Malcolm Pein writes for the Daily Telegraph (telegraph.co.uk)
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prizes in the Telegraph chess challenge on the Chess Club pages. 8th Round Sunday, 2nd March 2003.
Robust defence from the world champion Vladimir Kramnik kept Garry Kasparov at bay in the eighth round at Linares. Playing black, Kramnik succesfully defended the Ruy Lopez and the world number one felt constrained to cease his attack and force a draw by perpetual check on the thirty third move. Kramnik and his challenger for the world title Peter Leko remain half a point ahead of Kasparov and the world number three Vishy Anand with six rounds remaining.
Anand missed several winning chances over back marker Ruslan Ponomariov and may have been a little off balance after his loss to Kasparov the round before although the position was very difficult. Leko scored a convincing victory over the fifteen year old prodigy Teimour Radjabov who has come down to earth since his sensational victory over Kasparov in round two.
Radjabov's opening repertoire looks too limited at this level and he persisted with the French Defence for the fourth time. A quick check of the youngster's games shows that he plays the French Defence over 80% of the time against the King's Pawn and this is too predictable. Radjabov repeated the risky McCutcheon Variation that secured him a draw against Vallejo-Pons in round four but found Leko very well prepared. This line was first played by John Lindsay McCutcheon of Pittsburgh in a simultaneous display against former world champion Wilhelm Steinitz in 1885 and is still popular today but now it needs repairing.
Round eight results: Kasparov draw Kramnik, Ruy Lopez Anti Marshall, 33 moves;
Anand draw Ponomariov, Sicilian Rossolimo, 44;
Leko 1-0 Radjabov, French MacCutcheon, 32;
Vallejo-Pons bye
Scores after 8 rounds: 1-2 Kramnik (Russia), Leko (Hungary) 4.5/7; 3-4 Anand (India), Kasparov (Russia) 4/7; 5-6 Radjabov (Azerbaijan) Ponomariov (Ukraine) 2.5/7; 7 Vallejo Pons (Spain), 2/6;
Leko,P (2736) - Radjabov,T (2624) [C12]
XX SuperGM Linares ESP (8), 02.03.2003
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 5.e5 h6 6.Bd2 Bxc3 7.bxc3 Ne4 8.Qg4 g6 9.Bd3 Nxd2 10.Kxd2 c5 11.h4 Bd7 12.h5 g5 13.f4 Nc6 14.fxg5 Qa5 [ 14...Qxg5+ 15.Qxg5 hxg5 16.Ke3 g4 17.Rf1 Rc8 ( 17...Ke7 18.Rh4 Rag8 19.Rb1 b6 20.Be2 cxd4+ 21.cxd4 f5 22.exf6+ Kxf6 23.Rf1+ Ke7 24.Rxg4 Rxg4 25.Bxg4 Nxd4 26.Kxd4 1/2-1/2 Leko,P-Short,N/Batumi GEO 1999 (26)) 18.Rf4 cxd4+ 19.cxd4 Nb4 20.Ne2 Nxd3 21.cxd3 Rc2 22.Rxg4 Rxa2 23.h6 b5 24.Rf1 Rxh6 25.Rg7 Rg6 26.Rgxf7 Kd8 27.g3 Rc2 28.Rh1 Rg8 29.Rhh7 Rc7 30.Nf4 Re8 31.Nh5 Kc8 32.Ng7 1-0 Sutovsky,E-Stellwagen,D/Amsterdam NED 2001/The Week in Chess 353 (32). ] 15.dxc5 d4 16.Nf3 0-0-0 17.Rab1 dxc3+ 18.Ke2 Rhg8 19.Qe4 Qc7 20.g4 Ne7 21.Bb5 hxg5 22.Rb3 Nd5 23.Rhb1 Bc6 24.Bxc6 Qxc6 25.Nd4 Qa6+ 26.Ke1 Rd7?
Losing. This walks straight into 27.c6. 27.c6 Rc7 28.Rxb7 Rxb7 29.Rxb7 Nb6 30.Qh7 [ 30.Nf5 exf5 31.Qxf5+ Kd8 32.c7+ wins more quickly.] 30...Rf8 31.Qg7 [ 31.Nf5 again is very strong.] 31...Qa3 32.Qxf8+
[ 32.Qxf8+ Qxf8 33.Nb5 Qc5 34.Nd6+ Kd8 35.c7+ wins the queen with a crushing position.] 1-0
Kasparov,G (2847) - Kramnik,V (2807) [C88]
XX SuperGM Linares ESP (8), 02.03.2003
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.h3 Bb7 9.d3 d6 10.a3 Nb8 11.Nbd2 Nbd7 12.Nf1 Re8 13.Ba2 [ 13.Ng3 has been played many times before.] 13...c6 14.Ng3 Bf8 15.Nf5 d5 16.d4 c5 17.dxc5 Nxc5 18.exd5 e4 19.N3d4 Bxd5 20.Bxd5 Qxd5 21.Bg5 Nfd7 22.Qg4 Ne5 23.Qg3 Ne6 24.Rad1 Nxg5 25.Qxg5 Qb7 26.Ng3 Nc4 27.Ndf5 Re6 28.b3 Nxa3 29.Rxe4 Rxe4 30.Nxe4 Qxe4 31.Nh6+ Kh8 32.Nxf7+ Kg8 33.Nh6+ Kh8
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