Kasparov throwaway
By Malcolm Pein
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
June 14, 2004, Monday
“CALL a doctor!” cried Boris Spassky as his fellow former world
champion Garry Kasparov inexplicably missed a win in a king and pawn
endgame against the French champion Etienne Bacrot and saw his
Armenian team go down to a third defeat against the Rest of the
World. The score stands at 11-7 to the RoW at the halfway stage.
The Armenian team should have won this round. Vladimir Akopian was
clearly better against Vishy Anand, but after he correctly rejected a
sacrificial possibility and headed for a superior endgame, Anand
defended well and then played very quickly to induce errors from his
opponent, and won the game.
The Armenian team did score one win, as the world title challenger
Peter Leko swept aside Loek Van Wely.
The match is being played in Moscow to celebrate the 75th anniversary
of the late Armenian world champion Tigran Petrosian.
Bacrot
p p p p p p p c p p p p ) p p p p c p p p p n p p d n p p p p p p p p
Kasparov
Position after 65Kg6
Kasparov’s error comes after Bacrot has just played 65Kg6 to reach
the position in the diagram above. Kasparov played 66.Kd4?? and after
66Kh5 a draw was agreed because of 66Kh5 67.Ke5 Kg4 68.Kf6 (68.h5
Kxh5 69 Kxf5 f6! 70 g4+ Kh4 draws) 68Kxg3.
Kasparov could have won with 66.Kf3! Kf6 (66Kh5 67.Kf4 transposes)
67.Kf4 Kg6 68.Ke5 winning the f5 pawn and the game; 68f6+ 69.Ke6 does
not help. After 66.Kf3! Kg7 67.Kf4 Kf6 68.h5 Ke6 69.Kg5 the h pawn
runs.
THIS sharp pawn sacrifice from Boris Gelfand gives Francisco Vallejo
Pons (White) attacking chances and 19.c6! dxc6 20.Ne4 Qe7 21.Qe5 was
good for White. Instead, Gelfand gives up all the white squares to
win the c7 pawn but gets mated. In the final position the black rook
comes to c8 and Qe2+ wins.
B Gelfand – F Vallejo Pons
Armenia-ROW (3) Moscow
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 b6 4 Nc3 Bb4 5 Bg5 Bb7 6 e3 h6 7 Bh4 g5 8 Bg3
Ne4 9 Nd2 Nxc3 10 bxc3 Bxc3 11 Rc1 Bb4 12 h4 gxh4 13 Rxh4 Be7 14 Rh5
Bd6 15 Qg4 Qf6 16 c5! Bxg3 17 Qxg3 Na6 18 Bd3 Rc8 19 Bxa6? Bxa6 20
cxb6 axb6 21 Rxc7 Rxc7 22 Qxc7 Qg6 23 Rh3 Qd3 24 Kd1 Ke7! 0-1
Pons
p p p 7 p f c e c p – o p c p o p p p p p n p p p p Y n p * b p l n b
p p p X p p
Gelfand
Final position after 24Ke7!