Games: chess

You're White against the world's number one player; you are a piece up and he has just moved his queen from e5 to e4. You have very little time left on your clock. What do you do? Would you play: a) f3 to give the king some breathing space; b) Rxd5 to add to the pressure on the pinned black knight; c) something else?

That was the task facing Veselin Topalov in the third game of his four- game quickplay match against Garry Kasparov in Sofia. He chose 1.Rxd5?? and resigned after Rxf1+! since Qh1 mates next move. Instead 1.f3 wins since 1...Qb1 2.Kg2 Rxf1 3.Qxd4+wins for White. Kasparov won the quickplay match 4-0.

Here are the full moves of the game from which the diagram came. The scrappy play beginning with 39...Nxd4?! was good for Black until he blundered a piece away - but White ran fatally short of time.

White: Veselin Topalov

Black: Garry Kasparov

1 Nf3 d5 25 Rbc1 Rd8

2 d4 Nf6 26 g3 Bxd4

3 c4 e6 27 exd4 Ne6

4 Nc3 Be7 28 h4 Qf6

5 Bg5 0-0 29 Ne2 Rb4

6 e3 h6 30 Rc8 Bb7

7 Bh4 b6 31 Rxd8+ Nxd8

8 Be2 Bb7 32 Qd2 Ra4

9 Bxf6 Bxf6 33 Qxh6 Rxa2

10 cxd5 exd5 34 Qe3 Ne6

11 b4 c5 35 Rb1 Bc6

12 bxc5 bxc5 36 Qh6 Qd8

13 Rb1 Bc6 37 Qe3 Qf6

14 0-0 Nd7 38 Qb3 Rd2

15 Bb5 Qc7 39 Qe3 Nxd4

16 Qd3 Rfc8 40 Nf4 Qe5

17 h3 cxd4 41 Qa3 Kg7

18 Nxd4 Bb7 42 Rc1 Bb5

19 Rfc1 Nc5 43 Rc8 Be8

20 Qd1 Qe7 44 Qc3 Bd7

21 Qg4 g6 45 Rd8 Rd1

22 Bf1 Bg7 46 Rxd7 Qe4

23 Qd1 Rab8 47 Rxd5 Rxf1+

24 Rc2 Ba8 White resigned