6 [ 38.Nd5 Qxc6 39.Nxb4 is fine for white.] 38...Rxb3+ 39.Ka1 Rxc3 [ 39...Rb2 40.R6d2 Rxd2 41.Rxd2 Kxh7 is very good for Black. ] 40.Qf6+ Kxh7 [ 40...Bg7 41.Rd8+ Rxd8 42.Qxd8+ Kxh7 43.Rh1+ Bh6 44.Qg5 gives sufficient play to draw. ] 41.Rb6!  a wonderful saving resource. 41...Qc7 [ 41...Qxb6 42.Rh1+ Bh6 43.Qxf7+ Kh8 44.Rxh6#] 42.Rh1+ Bh6 43.Rxb8 Rc1+ 44.Rxc1 Qxc1+ 45.Rb1 Qc3+ 46.Rb2 Qe1+ 47.Rb1 Qc3+ 48.Rb2 Kg8 49.a4 Bc1 50.Qb6 Kg7 51.Ka2 Bxb2 52.Qxb2 Qc4+ 53.Ka3 Qxe4 54.a5 g5 55.Qd2 Qf4 56.Qd8 Qc1+ 57.Kb4 Qb2+ 58.Kc5 Qc3+ 59.Kb5 Qb3+ 60.Kc5 Qc3+ 61.Kb5 Qb3+ 62.Kc5 Qe3+ 63.Kb4 Qe4+ 64.Kc5 Qc2+ 65.Kb5 Qe2+ 66.Kb6 Qe3+ 67.Kc6 g4 68.a6 g3 69.a7 g2 70.a8Q Qe4+ 71.Qd5 Qc2+ [ 71...Qxd5+ forces a won Q+P endgame.] 72.Kd6 Qg6+ 73.Kc7 g1Q 74.Qxe5+ Qf6 75.Qh8+ Kxh8 76.Qxf6+ Qg7 77.Qh4+ Kg8 78.Kd6 Qg6+ 79.Ke5 Kg7 80.Qe7 Qg3+ 81.Kf5 Qg6+ 82.Ke5 Qh6 83.Kf5 Qg6+ 84.Ke5 Kh7 85.Qh4+ Kg8 86.Qd8+ Kg7 87.Qe7  1/2-1/2 |
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| All material © Mark Crowther |
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