The Groningen Chess Festival took place December 18-30 in Groningen, The Netherlands. There were several open tournaments; in the top group a total of 64 players participated (13 GMs, 13 IMs and 11 FMs). Besides, this year’s festival included a match between GM Jan Timman, Dutch Junior Champion in 1966 when he was 14 years old, and Robin van Kampen, who won the Junior Championship this year, at the same age.

Video report

Before continuing with the pictorial report, I’ll first give the video report below. The organizers tell about their tournament and also about its long tradition; the video includes footage from the 1946 tournament in Groningen!

The Timman-Van Kampen match was quite exciting and attracted a lot of attention from the participants in the open groups. The board was nicely placed in the centre of the venue, with a Christmas tree and a demonstration board behind the players.

The Timman-Van Kampen match

The match started smoothly for Timman, who exchanged queens in game 1 for a better ending which he won easily. In a difficult, queenless middlegame Timman was the first to err in game 2 and after many more complications, Van Kampen managed to level the score.

In the same Slav variation as in the first game, Van Kampen turned up much better prepared for game 3. He had looked at the line together with Anish Giri and many other young Dutch talents, who all stayed together in ‘hotel ship’ De Mars, a boat located in the city center. The game was drawn after 32 moves.

The boat where the Dutch talents stayed

Game 4 was again very interesting; in a Kan Sicilian Timman invited his young opponent to sacrifice his queen and Van Kampen accepted the invitation. Soon Timman had to give back his own queen, but also in the ending the position remained sharp. When Van Kampen missed his last chance (30.b4) the game and the match was over; Timman had won 2.5-1.5.

Timman-Van Kampen match 2009 | Results

In the Open group Dimitri Reinderman was leading with 4 out of 4 during the rest day (Christmas Day). In the next round the Dutch grandmaster dropped his first half point, to 13-year-old IM Ilya Nyzhnyk. This was the turning point in the tournament.

In round 6, Reinderman and Giri drew quickly, and so did Greenfeld and Werle on board 2 and Nijboer and Swinkels on 3. Nyzhnyk beat Ernst with the black pieces and the next round the Ukrainian super-talent defeated Chadaev. While his rivals prevented each other from winning the tournament, Nyzhnyk finished strongly with a draw against Werle and a last-round win against Deviatkin. Sipke Ernst, quite a strong grandmaster himself, said about Nyznyk: “He was just playing with us. I haven’t seen this since Carlsen crushed everyone in Corus C.”

Nyzhnyk, next to his mother, just after he beat Chadaev in round 7

Winning in Groningen undefeated with 7.5/9 and a 2741 performance rating is an amazing result for a 13-year-old. It was Nyzhnyk’s second grandmaster norm – his first was scored already in April 2008 when he won the Nabokov Memorial in Kyiv, Ukraine. At the moment of writing Nyzhnyk is 13 years, 3 months and 7 days old and so chances are high he’ll become the youngest grandmaster in the world somewhere in 2010.

Groningen Open 2009 | Final Standings (top 40)

