Chess v

When playing a 20-year-old, it might seem a good idea to adopt an opening that has not been seen at the highest level for 23 years, but such simple logic fails when the precocious youth is Gata Kamsky.

In the third game of the Kamsky-Salov match in Sanghi Nagar, India, Salov played a Queen's Gambit line that was the height of fashion in the 1930s, died out in the 1950s, and was briefly exhumed by Boris Spassky to play against Bobby Fischer in 1972 - three years before Kamsky was born.

What Salov did not take into account is the phenomenal work-rate of his opponent. Analysing chess for 14 hours a day since his early teens, Kamsky has worked his way back well beyond the Seventies. As this game shows, he has both assimilated the earlier theory and added embellishments of his own.

The first 18 moves are half a century old. Black's 10...b5 and 11...a6 threatens 12...c5, which White delays with 12.a4! The next few moves see Black re-establishing symmetry with c5 and cxd4, but Kamsky's Be4, Nc6 and Bg3 was a new idea that put the Black position under strain.

24.Ne4! is a deceptively simple move that Salov must have underestimated. After exchanging with 24...Nxe4 25.Bxe4, Black has no good way to solve his problems on the g3-b8 diagonal, which include an immediate threat of Rc6.

Once Black permitted the doubling of his f-pawns, he was in trouble, and Kamsky's 30.Be1! and 31.Rf3! was a powerful way to increase White's advantage. In the final position, 34...Qd4+ loses to 35.Bf2, while 34...Qb5 35.Rxd6! Rxd6 36.Qc8+ leads to mate.

White: G. Kamsky

Black: V. Salov

1 d4 d5 19 Be4 Qb8

2 c4 e6 20 Nc6 Bxc6

3 Nc3 Be7 21 Bxc6 Ra7

4 Nf3 Nf6 22 Bg3 Ne5

5 Bg5 h6 23 Qd4 Bd6

6 Bh4 Nbd7 24 Ne4 Nxc6

7 e3 0-0 25 Nxf6+ gxf6

8 Rc1 c6 26 Rxc6 Be5

9 Bd3 dxc4 27 Qg4+ Kh7

10 Bxc4 b5 28 Qe4+ Kg7

11 Bd3 a6 29 f4 Bc7

12 a4 bxa4 30 Be1 Qb5

13 Nxa4 Qa5+ 31 Rf3 Rd8

14 Nd2 Bb4 32 Rg3+ Kh8

15 Nc3 c5 33 h3 Qd5

16 Nb3 Qd8 34 Qc2 Bd6

17 0-0 cxd4 35 e4 resigns

18 Nxd4 Bb7

Kamsky now leads Salov 4-1; Karpov and Gelfand are level with five games to play.

William Hartston