White: Anatoly Karpov    1


Black: Gata Kamsky       0





Played 18 and 19 June 96 in Elista, Kalmykia

1. d4   Nf6


2. c4   g6


3. Nc3

Once again the big question: "Grunfeld or King's Indian?" As I said in the 5th game, I expected the King's Indian, since Kamsky can not afford any more draws.

3. ...   Bg7

And it's the King's Indian! By playing Bg7 instead of d5, black allows white to gain full control of the center through 4.e4, and thus enters the King's Indian. This is one of the most popular defenses of all times. Played with success by recent world champions such as Fischer and Kasparov, it is one of the most aggressive lines of play for black. It shows a clear desire to win, but of course we already know that about Kamsky. Karpov has had a lot of training against the King's Indian in his matches against Kasparov, so Kamsky has to be prepared for a tough game.

4. e4   d6


5. Nf3

A very popular alternative in this position is 5.f3 leading to the Saemisch variation. Karpov is known to play that pretty often, and I know quite a few players who have abandoned the King's Indian because of the Saemisch. On the other hand, an astounding loss against Kasparov in only 19 moves in the Linares 1994 tournament, has probably made Karpov a little less confident in the system.

5. ...   0-0


6. Be2   e5


7. 0-0   Nc6


8. d5    Ne7


9. b4

The last couple of moves are standard for the classical variation of the King's Indian. From the pawn structure in the center you should be able to guess the ideas of the two sides: black intends to attack on the king side, while white will take advantage of his space advantage on the queen side. The classical system has always been very popular, and white has tried many different moves in this position. The main alternatives used to be 9.Nd2 and 9.Ne1. Lately, 9.b4 has gained a lot of popularity among the world's best players, partly because they try to avoid the dense theory of the main lines. The idea behind 9.b4 is obvious: without wasting any more time, white starts his attack on the queen side. Black will do the same thing on the king side, and since the white knight didn't move from f3, he will be able to take advantage of the h5 square in preparation for the standard push f7-f5.

9. ...   Nh5


10. Re1

This move might look a little strange - black is preparing to open the f file, and the white rook, instead of staying there, leaves the file. Actually, Re1 has a very good reason: the black knight is ready to jump to f4, so white wants to make sure that the bishop on e2 has a place to hide. I am sure that the white king prefers to have the bishop close to him on f1, because it can provide him with a much better defense than the rook ever could.

10. ...   h6

Kamsky is very eager to play f5, but he first has to take care of the g5 square. Once the pawn moves from f7, the square e6 becomes very weak, so black is insuring that the white knight can't get there. Of course, 10...f5 has been played too, but after 11.Ng5 white usually gets an advantage. That is one of the advantages of keeping the knight on f3 longer, since it makes black waste this tempo.

11. Nd2

Now that black has played h6, the knight on f3 has lost his job, so Karpov moves it out of there. Again, to someone not familiar with the King's Indian this might look strange - black is preparing this huge attack, and white is removing his defenders instead of adding more. It might look like the army is leaving the white king to the mercy of the black soldiers, but actually it is not that bad. The knight on f3 can not survive the attack of the black pawns anyway, so white prefers to let the pawns battle it out between themselves, without casualties from the more important pieces. This move also force the black knight on h5 to make a decision regarding his future position.

11. ...   Nf4


12. Bf1   a5!?

We have finally arrived at the long awaited novelty. In a game played last year in Amsterdam, GM Van Wely, the winner of '96 New York Open, played 12...f5, but after 13.c5 g5 14.cd6 cd6 15.Nc4 g4 16.b5 GM Ivan Sokolov who played with the white pieces, achieved a better position by building a menacing initiative on the queen side. An important detail in this discussion is that Van Wely is one of Kamsky's current seconds. So I am sure they spent a lot of time analyzing this position and coming up with 12...a5.

The idea of this move is used very often in similar positions. Before starting his attack, black takes a timeout to put some obstacles in white's way. Because of the rooks on the a file white can not simply play 13.a3, so he has to decide what to do with his pawn structure. 13.b5 would also be a grave mistake, since after 13...b6 black completely closes off the queen side and with that all of white's attacking chances. Thus Karpov's next move shouldn't be a surprise.