No. Name                Score WP   SB     PS    rat.  TPR  W-We
---------------------------------------------------------------
 1. Nyzhnyk, Illya      7.5  48.5  40.00  38.0  2494 2741 +2.75
 2. Werle, Jan          6.5  53.0  36.75  35.5  2565 2670 +1.28
    Reinderman, Dimitri 6.5  52.0  36.75  37.5  2575 2662 +1.11
 4. Chadaev, Nikolai    6.0  50.0  30.00  32.0  2567 2555 -0.03
    Greenfeld, Alon     6.0  48.5  31.00  32.0  2559 2571 +0.23
    Nijboer, Friso      6.0  47.0  29.50  32.5  2561 2545 -0.12
    Brandenburg, Daan   6.0  46.5  30.75  32.0  2481 2573 +1.22
    Baklan, Vladimir    6.0  46.5  30.75  30.0  2655 2549 -1.04
    Giri, Anish         6.0  45.5  29.00  32.0  2585 2582 +0.04
    Deviatkin, Andrei   6.0  45.0  28.00  29.0  2608 2503 -0.82
    Poetsch, Hagen      6.0  36.5  23.75  26.5  2361 2410 +0.70
12. Ernst, Sipke        5.5  46.0  26.50  26.5  2587 2432 -1.55
    Meijers, Viesturs   5.5  46.0  26.00  28.5  2488 2456 -0.29
    Kleijn, Christov    5.5  46.0  25.50  28.0  2383 2461 +0.99
    Pruijssers, Roeland 5.5  44.5  24.75  26.5  2413 2434 +0.35
    Saravanan, V        5.5  44.0  24.75  29.5  2356 2499 +1.78
    Podzielny,Karl-Heinz5.5  42.0  21.50  28.0  2456 2425 -0.18
    Hoffmann, Michael   5.5  40.5  23.25  27.0  2509 2365 -1.47
    Caspi, Israel       5.5  40.0  20.75  26.0  2423 2402 -0.09
20. Swinkels, Robin     5.0  47.5  25.25  31.5  2500 2484 -0.16
    Bok, Benjamin       5.0  47.0  23.50  29.0  2337 2523 +2.14
    Kantans, Toms       5.0  43.5  20.75  24.5  2281 2486 +2.30
    Popilski, Gil       5.0  42.5  20.00  26.0  2441 2394 -0.49
    Pijpers, Arthur     5.0  42.5  18.75  23.0  2201 2366 +1.86
    Wiel van der, John  5.0  41.0  21.50  25.0  2475 2373 -1.10
    Berkovich, Mark A   5.0  37.5  17.50  23.5  2406 2283 -1.30
    Groenewold,Jan Joris5.0  36.0  18.00  18.5  2145 2313 +1.96
28. Grover, Sahaj       4.5  43.5  18.75  26.0  2372 2429 +0.72
    Heemskerk, Wim      4.5  40.5  17.50  21.5  2236 2320 +0.94
    Klein, David        4.5  40.5  16.75  21.5  2262 2364 +1.14
    Bijlsma, Nick       4.5  39.5  17.50  20.0  2075 2255 +1.98
    Afek, Yochanan      4.5  39.5  16.75  21.5  2285 2330 +0.39
    Hoeksema, Erik      4.5  38.0  17.00  22.5  2331 2233 -1.14
    Paulet, Iozefina    4.5  37.5  12.00  20.0  2312 2217 -1.07
    Haast, Anne         4.5  33.5  14.25  19.0  2251 2229 -0.34
36. Burg, Twan          4.0  48.5  21.00  25.5  2460 2340 -1.34
    Genova, Lyubka      4.0  45.0  19.50  21.0  2263 2317 +0.57
    Genov, Petar        4.0  44.5  17.75  26.5  2476 2299 -1.98
    Piasetski, Leon     4.0  39.0  14.75  18.5  2269 2238 -0.48
    Donker, Roel        4.0  38.0  16.50  20.5  2140 2259 +1.13

Timman-Van Kampen & all of Nyzhnyk’s games for replay

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The famous 'Martini Tower', at the central square in Groningen

The venue was the University's Sports Centre

GM Jan Timman, former world's number 2

IM Robin van Kampen, one of the biggest Dutch talents at the moment

Two old friends sharing thoughts about a position: Jan Timman and Hans Böhm

Local hero GM Jan Werle, a regular guest at the sports centre, finished shared second...

...together with GM Dimitri Reinderman from Amsterdam

Good years or bad years, Friso Nijboer always plays in Groningen

Anish Giri enjoyed it last year and was happy to return

But 13-year-old Ilya Nyzhnyk was the strongest - we'll hear much more about this young lad - but first a bit of history...

...because photos from the 1946 event were hanging at the venue - here an overview of the playing hall back then

The participants in order of the final standings (if one of our readers can put them in the right order of this photo, let us know!): Botvinnik, Euwe, Smyslov, Najdorf, Szabo, Boleslavsky, Flohr, Lundin, Stoltz, Denker, Kotov, Tartakower, Kottnauer, Yanovsky, Bernstein, Guimard, Vidmar, Steiner, O'Kelly de Galway, Christoffel

Boleslavsky, Euwe and Smyslov

Smyslov vs Botvinnik, who would play three World Championship matches - Stolz and Yanovsky are watching

L-R Najdorf, Guimard and Steiner

Tartakower (standing) and Vidmar

Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN: Timman – Van Kampen | Open

Photo © Official site

The match between 10th World Champion Boris Spassky and former World Championship contender Viktor Korchnoi was the final event in the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the union between Kalmykia and Russia. The two played a total of eight games in Elista from December 17th until 27th, for a prize fund of US$ 20,000. The time control was 90 minutes + 30 seconds per move.

