TRICK OR TREAT?
By John Henderson

GARRY KASPAROV without his world crown - Spooky, huh? Who’d have thought it: the “Beast of Baku” finally meeting the chess equivalent of Professor Van Helsing, Vladimir Kramnik (I knew there was a reason for his nickname of “Vlad the Impaler”!).

Kasparov without a crown?

With just two games to go and 8-6 down in this match, I still don’t believe that the monster is dead yet – not even if they shot him with a silver bullet, stuffed a garlic-flavoured crucifix down his throat, put a stake through his heart, cut off his head and burn the body. However, as the witching hour draws closer, the chess Grim Reaper is hovering over Garry’s shoulder with intent – despite him giving Kramnik a Halloween frightener.

The pretender had a fright on Halloween

Now Halloween is traditionally that day of the year when everyone dresses-up, there are strange happenings and things go bump in the night. It was no different down at the Riverside Studios. Still banned from the press centre, I seriously considered stuffing a cushion down the front of a tuxedo in a vain effort to gain entry by trying to pass myself off at the door as a stuffed Penguin.

Nathan Divinsky

Still, I decided against it - Braingames had more than enough to worry about than me on Halloween with their very own “strange happenings”. Well, first of all the stormy weather seriously affected the VIP hospitality tent, which by all accounts was nearly blown away in the gales. Luckily though for Braingames, it was saved by the fact that they had the redoubtable services of Nathan Divinsky in the tent acting as the anchor (Hmm, is that the correct spelling, I wonder?). Keeping in the “spirit” of things for the occasion, Braingames even decided to dress-up and pretend to be a live website for the day.

The match started 30 minutes later than scheduled as they tried to their best to show all the journalists in the press centre just how bad the website really is. Rather than the highly-efficient and very reliable move feed via the Lost Boys electronic boards that we’ve come to love and know, it was decided instead to “treat” the journalists by replacing this with a projected image of the BGN website on the wall and in the bar - enough to frighten anyone on Halloween.

According to my sources, the poor journalists were thus deprived of the only little pleasure they had in the pressroom – an accurate and up-to-date Lost Boys feed of the game. What joy it was for the hacks then as instead they merrily took pictures all afternoon, not of the stunning website relaying the moves at www.braingames.net as if by magic into your home, but that of the Windows Explorer error message, courtesy of an outfit that seem to have the same “computing experts” as in the strip cartoon Dilbert. And, when it did eventually work, did anyone notice that, instead of showing game 14, it kept on going to – horror of horrors - game 13? Spooky, huh?

Of course, this didn’t stop the journalists from doing their duty by sending out the moves to the free world. Undeterred, and with no moves coming up on the supposedly official website that seems to go down more times than Linda Lovelace, a very fit mole, under the very noses of Braingames, was up to his old tricks by relaying the moves to me, the world, and the pressroom, by running up and down the four flights of stairs to the gulag every 5 minutes.

Kramnik,V - Kasparov,G [A30]

1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 b6 3 g3 c5 4 Bg2 Bb7 5 0–0 g6 6 Nc3 Bg7 7 d4 cxd4 8 Qxd4 d6 9 Rd1 Nbd7 A position has been reached similar to the well known Hedgehog, except Black has fianchettoed his king's bishop rather than played e7-e6 and Be7. White has a space advantage, but Black's pieces are well-entrenched and ready to spring into action if White loses control of the position. 10 Be3 10 b3 0–0 11 Bb2 Rc8 12 Rac1 a6 13 Qd2 Rc7 14 Ne1 Bxg2 15 Nxg2 Qa8 16 Ne3 Re8 17 Ncd5 Rc6 18 a4 Qb7 19 Bd4 Rcc8 20 Nxf6+ Bxf6 21 Nd5 Bxd4 22 Qxd4 Qc6 23 Qh4 f6 24 Rc3 with a big advantage to White, Kramnik-Polgar, Dos Hermanas 1999. 10 ..Rc8 10 ..0–0 11 Qh4 Rc8 ‹12 Bh3? Bxf3 13 exf3 Ne5 14 Kg2 Rxc4 15 Rd4 Rxc3 16 bxc3 Qa8 17 Kf1 Nxf3 18 Bg2 Nxh4 19 Bxa8 Nf5 20 Bb7 Nxd4 21 cxd4 Rb8 22 Ba6 Nd5 23 Rc1 h5 24 Ke2 e6 25 a3 b5 26 Rc8+ Rxc8 27 Bxc8 Nxe3 28 fxe3 d5 29 Ba6 Bf8–+ Topalov,V-Kasparov,G/Wijk aan Zee 5'/1999/; 10 ..a6 11 Rac1 Rc8 12 b3 0–0 13 Qh4 Rc7 14 Ne1 Bxg2 15 Nxg2 Re8 16 Nf4 Qb8 17 Nfd5 Rcc8 18 Bg5 Qb7 19 a4 Kh8 20 g4 Nxd5 21 Nxd5 e6 22 Nf6 Nxf6 23 Bxf6 d5 24 Rc3 Bxf6 25 Qxf6+ Kg8 26 Rcd3 Qe7 27 Qxe7 Rxe7 28 cxd5 exd5 29 Rxd5 Rxe2 30 Rd8+ Rxd8 31 Rxd8+ Kg7 32 Rd6 Re4 33 Rxb6 Rxg4+ 34 Kf1 Rh4 35 a5 Rh3 36 b4 Rb3 37 Ke2 g5 38 Kf1 h5 39 Rxa6 Rxb4 40 Rb6 Ra4 41 a6 ½–½ Illescas Cordoba,M-Gelfand,B/Pamplona 1999/CBM 75 11 Rac1 0–0 12 Qh4 a6 13 Ne1

