Chess

AFTER Karpov, Kasparov and Korchnoi came Kamsky, and now the chess world has a fifth great K to konjure with. Vladimir Kramnik, 19, played a major part in Russia's victory at Olympics earlier this year and last week made a major contribution to their gold medals in the European Team Championship. His score of 6/7 included this fine win from the match against Armenia.

White's 15. Ba2 and 16. Bb1 might have looked like youthful optimism, but it set up the elegant 17. d5] which effectively decided the game. 17 . . . exd5 18. Nxd5] or 18 . . . cxd5 19. Nxd5] Qxc2 20. Nxe7+ lead to mate on h7 or drastic loss of material for Black. At the end, either capture on d7 allows a fatal queen check on e7. A powerfully played game.

----------------------------------------------------------------- White: Kramnik Black: Lputyan ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1 d4 e6 2 c4 Nf6 3 Nf3 d5 4 Nc3 Be7 5 Bf4 0-0 6 e3 c6 7 Qc2 Nbd7 8 h3 a6 9 Rd1 h6 18 Rfe1 Kh8 10 a3 dxc4 19 dxe6 Rxd1 11 Bxc4 Nd5 20 Rxd1 fxe6 12 0-0 Nxf4 21 Ne4 g6 13 exf4 Qc7 22 Nc5 Bxc5 14 Ne5 Nf6 23 Qxc5 Rg8 15 Ba2 Bd7 24 Ba2 Kg7 16 Bb1 Be8 25 Bxe6 Rf8 17 d5 Rd8 26 Nd7 1-0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Yesterday's answer: 1. Bh3 f3 2. g4 f2 3. Bg2 mate. -----------------------------------------------------------------