Games 5-8

The second half of the match was very different from the first, and it was Boris Spassky who dominated in games 5, 6 and 7. In the first encounter after the rest day the 10th World Champion crushed his opponent with the black pieces in just 26 moves. In an English Opening that quickly became a reversed Taimanov Sicilan, Spassky played aggressively with …f5 and …g5. To avoid an avalanch of pawns on the kingside Korchnoi sacrificed a piece, but with less space he kept on struggling to find good squares for his remaining arsenal. Three strong black minor pieces decided the game quickly.

Then, in game 6, Spassky again reached a promising position. From a modest Four Knights he manoeuvred strongly in the middlegame, creating a passed d-pawn by tactical means. However, in what looks like timetrouble, he first dropped a pawn and then bigger material in just two moves – a pity.

Also in game 7 Spassky outplayed Korchnoi in the early middlegame – a nice knight manoeuvre on move 21 and 22 yielded the bishop pair. It’s not clear whether Black’s advantage in the ending was enough to win the game, but his position was clearly easier to play. After a few inaccuracies Korchnoi lost a pawn, and then forgot about the clock and lost on time (”for the third time already this year!” he lamented during the press conference). Spassky had levelled the score again.

After all this excitement the two legends had seen enough, and they agreed a draw after 11 moves in the last game. A quick draw in a Petroff – normally something we’d disapprove of, but in this case fully deserved. The job was done, the crowd finished cheering. As I’m typing this, I’m watching Bruce Springsteen and Bono singing I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, because 25th Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is on Dutch TV. Two fantastic performers together on one stage, doing what they do best. It was a similar pleasure to see Korchnoi and especially Spassky at the chess board facing and fighting each other again, like in their best days.

Games 5-8

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Links

• Our first report on the match
• Our second report on the match
• Official website
• Games in PGN

After he defeated Vladimir Kramnik in Bonn in 2008, Viswanathan Anand hasn’t had a great 2009. In Linares he finished 4th, behind Grischuk, Ivanchuk and Carlsen. At Amber he finished behind Aronian and Kramnik. In Mainz, for the first time in many years he didn’t win the rapid title and at the Tal Memorial he ended 5th, behind Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Carlsen and Aronian. These are not the kind of results Anand can be satisfied about, and certainly not as a reigning World Champion. In an interview with The Times of India, Anand says he needs to play more aggressively to become successful again in 2010:

“I need to up my game and play aggressively. Veselin Topalov is very aggressive player. Vladimir Kramnik is a tough opponent as well. The preparations are on.” (…) This year has been a mix of fortunes. But compared to 2007-08, it has been a bad year. There were quite a few ups and downs. I will have to raise my game to compete against the best.”

A honest statement by the World Champ, and also an ambitious one. And in an interview with Calcutta newspaper The Telegraph published just two days later, Anand seems to make clear that he’s taking the match against Topalov very seriously.

Whether Surya Sekhar Ganguly will be his one of his seconds this time too
He may be. I am not sure. Seconds are a very secretive thing. Even if I tell you that he will be one of my seconds, the rival camp will not believe me. But one thing is for sure, Magnus Carlsen (the world No. 2) will be one of the seconds.

Well, what to think of that? Anand and Carlsen have worked together before, during the preparation for the 2008 match, but things have changed considerably since then. In just a week from now Carlsen will be the official number one on the rating list, and he’s rapidly becoming the favourite to win next year’s Candidates matches, and with that to become the challenger of the winner of… Anand-Topalov. By now, the Norwegian is a clear competitor to Anand, and so the affair reminds us of another World Championship match where Anand was involved, and his opponent, Garry Kasparov, worked together with… a young Vladimir Kramnik.

In fact, we find this hard to believe. It could be possible that Anand is toying with his opponent and the media, but it’s even more likely that he was misquoted. Before the match against Kramnik he refused to mention the names of his seconds until the last day, so it’s hard to believe that he would want to do it differently this time. And in the mean time, Henrik Carlsen has apparently stated that his son “has his own plans and schedule”. That sounds more like it. If the two would work together, we’ll probably find out during the match, but not before.

To end this column, let’s do a poll. (We might repeat it after Corus.)

Photo © Official site

The match between 10th World Champion Boris Spassky and former World Championship contender Viktor Korchnoi is the final event in the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the union between Kalmykia and Russia. The two play a total of eight games in Elista from December 17th until 27th, for a prize fund of US$ 20,000. The time control seems to be 90 minutes + 30 seconds per move.