13. ba5   Ra5


14. Nb3   Ra8


15. c5

And the battle has started! White has gotten a a head start with 15.c5, but there is of course a very important difference between the two attacks: white's attack is on some silly pawns, while black is directly attacking the king! This fight on two sides is typical for this system of the King's Indian. Generally, white has very good winning chances if he survives black's offensive on his king. In other words, if white is able to resist on the king side, and maybe trade a few pieces, his space and initiative on the queen side will become a very important advantage. Black knows that, so he'll do his best to infiltrate the white fortress.

15. ...   f5


16. cd6   cd6


17. Nd2!

Karpov sees that his knight has once again finished a job, so he is moving it to a new one. The knight on b3 had supported the c4-c5 advance, but now it isn't doing anything, so white moves it back to d2, where is has the perspective of getting to c4 or e4.

17. ...   g5


18. Rb1   g4


19. Qb3!

It takes a lot of cold blood to see the menacing black pawns coming like that, and not do anything... Well, pushing a pawn on the king side would be a grave mistake for white. By holding his pawns on the 2nd rank, Karpov is keeping them as far as possible from the black pawns, and thus avoids making a weakness. Also, Qb3 has a very subtle defensive idea: it threatens Qb6 and a possible queen trade which would make black's attack a lot less dangerous.

19. ...   fe4

Taking this pawn is always a very difficult choice for black, because it gives white a great square for the knight. Not only does the knight on e4 defend the pawn on f2 and the rest of the king side, but it also plays an offensive role by pressuring the d6 pawn. Nevertheless, Kamsky didn't have much choice. The knight on f4 can't win the game alone, and in order to bring more pieces in the attack, he badly needs the f5 square. The other positive effect of fe4, is that white's pawn on d5 has become isolated and very weak, so he'll have to keep some piece tied to that pawn...

20. Nde4   Kh8


21. Be3

Karpov had a choice of where to put his bishop - he could have played a2-a4 and develop it to a3, building the pressure on the d6 weakness. He prefers instead the g1-a7 diagonale, mainly because of the stronghold on b6, the defense of the f2 pawn, and the control of the important d4 square.

21. ...   Nf5


22. Bb6   Qe7


23. Qb4!

Karpov is defending actively! Just by slightly moving his queen, white is posing black big problems. Now Kamsky's pieces are tied to the defense of the d6 pawn, and unless he finds some other way to defend it, his attack can not continue. Kamsky probably thought of the piece he needs least for his attack, so he found the dark squared bishop. With a nice maneuver he puts it in charge of the d6 pawn, but in this way the position of his own king becomes weakened, especially on the a1-h8 diagonale.

23. ...  Rf7


24. a4   Bf8


25. Be3

Typical Karpov move. As soon as one of his pieces becomes obsolete, he tries to give it something new to do. He knows that black can not afford to trade one of his knights, because those are his main attacking pieces, so he courageously moves the bishop back to e3. Now Kamsky's knight on f4 is in danger, and the queen on e7 starts to feel the pressure of the rook on e1. It is hard to overlook the difference between white's and black's positions: white's pieces are all developed and have nice places, while black's pieces, except for the knights, have very bad squares. Kamsky could try now something like 25...Nh4, but even then he hardly has any threats. White's two bishops and knight on e4 are defending everything very well, so Kamsky decides to trade at least the knight. Unfortunately, that takes a few tempos and doesn't even help that much.

25. ...    Nh5?!


26. Rbc1   Nf6


27. Bb6!?

Once again Karpov finds a new task for the poor bishop. His intention is to infiltrate the 7th rank, so the bishop's role is to control c7, so that after the departure of the knight on c3 the rook can go in. Trading rooks would be a tragedy for black, who needs his on the king's side, which explains why white is so eager to do it.

27. ...   h5


28. Nf6   Qf6


29. Ne4   Qg6


30. a5    Ng7

Black continues to be incommodated by his own pieces... By moving the knight, Kamsky hopes to develop his bishop, who will come under heavy pressure on the c file shortly. Black's position looks very bad, and it is interesting to observe how Karpov has been able to artificially hold back the attack on the king side just by creating enough threats on the queen side.

31. Bb5   Bf5


32. Ng3!

The black bishop was not ready for freedom yet... Karpov immediately attacks it, and Kamsky realizes that giving it up would mean giving absolute control of the light squares to the white bishop, and that would be a real tragedy too, since black has lots of weaknesses on light squares. Nonetheless, Kamsky was a little extreme in his desire to keep the bishop, as the next move practically loses the game immediately.

32. ...   Bc8?


