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The Kasparov - Karpov 2009 live commentary is brought to you thanks to Chess Cube. For the latest news regarding the WCC match Topalov - Anand visit the WCC blog
The games start at 19:00 CET and will be commented live on Chessdom by Jason Juett.
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Hello chess fans, this is Jason Juett bringing you live commentary of the Kasparov-Karpov match. These are two of the greatest players in history, and in many people's opinion arguably the two greatest. They have met contested more world championship matches than any other two players, in a remarkably close series that somehow had Kasparov emerge on top every time, though we could imagine some of the matches going either way. Kasparov seems to be the big favorite to win among most fans, and I agree that I prefer his chances, but I think it will be closer than many think. We should remember that just a few years ago Karpov won the latest match in their series, a rapid one much like this one. Also, even if he hasn't been active, Karpov has been playing in rated games, while Kasparov has been retired from competitive play for about 5 years. In short, both players are somewhat unknown quantities. We have no idea how sharp Kasparov is, though his work with Carlsen must help a bit, and Karpov hasn't been showing good form recently, but he can elevate himself to a very high level when really motivated, as he showed us in the last short rapid match.
For the opening, I'm predicting 1.d4 from Karpov so as to avoid dealing with the Sicilian that gave him so much trouble in the World Championship matches, and then what Kasparov will play is anybody's guess. In the old days he would play a King's Indian or Grunfeld, but in his last years of competitive chess he gave them up for more solid defences. I recall him playing the Queen's Gambit Accepted a lot starting with the Kramnik match after his Grunfeld got beaten, but I cannot imagine such a solid and potentially boring choice being a good bet against Karpov. My guess would be some sort of Slav, since he must have been working on both sides recently with Magnus.
1.d4 As expected, Karpov avoids the Sicilian. Now it'll be interesting to see what Kasparov has in mind.
1... Nf6 2.c4 g6 A surprise -- Kasparov is returning to old times!
3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 This quiet system makes good sense for Karpov. He'll aim to play a control game and nurse a small edge.
4... d5 Many players prefer to go for a Grunfeld against the fianchetto set up.
5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.e4 Nb6 7.Ne2 c5 8.d5 Karpov wisely prefers to keep his center intact.
8... O-O 9.O-O e6 Kasparov knows he can't leave Karpov's strong center uncontested. We've already got a sharp game underway.
10.Nbc3 Na6 11.h3 Here the move 11.Nf4 is more common, which makes some sense because it gives additional protection to d5 and pressures e6. Black would then likely play 11...e5 and the game would revolve around whether the d5 protected passed pawn was a strength or if it could easily be blockaded, in which case it could even turn out to be a disadvantage.
11... exd5 The logical way to exploit not overprotecting d5. Now recapturing with the pawn makes sense from the point of view of not wanting to trade pieces when having more space.
12.exd5 Nc4 13.b3 Nd6 The knight maneuvers itself to form a blockade. Remember that knights are the best pieces for this job.
14.Bf4 b6 15.Qd2 Bb7 Kasparov continues developing and targets d5. The proud passed pawn may become weak if the blockade holds, and let's not forget that it's isolated. I think Kasparov can already be fairly happy with the opening.
16.Rad1 Nc7 The knight comes back from the edge of the board. It pressures d5 a little more and adds to Black's control of b5. We're still following one known game. In the game, White played 17.g4 and eventually won, though it was a mismatch of ratings, 2400 against 2200. It looks like 17...f5 is a good counterstrike that wasn't played in that game, so I'm expecting Karpov to come up with a novelty at this point.
17.g4 Wow, shows what I know! We're still following that previous game. I don't see anything wrong with ...f5, either right away or prefaced by ...Qd7. White doesn't want to take on f5 and ruin his structure while activating Black, so he'll be faced with some awkwardness holding g4.
17... Qd7 A novelty, and it looks like a good one. In the previous game Black played the too-compliant 17...Ba6 and White obtained an advantage and eventually won.
18.a4 In many variations Black does place a knight on b5, but I'm unsure whether it was worth a tempo to stop this. Then again, this is Karpov we're talking about, and perhaps in a few moves his intentions will be clear. Either 18...f5 or another preparatory move like 18...Rad8 look good. Perhaps Kasparov is wanting to hold off on something commital like ...f5 for as long as possible.
18... f5 19.g5 Avoiding issues with having to keep defending g4. Of course taking on f5 is always positional suicide.
19... Rad8 Nothing too surprising here. Obviously d8 and e8 are the most natural squares for the rooks. One potential idea for Karpov with the pawn on a4 is trying to prod Kasparov's queenside with a5 at some point.
20.Bg3 f4 Wow, big aggression from Kasparov. He's wanting to make use of a semi-open f-file and a square on f5 for his knight. I'm not convinced that such a drastic move was necessary, but I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy very much seeing how this will play out. Of course White must take the pawn due to the impending fork on f3, but with which piece? There is a case for 21.Nxf4 in order to give the d5-pawn better protection.
21.Nf4 Nf5 22.Nb5 The calmer 22.Rfe1 is definitely an alternative. Now after Karpov's move the game may proceed 22...Nxb5 23.axb4 Bd4, with very good play for Black due to the additional time gained with the threat of Nxg3.
22... Nxb5 23.axb5 Nd4 24.Ne6 0-1 A surprise ending to the game! Karpov drops an exchange to 24...Nxe6 25.dxe6 Qxd2 26.Rxd2 Rxd2 27.Bxb7 Rfd8 etc. and resigns immediately.
I don't know if Kasparov's 23...Nd4 is as good as 23...Bd4, since after 24.Qd3! Karpov would have been holding everything together, though Black would have still retained some compensation.
This has been Jason Juett bringing you live commentary on Chessdom.com! Game 2 starts in a while, click here to follow it. 0-1