The third game was a Nimzo/Queen’s Indian hybrid where the players left theory at an early stage. Spassky’s positional a5-a4 move was an attempt to refute White’s Qb3, but he might have regretted it later when Korchnoi had regrouped his king’s knight to c3. After Korchnoi missed an opportunity to reach a favourable rook ending, Spassky easily drew the resulting rook ending.

Yesterday in game 4 Korchnoi again employed the French Defence, just like in game 2 and in their famous match in Belgrade in 1977. Then he only went for the Winawer with 3…Bb4, but 32 years later his preferred move is 3…Nf6. At the press conference Korchnoi explained that he’s working on a book on the French Defence (great news, in our opinion – how can it be anything else than an instant classic, like Uhlmann’s Ein Leben Lang Französisch?) and therefore at the moment plays it without exception.

Spassky didn’t follow the current main line (4.e5) but chose 4.Bg5, and then seemed caught by surprise by Korchnoi’s plan which delayed the thematical …c5 pawn break. He played the new move 10.a4, which allowed the Black queen to b4. About ten moves later it was clear that White was not better, and so Spassky decided to repeat moves. Today is a rest day in Elista.

Games 3 & 4

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Links

• Our first report on the match
• Official website
• Games in PGN

Photo © Official site

The match between the two chess legends, 10th World Champion Boris Spassky from Russia and former World Championship contender Viktor Korchnoi from Switzerland, is the final event in the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the union between Kalmykia and Russia. The two will play a total of eight games in Elista from December 17th until 27th, for a prize fund of US$ 20,000. The time control seems to be 90 minutes + 30 seconds per move.

According to the Mega2009 database, Korchnoi and Spassky played a total of 69 games (including rapid) against each other in exactly half a century: between 1955 and 2005. Korchnoi has the best score: 22 wins, 14 losses and 33 draws. The most important games were of course played in their two Candidates final matches. In 1968, in Kiev, Spassky won 6.5-3.5 while nine years later in Belgrade it was Korchnoi who won with 10.5-7.5.

After two games of a much more friendly character, Korchnoi leads this new match against Spassky 1.5-0.5. According to the official website, Spassky had arrived in Elista in advance. However, Korchnoi, who travelled from London where he had played two simul exhibitions at the Chess Classic, had got stuck in Moscow due to a snow storm. He eventually arrived late in the evening on Thursday the 17th, and Spassky proposed to play just six games and add a second rest day. “However, Victor L. did not go against the regulations, bravely agreed to start the game, as planned.” And won, outplaying his opponent in an ending with rook and knight for both sides. Today Spassky got an advantage but Korchnoi held the draw instructively.

Game viewer

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Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN

Photo: FIDE.com

According to a brief report on the FIDE website the signing of the contract took place yesterday in Sofia, Bulgaria where the next World Championship match will be held.

“For 140 years of chess championship there have been 19 such world title matches, and all of them turned into historic battles. Why is it important for us that Bulgaria and Sofia were picked to host this historic event? We can just imagine that the opponent of our representative Topalov is a representative of India, a nation of over one billion people, vs. tiny Bulgaria of 8 million. It is an honor and pleasure for us to become a center of global attention with this match” Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said during the ceremony, as reported by Sofia News Agency Novinite.

We assume the signing of the contract means that FIDE has received a bank guarantee from the Bulgarians, which was not the case yet on October 16th when FIDE accepted the bid.

Besides, the match will start later than was suggested back then. FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov had in mind to celebrate his birthday (April 5th) with the start of the match, but now the date of the first game has been set to April 23rd, 2010. The World Championship match will consist of 12 games and if necessary, 4 tiebreak games on May 12th, 2010 so we presume a similar schedule as in Anand-Kramnik:

(We’ve asked FIDE to confirm this.) Update Dec. 21, 14:39: FIDE finally confirmed these dates.

The World Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov is scheduled for April 2010. The match will consist of 12 games and if necessary, 4 tie-break games. Recently we reported about the quite disturbing fact that although the World Chess Federation received three bids (Bulgaria, Turkey and Singapore) to host, organize and finance the match, no bank guarantees were received by the deadline of September 30th. FIDE decided to postpone the deadline to October 15th.