33. Rc3   h4


34. Bd3!

Now black is in a real tough situation. The black queen will have a very hard time finding a good spot. For instance, against 34...Qh6 white has 35.Be3, followed by Ne4 and Bg5, and 34...Qf6 can be met by 35.Ne4 followed by 36.Rc7. Black also has to take into account the weakness of the b1-h7 diagonale, and the possible arrival of the white queen on e4 threatening mate on h7.

34. ...   Nf5?

A tactical blunder motivated by the time pressure. Kamsky was lucky that Karpov overlooked the simple exploitation of this mistake, or had too little time to calculate the variations. Now white has the nice 35.Rc8! eliminating the main defender of the knight on f5. 35...Rc8 looses instantly after 36.Nf5 Rf5 37.Qe4, and 35...hg3 is not much better because of 36.Ra8. Then 36...gh2 is met by the strong 37.Kh1!, and 36...gf2 runs into 37.Bf2 which once again shows why Karpov chose this diagonale for his bishop. By not taking this obvious path to victory, white actually gives away much of his advantage...

35. Nf5?  Bf5


36. Bf5   Qf5


37. Rc4   Rg7


38. Qb1   Qh5


39. Qd1   h3


40. Ree4  hg2


41. Rg4!

White has focused in time pressure only on winning the g4 pawn, and he has achieved his goal. Of course black has had some success too, but the pawn on g2 is not going to survive for long. There is one great danger in situations like this, once the time pressure is over. Karpov probably finally realized that he had a forced win on move 35, and it is extremely important not to think about it. Looking at your position and seeing that it is not that superior anymore, and thinking about a move you missed that would have won instantly can drive you crazy. I know this from my own experience... But Karpov has had plenty of similar experiences, so I am sure he quickly stopped thinking about the past and concentrated all his resources on the current position.

White is still much better. He is shortly going to be a pawn up, and black's king seems even weaker than white's. Another big advantage for white is that trades are good for him, since the pawn endgame would be easily won. It is true that white has several weak pawns, but they are easily defendable. The black bishop is also weak compared to his white counterpart, so Kamsky still has a tough job ahead of him.

41. ...   Rh7


42. h4    Be7


43. f3!

Karpov understands that the pressure on the h4 pawn is becoming dangerous, so he prepares the arrival of a new defender: the bishop to f2. Please notice that he is in no hurry to take the pawn from g2. He knows he has plenty of for that, and at least for the moment the black pawn provides a perfect shield for the white king...

43. ...   Rg8


44. Bf2   Rhg7


45. Qe2   Bd8


46. Be1

The two bishops look kind of funny, but they both have optimal positions: black's bishop attacks the two white pawns on a5 and h4, while the white bishop defends them. I am sure this was part of Karpov's plan when he played f2-f3 opening the diagonale for his bishop.

46. ...   Qf7


47. Qd3!

The better looking 47.Qe4 is actually a huge blunder, because of 47...Rg4 48.fg4 Qf1! 49.Kh2 g1=Q mate. So the pawn on g2 is good at something..., which is why Karpov is careful to keep control of the f1 square.

47. ...   Qh5


48. Qe4   Qh6


49. Qf5!? Ba5!

Kamsky finds a nice trick to exploit the weakness of the c1-h6 diagonale. Now if white plays 50.Ba5 black can get an easy draw after 50...Qe3 51.Kg2 Qe2. White can not play 52.Kg3 or 52.Kg1 because after 52...Qc4 the white rook is pinned and can not recapture the black queen, so white has to play something like 53.Kh1 instead and after 53...Qf1 54.Kh2 Qf2 55.Kh3 Qf1 56.Kg3 Qg1 white has no way of avoiding the draw.

50. Rg7   Bb6!

Very important intermediate move! If black plays 50...Rg7 instead, he loses the bishop after 51.Rc8 Rg8 52.Rg8 Kg8 53.Ba5. Black has no perpetual chances, since after 53...Qe3 54.Kg2 Qe2 55.Kg3 there is no other check...

51. Kg2  Qg7?

51...Rg7 was absolutely required in this position. After the move played by Kamsky, white has a forced series of moves leading to a much superior endgame. Queen endgames are always very tricky, since there so many possibilities in open positions, and I suppose Kamsky overlooked one of the following checks. After 51...Rg7 white is still better, but black's drawing chances are much higher.

