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(875557) Shirov - Kasparov [B90]
Linares, 1997
[Rohde]
Extra Gear: In the super-tournament held in Linares, Spain in February, Garry Kasparov was able to reach within himself and move his chess up to a level noticeably higher than the opposition. Of his game against Alexei Shirov, Internet chess journalist supreme Mark Crowther of "The Week in Chess" said this - "In a controlled game he seemed to be in charge right out of the opening" With this game, Kasparov has firmly put the onus back on players of the White pieces to prove the strength of the popular 6 Be3 system against the Najdorf. Shirov attempted an improvement on the play of Vishy Anand in two rapid games against Kasparov from last year's PCA event in Geneva. But Kasparov did not flinch at all, and proceeded to take command of the board, first by grabbing as much kingside space as possible, and then by lighting a torch to the center. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 Ng4 Lately, Kasparov has made this his standard weapon against 6 Be3 in the Najdorf. Alternatives are 6 ... e5 after which the modern 7 Nf3 (rather than 7 Nb3) has been giving White good results, and 6 ... e6, after which White can choose between the Classical Scheveningen with 7 Be2, the "English Attack" with 7 f3, intending a later g2-g4, the wild 7 g4 trying to transpose to a Keres Attack but allowing 7 ... e5 8 Nf5 g6 9 g5 gxf5, when White's best is the piece sacrifice 10 exf5!, and the system 7 f4 Nc6 8 Qf3. 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Bg3 9 Be2 does not cause an interruption of Black's plans because of the reply 9 ... Bg7 and then if 10 Bxg4 Bxg4. Instead, White would transpose back to the game variation with 10 Bg3 h5. Note, however, that 9 Be2 does tempt Black into 9 ... Ne3?! but then 10 fxe3 gxh4 11 Bh5 leads to severe pressure against f7. Another strange 9th move for White is 9 Nf5?!, a dubious piece sacrifice tried in Nunn - Sadler, Hastings 1992. Black played 9 ... e6! 10 Qxg4 exf5 11 exf5 gxh4, and Nunn was able to scramble back to equality with 12 Qd4 Rg8 13 Ne4 Be7 14 f6 Qa5+ 15 b4 Qe5 16 Qxe5 dxe5 17 fxe7. 9...Bg7 10.Be2 A major alternative here is 10 Qd2 Nc6 11 Nb3 preparing to castle long. Then Xie Jun - Ioseliani, Monaco 1993 continued with the sharp 11 ... f5 12 exf5 Bxf5 and Black was doing well after 13 Bd3 Qd7 14 O-O O-O 15 Nd5 Bd3 16 Qd3 Qf5; 13 Bc4 would not have worked after 13 ... Nge5 14 Bd5 e6, but White should have considered 13 h3 Nge5 14 f4 gxf4 15 Bxf4 raising questions as to where Black's king will be living. The more common line 11 ... Be6 (instead of 11 ... f5) was seen in one of the stem games in this line, Shirov - Oll, Wijk aan Zee 1993. Play continued 12 h4 gxh4 [12 ... Rg8 13 hxg5 hxg5 14 f3 Nge5 15 Bf2 is good for White] 13 Bxh4 Rc8 and now Shirov chose to castle into in with 14 O-O-O Nb4 15 Kb1, although the cautious 14 f3 Nge5 15 Bf2 Bc4 16 Be2! also seemed good for White in Am. Rodriguez - Leitao, Merida 1993. 10...h5 11.Bxg4 The new positional way of playing this variation. 11 h4 has not had good results here. For exmple, after 11 ... Nc6 12 Nf3 (12 Nxc6 bxc6 13 hxg5 Rb8 is too much trouble on the long diagonal) gxh4 13 Bxh4, in Lanka - Oll, Vilnius 1993, Black played the enterprising 13 ... Qa5 14 O-O Bxc3 15 bxc3 Qxc3 16 Rb1 Rg8! 17 Rb3 Qg7 18 g3 Rh8!! (18 ... Nge5 19 Nxe5 Nxe5 20 Bh5 Ng6 21 Bg5! and if 21 ... f6, then 22 f4) 19 Qd2 Nge5 20 Rd1 f6, obtaining the advantage. And in J. Polgar - Polugaevsky, Hastings 1992, after 11 h4 Nc6 12 Nb3, Black again obtained active play after 12 ... gxh4 13 Bxh4 Be6 14 Qd2 Qb6 15 Nd5 Bxd5 16 exd5 Nce5. Finally, a disastrous idea was 11 h3? in Shirov - Sadler, Oviedo 1992, as White's position was miserable after 11 ... h4 12 hxg4 hxg3 13 Rxh8+ Bxh8 14 fxg3 Nc6. 