Today the three bids were discussed at the FIDE Executive Board meeting, part of the 80th FIDE Congress which currently takes place in Halkidiki, Greece. As it turns out, the Sofia bid, backed by the Bulgarian government, was accepted. A FIDE official confirmed to us what Chessbase published earlier today:

A guarantee was presented as a letter by the Bulgarian Prime Minister. In the letter to FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov the Prime Minister stated that for technical reasons no formal bank guarantee could be provided, but that the Bulgarian government would guarantee the total costs of three million Euros (two million prize fund, 20% FIDE fees and the rest for organisational costs). The letter further stated that “neutrality would be guaranteed”.

The exact dates have not been confirmed yet; FIDE has suggested April 5th to 24th, 2010 to the players since April 5th is the birthday of its President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

The Bulgarians put up a high, and winning stake; they’re planning to provide double the amount that was asked for by FIDE. In the bidding procedure published on April 24th, a minimum prize fund of one million Euros (net of any applicable taxes) is mentioned, plus the contribution to FIDE (net of any applicable taxes and not less than 20% of the prize money) and the commitment to cover all the other financial obligations to FIDE and organizational costs.

Anand and Topalov facing each other in Bilbao in 2008

Last month the chances to find sponsors for the new World Championship match looked pretty dim, but fortunately things have lightened up. However, it looks like yet another big chess event won’t be financed by corporate sponsorship; this time it’s the Bulgarian government that provides the money.

Well, promised to provide. In their bidding procedure FIDE demanded either an 8-month term bank guarantee or a 100,000 Euro deposit before the deadline. Despite plenty experience with organizers withdrawing or failing funds, apparently the word of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov was strong enough for FIDE today. Since everything eventually worked out fine for the Kamsky-Topalov match, we should probably give them the benefit of the doubt.

We tried to reach both players for a first reaction. Viswanathan Anand didn’t want to make any clear statements yet:

“I can only say that contractual details are yet to be discussed and an announcement will be made once the contracts are signed It’s still too early to comment. As of now only the bidding procedure has finished. So I will refrain from making any statements until the contracts are drawn up and signed. The contractual details are to be kept confidential in normal practice.

We hope that the match will be entertaining and will be a good platform for the promotion of the game. In the end the games should be the highlight and that is what we will strive for.”

Unfortunately at the time of writing Veselin Topalov wasn’t yet available to comment. We can assume he’s not unhappy about today’s developments.

A 6-game match between Nigel Short (2706) and Zahar Efimenko (2654) took place September 20-26 in Mukachevo, Ukraine. The rate of play was 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting with the first move.

The organization was in the hands of Universal Event Promotions, who were responsible for the Anand-Kramnik World Championship match in Bonn last year. The same organisation made a bid for the 2010 Candidates event but later withdrew, failing to reach an agreement with FIDE. Back then UEP President Joseph Resch promised to continue organizing chess events, and after the Ivanchuk-Leko rapid match in January this year we already saw a new match last week.

Nigel Short doesn’t need an introduction, but 24-year-old Zahar Efimenko perhaps does. His biggest success as a youngster was his victory at the World Juniors U-14 in Oropesa del Mar. He won the Ukrainian championship in 2006 and is part of the Ukrainian team. During the match, Efimenko worked with the experienced grandmaster Alexander Beliavsky as a second. Nigel Short didn’t have an assistant in Mukachevo.

Games (analysis by GM Klaus Bischoff)

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Efimenko and Short analyzing, organizer Joseph Resch kibitzing

The winner with picturesque Mukachevo in the background

Photos: Mikhail Golubev

Links

• Official website
• Coverage at the Mukachevo Chess Club website
• Games in PGN

Like the rapid games, the blitz match took place in the Auditorium of the Palau de las Artes, and just like on Tuesday and Wednesday, the media were banned to the upper four rows. The result of this was that although I wasn’t able to get good close-ups with my camera, the high angle gave enough sight of the chess board so that I was able to reconstruct four of the eight games that were wrongly transmitted by the tournament website. (Well, only the first game was wrong, and three others were not complete.) The correct scores can be replayed below.

The blitz match started with a wonderful victory by Karpov in another Queen’s Gambit Declined – the 12th World Champion replied to Kasparov’s 1.d4 with this opening in all six games! Kasparov called it his worst game of the match but it was still a great performance by Karpov, converting the rook ending into a win with his flag about to fall during the last 15 moves or so (the rate of play was 5 minutes plus 2 seconds increment).

After calming down with an easy draw with Black, Kasparov went on to win a nice game with the white pieces to level the score. The fourth game turned out to be crucial for this blitz match: after another very strong performance, Karpov lost on time in a winning position. Between the games there was a ten-minute break three times, but at half time the pause was half an hour, but still not long enough for Karpov to fully recover.