52. Rg4   Qe7


53. Qh5!  Qh7


54. Rg8   Kg8


55. Qe8   Kg7


56. Qe7   Kh8


57. Qd6

And the game was adjourned in this very difficult position for black. By losing the d6 pawn, black has given white two very strong passed pawns on the h and d files. Black's checks are not dangerous, but his only hope is to keep the queens on the board, at least for as long as he can...

57. ...   Qg7

I presume Kamsky had a long night trying to find a way of holding this position. Unfortunately, things look so bad for black, that I don't think even an entire month of analyzing could have helped him. Kamsky's strategy is to avoid a queen trade and defend the very weak pawn on e5. Easier said than done...

58. Bg3  Bc7


59. Qe6

Now black is unable to defend the pawn on e5 and stop the white pawn at the same time... This is why the pawn on d6 was such an important pawn and Kamsky should have done his best to keep it on the board.

59. ...   Kh7


60. d6    Bd8


61. Qf5

Taking the pawn on e5 immediately would be bad, since the bishop is pinned so white would have to use his queen and after 61.Qe5 Qe5 62.Be5 black can capture on h4.

61. ...   Kh6


62. Kh3! 

Karpov has placed his king in safety, and now the white bishop has regained its full powers. The first decisive threat is Be5, so black will have to agree to a queen trade which sends the game into a hopeless endgame. The only survival chance Kamsky would have had in the bishops endgame was if the bishops were of opposite colors. But since changing the color of the bishop during the game is not yet allowed, black is close to resigning...

62. ...    Qf6


63. Qf6    Bf6


64. Kg4    b5

Black can't stop the white king from going in, so he tries to create a threat with his only passed pawn. 64...Kg6 isn't any good either because of 65.h5 and if 65...Kh6, 67.Bh4! and the black bishop can't stop white's d pawn.

65. Kf5   Bd8


66. Ke5   Kg6


67. Ke5   Kg6


68. Kc4!   

Karpov plays it safe! He is first going after black's b pawn, and Kamsky can't do anything about it. The white pawns are so spread out that the black king has no chance of winning either one of them without the other promoting.

68. ...   Ba5


69. Kb3   Kf5


70. Ka4   Ke6


71. h5  

And Kamsky finally resigns, as he can't hold on to his last pawn anymore. This was an interesting game, typical for the black losses in the King's Indian. Black wasn't quick enough with his initiative on the king side and his attack died out before it started. Karpov played nicely on the queen side, harrassing black with different threats, and achieved a considerable advantage. In time trouble both players made mistakes, and Kamsky's position improved a lot, but further mistakes made it hopeless at the point of adjournement.

Kamsky is now in deep trouble. Three points behind in a match against Karpov is not a good sign, and the challenger has to get back on his feet if he doesn't want to enter history with one of the harshest defeats. Of course, this is also a very difficult situation from a psychological perspective. Kamsky can not afford any more draws so he will have to keep pushing for the win. As any chess player with experience can tell you, this can often lead to disastrous results. Karpov on the other hand, has regained his self confidence shaken by that 2nd game, and now dominates his opponent completely. With black he will be content with defending quietly and waiting for Kamsky to weaken himself by attacking. Once Kamsky has weaknesses, you know what is going to happen... Please join us for game No. 8 on Thursday morning, and who knows, maybe we will see a surprising comeback.

I hope you have enjoyed my commentaries of the first seven games. I regret to inform you that I have to interrupt them for several games since I will be playing in the U.S. Junior Championship, but once I get back I will start over, if of course, there will be any games left. Meanwhile, please enjoy the commentaries of my fellow Grandmasters.

Editor's Note - We all wish Gabriel the best of good luck at the US Junior Championship. Post-game coverage will continue with other Grandmasters. We expect to have GM Schwartzman back in early July.

GM Schwartzman has been playing chess since he was two years old, and started playing tournaments at the age of four. He received his first international invitation by the time he was eight. Since then Gabriel has been invited to events in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Israel, Canada, as well as the USA.

In 1988 he became vice-world champion of the Under 12 years section, and in 1990 he won the bronze medal at the Youth World championship in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Currently 19 years old, Gabriel is the top ranked junior (under the age of 21) player in the United States.

GM Schwartzman is multi-talented, speaking Romanian, English, German and French very well. He also gets by in Russian and Spanish. Gabriel is also an accomplished Internet publisher - his Internet Chess Academy can be found at http://www.yourmove.com

You can send email to Gabriel at [email protected].