The Chess Mind

Brought to you by Europe-Echecs. The interviewer is French GM Robert Fontaine.

Part 1:

To close our coverage of the Valencia match, here is the Europe-Echecs video of the final day.

Today's blitz session started well for Karpov, who won with Black to close the overall score to 3-2. After a quick draw in the next game, however, he got steamrolled. Kasparov won 5 games in a row before a draw in the last round to win the blitz 6-2 and the match as a whole by a very convincing 9-3 score.

Neither player looked especially convincing in the match, but Kasparov's play was much better and showed some glimpses of his old quality. The openings were terribly dull - mostly Karpov's fault - and while keeping the games quiet would seem to favor Karpov, Kasparov was more successful in quiet positions too. I'm sure Kasparov will do some more work before their next match, and unless Karpov does something to raise the standard of his play, it's likely that he will lose at least as badly next time. On the other hand, facing Kasparov will hopefully get his competitive juices flowing, and will be better prepared for the next time.

You can replay today's games here, with my very brief comments.

One mystery solved: Kasparov resigned in game 3 rather than losing on time. But now, a new mystery: why didn't the Europe-Echecs team check Karpov's rest area for computer cables?

A nice short essay occasioned by their match, along with a video and a simul game - here.

Karpov managed to get on the scoreboard today in their third game, with a very gritty performance that went down to the wire. Unfortunately for him, Kasparov got revenge in the last game, outplaying his opponent in, well, Karpovian fashion. Unfortunately, like yesterday, Karpov lost this one on time too, and in a position that, although definitely bad, was not yet lost.

That ends the rapid segment of the match, and tomorrow (Thursday) they will play eight (up to eight?) blitz games.

Today's games, with my notes, are here.

Again, from Europe-Echecs. Two things especially caught my attention in the video. First, that Karpov could seem so cheery at the end of the first loss; second, that Kasparov intended to sac the exchange rather than play ...Nxe6 at the point where Karpov lost on time. (See my notes to that game, here.)

Anatoly Karpov got off to a bad start today, and his great rival, Garry Kasparov, didn't have much to do to collect the points. In game 1, the game's trend was slightly in Kasparov's favor, but prior to Karpov's last move the game was about equal. Unfortunately for Karpov, who had White, he lost on time making his 24th(!) move.

In the next game, Karpov sped up. After Kasparov's 21st move, Karpov was in a worse but tenable position with a reasonable amount of time. (The time control was 25 minutes for the game, with 5 second increments after every move.) Unfortunately, Karpov spent two minutes thinking about a sound pawn sacrifice which he then played. Why unfortunately? Because although the pawn sac was sound, Kasparov disregarded it and sacrificed a knight instead, leading to an easily decisive mating attack. Karpov clearly missed it, and again lost on time. This time, however, it didn't matter, as he was hopelessly lost on the board as well.

It's horrible seeing Karpov play like this, and it's even worse seeing the idiotic remarks made by online kibitzers - some of them with titles (including, sadly, at least one GM) - ridiculing the man. He hasn't done serious work on the game in years, but it wasn't that long ago that Karpov would have obliterated them without breaking a sweat.

To the callow youth in my audience, who may think these are the purely nostalgic, Abe Simpson-like grumblings of an old fan longing for years gone by, here's some information to consider. In addition to being the clear world champion for 10 years and FIDE champ in the divided era for 6 more years, he was tied for #1 on the rating list as recently as 1996, with Kasparov and Kramnik and ahead of Anand. For almost a quarter of a century he was #1 or #2, and was over 2700 from the early 1970s until some time around 2000. In case 2700 doesn't seem like a big deal to you, there were only four, count 'em, four people in chess history to break that barrier until the early 90s: Bobby Fischer, Anatoly Karpov, Mikhail Tal (for about 10 seconds) and Garry Kasparov. That's it, and with a couple of one-list drops into the 2690s in the mid-70s, he was there nonstop for a quarter of a century, and almost everyone agrees that ratings have been inflated since then. So yes, what you're seeing in this match and in his play earlier this year has been embarrassing, but this isn't the real Karpov.

It is my desperate hope that unless Karpov really works hard on his chess and conditioning between now and his next matches with Anand and Kasparov, he finds a face-saving way to cancel those "contests". The man is rich as Croesus, so I have no idea why he is so eager to damage his legacy in the eyes of the younger generations. If it's the love of the game, he can arrange training matches with strong GMs easily enough, I'm sure; he doesn't have to engage in these public spectacles.

Anyway, let's hope he produces something better the next two days. As for today's productions, you can replay them, with my notes, here.

Here's the first one (it's worth watching!), and, I suspect, it will update to include subsequent videos as well. If so, I will periodically redate this post for your convenience.

To whet your appetite for the forthcoming massacre match in Valencia, you can check out the event website (the Spanish version is here). The translations aren't very good, but there are some fun bits of information (e.g. Karpov is seconded by Bologan). The carnage starts next Monday, the 21st.

This would have been more exciting back in 1996 or 1997, but it's at least a little intriguing now. Unless Chessdom is making a "July Fools' Day" joke, former world champions Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov are going to play a 12-game match in Valencia, Spain. Going from the 21st to the 24th of September (this year), there will be four rapid games (or "semi-rapid", according to the announcement, whatever exactly that means) and then eight blitz games.

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth or anything, but why are they, or rather, why is Kasparov doing this? Is it an indication that he's going to ooze his way back into real chess? Or is this simply unfinished business, motivated by his loss to Karpov in the meaningless 2002 X3D match and his only tying with him in the post-retirement blitz tournament with Judit Polgar and Viktor Korchnoi? If so, let's root for Karpov so that Kasparov is forced to come back another time. (I'd much rather see him try to avenge his last-round loss to Topalov from Linares 2005, but that's a much bigger mountain to climb.)

Anyway, while it's not the event it once was, it will be nice to see Kasparov in action again, even in blitz against a semi-retired, 58-year-old Karpov.