A system that seems to be a specialty of two players: Kramnik (see his game above with Polgar), and his second, Miguel Illescas, who used this idea to draw last year with Boris Gelfand! The idea behind it is simple: Unlike the Hedgehog where Black has e6 covering d5, White intends establishing an outpost on d5 for the knight via g2, f4 or e3. 13 ..Bxg2 14 Nxg2 Re8 Kasparov wants to play 15...Qc7 without being bothered by 16 Nd5, as 16...Qb7 would leave the e7 pawn hanging. 15 b3 Qc7! Compare this position to Illescas's game against Gelfand - Note how Kasparov doesn't give Kramnik the opportunity of playing a4 to stop b5. 16 Bg5 Qb7

A typical Hedgehog manoeuvre - Black's aiming for b5 to breakdown White's position. 17 Ne3 b5! 18 Ned5 bxc4 19 bxc4 h5 20 Qf4 Qc6 21 Bxf6 Nxf6 22 Nxf6+ Bxf6 23 Nd5 Bb2 24 Rb1 Bg7 25 Qg5 Kf8 26 Rdc1 e6! 27 Nf6 Realistically the only move. A retreat by the Knight would leave Black with the better minor piece in the Bishop. 27 ..Red8 28 h4 Qa8! The big threat is 29 ..Rc5! 29 c5!!

The two “!!” is for courage - and the moment that perhaps gave Kramnik the world title! This is the sort of trick move (which rocked Kasparov at the board) that a computer would never have considered in a million years. Realising that the c-pawn was a goner, Kramnik, rather than allow Kasparov to patiently build up his position with ..Rc5, ..Qc6 and ..Rc8, decides to sacrifice the pawn now as he sees a clear route to a saveable rook and pawn ending. 29 ..Rxc5 30 Rxc5 Bxf6 Despite it being Halloween, I suppose 30 ..dxc5?? 31 Qxc5+ Rd6 32 Qxd6# was too much to ask for? 31 Qxf6 dxc5 32 Kh2 Kg8 33 Rb6! With the subtle threat of 34 Rxe6! fxe6 35 Qxg6+, and a draw by repetition. 33 ..Re8 34 Qf3! Qxf3 35 exf3 The active White Rook saves the day for Kramnik. 35 ..Rc8 36 Rxa6 c4 37 Rd6 c3 38 Rd1 Ra8 38 ..c2? 39 Rc1 and the White King shuffles along to d2 and wins the pawn. 39 Rc1 Rxa2 40 Rxc3 Rxf2+ 41 Kg1 It was this sort of position that Kramnik was aiming for when he rocked Kasparov to his foundations with 29 c5! 4 vs. 3 on the same side in a rook ending is basically a draw according to Reuben Fine's endgame bible, Basic Chess Endings – unbelievably, despite being written in the space of just 6 weeks in 1943, to this day it is still the acknowledged reference source on endgames! 41 ..Ra2 42 Rc7 Kf8 43 Rb7 Ke8 44 Rb8+ Ke7 45 Rb7+ Kf6 46 Kf1?

46 f4!, according to Kramnik’s second Joel Lautier in the pressroom, is a "book" draw. 46 ..e5 47 Rb6+ Kf5 48 Rb7 Ke6 49 Rb6+ Kf5 50 Rb7 f6 51 Rg7! g5 52 hxg5 fxg5 53 Rg8! g4 54 Rf8+ Ke6 55 Re8+ Kf5?

According to Team Kasparov’s own analysis at http://www.kasparovchess.com Garry could have looked for a win here with 55...Kf6! 56 Rf8+ Ke7 57 Rf5 Ke6 58 fxg4 hxg4 59 Rg5 Ra4 60 Kf2 Kf6 61 Rg8 Kf5 62 Rg7 Ra2+ 63 Kg1 Rd2 64 Rg8 Ke4 65 Rxg4+ Kf3 66 Rg8 e4 67 Rf8+ Ke2 68 Kg2 e3 69 g4 Rd4 70 Kg3 Kd2 71 Re8 e2 72 Kh4 e1Q+ 73 Rxe1 Kxe1 74 Kh5 Kf2 75 g5 Kf3 76 g6 Rg4 77 Kh6 Kf4 78 g7 Kf5 79 Kh7 Rh4+ (79 Kf6?? 80 g8N+! Kf7 81 Nh6+=) 80 Kg8 Kg6 81 Kf8 Rf4+ 82 Kg8 Rf1! (82 ..Rf7?? 83 Kh8 Rxg7 Stalemate!) 83 Kh8 Rh1+ 84 Kg8 Rh7, winning!! 56 Rf8+ Kg6 57 Rg8+ Kf5 ½–½