11...Bxg4 12.f3 Bd7 13.0-0 Anand had White in this position twice against Kasparov in the 1996 PCA quickplay tournament in Geneva. The games continued 13 Bf2 Nc6 14 Qd2 (in Smirin - Kasparov, Yerevan Ol. 1996, the extravagant 14.Nd5 was tried, but White was easily pushed back with Rb8 15.0-0 e6 16.Nxc6 bxc6 17.Ne3 d5 18.Rb1 0-0 19.c4 d4 20.Nc2 e5 21.Ne1 f5 and Kasparov converted his crushing space advantage with no problems) Ne5 15.0-0 (not 15 Qxg5?? Bh6 16 Qh4 Ng6 winning the queen after 17 Qg3 Bf4 or 17 Qxh5 Bd2+). In the first game Kasparov tried 15 ... e6 and mounted a huge light-squared pawn chain after 16.b3 Ng6 17.Rad1 g4 18.f4 h4 19.Nde2 h3 20.g3 Rc8 21.e5 d5 22.Nd4 0-0 23.Qd3 f5! 24.Nce2 Rf7. Anand comments that he thought he was better during the game, but his plan to open the position is faulty. After 25.Rc1 Bf8 26.c3 Ne7 27.Rfd1 Nc6 28.c4? dxc4 29.Rxc4 Qe8 30.Qd2 b5 31.Rcc1 Nb4 32.Nc3 Rc7 33.a3 Qa8 Black assumed the initiative. The second time in the four-game quickplay match that this position was reached, Kasparov chose 15 ... g4! 16.f4 Nc4 17.Qe2 Rc8! 18.b3 Na3 19.Nd5 e6 20.Nb4 Qa5 21.Qe1 h4! Here, Anand says, "A very nice demonstration of power play - Black could probably already try to win something on the kingside, but tries to squeeze the maximum out of the position." 22.Be3 h3 23.g3 Nb5 24.Rd1 Nc3 25.Nd3 Qc7 26.Rc1 Nxe4. Black now has a winning position. Anand plugged on with 27.f5 e5 28.f6 Nxf6 29.Nf5 Bxf5 30.Rxf5 Qc6 31.Qe2 Qe4 32.Rf2 Nd5 33.Re1, and Garry fell into the trap with 33...Qxe3?? 34.Qxg4! and suddenly everything has fallen apart! 33 ... Nxe3 would have ended the game in Black's favor. But now Black is on the ropes, and lost after 34...0-0 35.Rxe3 Nxe3 36.Qxh3 Nxc2 37.Qd7 Nd4 38.Qxb7 a5 39.Kg2 Rc3 40.Nb2 Nc2 41.Nc4 d5 42.Nd6 Ne3+ 43.Kh3 f5 44.Qd7 f4 45.Qe6+ Kh7 46.Nf7 Rxf7 47.Qxf7 Rc6 48.gxf4 Rf6 49.Qc7 e4 50.f5 d4 51.Qe7 Rh6+ 52.Kg3 Nd1 53.Rf4 e3 54.Rg4 1-0. 13...Nc6 14.Bf2 Shirov has reached the same position as Anand, except that he has castled instead of placing the queen on d2. This appears to be the germ of a good idea, as now 14 ... Ne5 might be met by 15 Nf5 as Black will not have the later ... Ne5-c4 with tempo. 14...e6 15.Nce2 I am not convinced of the effectiveness of this central huddling of the minor pieces, although the idea is laudable - to blunt any potential Black counterplay. I would suggest, for the next person who dares to get this position against Kasparov, the move 15 a4!, looking to build some queenside activity with the idea a4-a5 and Nc3-a4. 15...Ne5 16.b3 g4 17.f4 h4! Establishing exactly the menacing pawn duo which Shirov has been laboring to prevent! Now Shirov refrains from 17 fxe5 as Black keeps material parity after 17 ... dxe5 while gaining more scope for his two bishops. 18.Be3 This move is designed to avoid the forced line-opening which would otherwise ensue after the sweeping move 18 ... g3! Now that can be answered by 19 h3, which would both keep the h-file closed and deny the Black knight the use of the square g4. 18...h3 Just as in the games against Anand, Kasparov applies the light-square hammerlock, confident that any opening of the position in the center or the queenside will ultimately favor him because White's king will not have a hiding space. 19.g3 Nc6 20.Qd3 Shirov resumes his central buildup, hoping to make an issue out of the weakness of the pawn on d6. 20...0-0 21.Rad1 f5 Fixing White's e-pawn as a target, as 22 exf5 exf5 leaves White's minor pieces in a tangle on the newly opened e-file. And 22 Nxc6 Bxc6 23 Qxd6 Qxd6 24 Rxd6 Bxe4 lets Black's bishops buzz all over the place. 22.c4 Shirov plays for a grip on d5, as well as eliminating the pawn on c2 as a potential target. 22...Qa5 23.Nc3 Rae8 24.Rfe1 e5 A picture of demolition. White's knight on c3 is the target in such lines as 25 Nxc6 Bxc6 26 exf5?! exf4. 25.Nxc6 Bxc6 26.b4 Qa3! Not giving White time to refresh after 26 ... Qxb4 27 Nd5, after which White would be able to concentrate on the central meltdown. 27.b5 Unfortunately, both 27 Rb1 and 27 Rc1 are impossible because of 27 ... Bxe4, and both 27 fxe5 fxe4 and 27 exf5 exf4 are dismal. 27...exf4 28.Bxf4 axb5 29.cxb5 Qc5+ 30.Be3 Qxc3 31.bxc6 Qxc6 Black is a pawn up with terrible pressure on the king-file. Meanwhile, White has to scramble to exchange queens due to the possibility of mating threats. 32.Qxd6 Qxe4 33.Qd5+ Qxd5 34.Rxd5 Bc3 35.Re2 Re4 36.Kf2 Rfe8 37.Rd3 Bf6 38.Red2 Rxe3 0 0-1
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