Kasparov wins in round 9 at Linares, extends lead

[Jack Rabbit]

EDITED for grammar

Former world champion Garry Kasparov extended his lead in the 22nd Ciudad de Linares chess tournament by defeating reigning FIDE champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan in today's ninth round game.



Kasparov (left) and Kasimdzhanov ready for battle earlier today

As a result of his victory today, Kasparov has 5½ points in the eight games in which he has played and takes a full point lead over Bulgarian Veselin Topalov, who has 4½ points out of eight. Viswanathan Anand of India has scored four points out of seven. Anand and Topalov played each other to a hard-fought draw today.

A player gets a full point for each victory while draws are worth a half point each.

The win was Kasparov's third of the tournament; he has drawn his other five games. It was also Kasparov's second win with Black. The loss was the second in a row for Kasimdzhanov, who drew all six of his games in the first half of the tournament.

Kasimdzhanov, playing White, opened with his Queen's pawn against Kasparov, who chose to defend with a variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined called the Meran Defense (1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6). On his 18th move, Kasparov went in for complications in which he sacrificed a Rook for a Knight and gained some initiative in the process. Black used his initiative well, placing an advanced passed e-pawn on the sixth rank, while blocking White's own less advanced d-passed pawn. Kasparov then sacrificed a Bishop for two pawns, leaving White's King completely exposed to attack. White was forced to return the exchange and soon resigned facing multiple threats. To complicate Kasimdzhanov's problem, he had but ten seconds remaining to make four moves in a lost position.

In one other game at Linares today, Peter Leko of Hungary, who won a strong tournament at Wijk aan Zee in early February and came within a whisker of becoming world champion last fall, drew with British grandmaster Michael Adams. The only other player in the tournament, Francisco Vallejo of Spain, had a bye.

The Linares tournament, played in the Andalusian town of that name, is rated a category 20, making it one of the strongest chess tournaments of all each year. The tournament is regarded by many as "the Wimbledon of Chess". Of the seven competitors this year, five are ranked seventh or higher in the world.

Round 10 will be played tomorrow with Kasparov having White against Vallejo, Adams having the first move against Kasimdzhanov and Anand palying White against Leko. Topalov will have the day off.

Photo from The Week in Chess
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[Skink]

1. I think Bobby Fischer might be available.

nt

[edbermac]

4. Bobby doesn't play regular chess anymore...

Only his brand of shuffle chess, which I would have to agree is the wave of the future...

[The Straight Story]

2. Thanks for the thread, played over this game earlier

Do you use fritz 8 or gnuchess by chance??

[Jack Rabbit]

3. I use GnuChess to play against

It beats the crap of me most of the time.

[The Straight Story]

5. Try this

Change level to easy (does not think on your time) and depth to 1. When you beat it most the time there, bump up depth.

For a truly great game try fritz 8 - it rocks. I play it against gnuchess on my sun server and my windows box, it beats the heck out of them and then I can have it annotate the game. Really cool.

Fritz also has 500,000 master games, a year subscription to playchess.com, a coach, and more (and only 29.99 - well worth the money).

You might also want to get a uscf membership (if you don't have one already) discounts and cheaper entry fees into tournaments.

Glad to see other chess players on DU!

[The Straight Story]

6. bxf2 - that is where I picked up my study of the game

interesting to say the least. I will run it all by fritz which will comment on the moves of the game. Rxf2? seems doomed from the get go, but interesting nonetheless to examine. How white got to that position is worth looking at.

[Twillig]

9. Bxf2! is money in the bank for Gazza this tourney

I was Doing a lil' computer analysis, at move 21....Bxd5 and:

Crafty thought Bxf2 immediately (before taking on d5) for about 15 minutes on my XP1800 PC, now as I write this it has finally gone for 21... Bxd5 22. exd5 Bxf2+ etc.

HIARCS on my 400 mhz Mac went for 21... Bxd5 22. exd5 Bxf2+ etc. almost from the get go.

Anyway, I wonder if White had bailed out on the idea of winning the exchange could have avoided defeat. Perhaps taking that monstrous bishop on c5 20. Nxc5..

[allemand]

7. 25.Rfd1? looks like the decisive error.

25. Rad1 seems to be better, with the idea of 26.Bf5 and 27.Rxf2, but I'm sure that Kasparov had prepared for that in his home analysis. Brilliant novelty, 17...0-0! .

[Jack Rabbit]

8. 17. -- 0–0 was the move of the game.

The root post should read 17th move rather than 18th move.

Kasparov had to have all of the possible variations calculated, including those in which he sacs the exchange.

Today's games are in progress and can be viewed by clicking on the laptop icon here.