In the next three games Kasparov completely dominated. Karpov was constantly down on the clock and simply played his worst chess of the whole match. A quick draw in the last game ended the torture, after which the players went to the press room – a five-minute walk from one side of the Palau to the other – for the last time.

Again, they addressed the media seperatately, and again first Karpov, then Kasparov. The former admitted that he had “lost motivation” after the terribly disappointing 4th game; the latter was quite pleased with his play.

On a question from a journo, which came down to “what’s next”, Kasparov said he’d simply go back to Moscow and return to his life as a political activist. “This was just an exhibition match to promote chess. I think we succeeded.”

On my question what, in Kasparov’s opinion, had to be the first thing to change in the chess world to bring that media attention to current top events, he repeated what he and Karpov had emphasized at the press conference on Monday: that “FIDE was responsible for everything that went wrong in the past 15 years”. He added that as long as the top players would still be accepting the actions of the Kalmykian President, the situation wouldn’t improve. “But I don’t play a role in that anymore. I can offer them my help, some advice, but nothing more.”

The Valencia match has merely confirmed what we already knew about Anatoli Karpov: he hasn’t been spending much time on chess in recent years, and therefore his level of play is slowly getting worse, although he’ll never loose his beautiful, classical style and occasional brilliance. Garry Kasparov, who is said to play online regularly, who is still busy writing about chess and who has started working with Magnus Carlsen, still plays at at a high level, and hasn’t lost his attractive, dynamic style either. It does make you wonder how he’d do against today’s elite players.

Blitz games

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Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN: rapid | blitz

Before the third game started, a very lucid lecture on the Valencian origin of modern chess was given by none less than chess legend Yuri Averbakh. The reknown endgame expert and chess history enthusiast was the first to suggest, back in 1985, that Lucena borrowed many if not all problems of his 1497 book from the now lost Valencian chess book by Francesch Vicent. Afterwards, the 87-year old veteran was more than willing to pose for photographs with fans from the audience and indeed with some journalists as well.

After that, it was Karpov-time. In a very interesting and complex g3-Grünfeld, the 12th World Champion improved on the first match game with 10.Nec3, resulting in a rich position with chances for both sides. True to his style, Kasparov sacced an exchange for activity, and afterwards he indicated that he thought he got out of the complications fine, but in mutual time trouble he started played for tricks rather than a draw and was confronted with his first official loss in almost five years. Kasparov blamed his opportunism on lack of practice; Karpov thought he had simply played a good game.

Everyone expected Karpov to try and level the match in the fourth game, but again he opted for the solid-but-difficult-to-win-with Queen’s Gambit Declined, a choice that took Kasparov by surprise. Karpov deviated from the second match game by playing 9…g6 while in our previous report we mentioned that Kasparov himself has indicated in his latest book on their matches 9…b6 is the way to go for Black.

Again, Kasparov got a pleasant edge from the opening, and he managed to expand his advantage slowly, gaining time on the clock in the process. Karpov couldn’t avoid his clock ticking away and got into bad time trouble once again. With his opponent’s clock about to fall, Kasparov lost concentration and spoiled his advantage, leaving him with just a small plus in the final position where Karpov yet again overstepped the time limit.

Both players gave short press conferences after the fourth game had finished, but interestingly, they preferred to do this separately instead of together, like they had done on the opening day. Since during the game all press had been banned to the last rows of the packed auditorium, many journalists unfortunately arrived too late for the first question of Karpov’s press conference.

When Karpov had left the stage, there again was some confusion as to whether Kasparov would attend at all, but in the end he did. We asked him if he, being the passionate chess player he still is, was disappointed that time played such an important role in the match. “Yes, I would have preferred playing these positions to their logical conclusion, but time is simply part of the game.” He then reminded everyone how he had started his match with Short in ‘93: in a very dubious position he won on time.

In conclusion, we think both players can be satisfied in their own way with the result of the four rapid games. Apart from the obvious time aspect, Karpov played some good chess and he managed to taunt Kasparov by winning arguably the best encounter. Kasparov won the rapid part of the match, as probably everyone including himself expected.

In the end though, he didn’t crush Karpov so horribly that future sponsors won’t be interested in another match celebrating the 25th anniversary of their first World Championship clash.

Games 3 & 4

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Links

• Official website
• Games in PGN