Pursuits: Chess

THE DOS Hermanas tournament in Spain is drawing to its close with just two potentially exciting rounds left. Today the leader Michael Adams on 5/7 plays White against Vladimir Kramnik on 4.5 - and neither player will be absolutely satisfied with a draw, since tomorrow Kramnik has White against Topalov while Adams has a potentially treacherous Black against Karpov.

The other scores are Gelfand, Illescas and Topalov 4, Karpov 3.5, Korchnoi 3, Anand and Svidler 2.5, Judit Polgar 2.

Of these, the most striking is Viswanathan Anand's awful form, with two losses and not a single win. And things could have been even worse . . .

11 Ng5 is Igor Zaitsev's amazing concept which Anatoly Karpov sprang on Viktor Korchnoi in the 10th game of their monumental world championship match in Baguio City in 1978. The idea is to answer 11 ...Qxg5 with 12 Qf3 and this has now given rise to much complex and unclear theory.

11 ...Bd5 was supposed to be quite reliable but the splendid novelty 15 e6!! forcing open the e file puts the ball firmly back in Black's court. Svidler got a vicious attack and could have improved with the simple 26 dxe6 Rxe6 (if 26 ...Nc6 27 Rxh5! Rxh5 28 Qg6!) 27 Bf4.

But Anand's inspired wriggling eventually gave him some initiative for the several pawns deficit and on move 43 he won a piece - though 43 ...Rc2+ 44 Kd1 Rxf2 may be better. The widely separated pawns proved much better than the knight but Anand set up an apparently watertight defence with the pawn on d4 indirectly protected by the knight fork ...Nb5+.

The tragedy for Svidler, who has never beaten Anand, is: he agreed the draw in a won position! After 70 Kxd4 Nb5+ 71 Kc5 Nxa7 72 Kb6! Nc8+ 73 Kc7 White wins after either 73 ...Ne7 74 h7 Kg7 75 f6+! or 73 ...Na7 74 Kd7 Nb5 (or 74 ...Kf6 75 h7 Kg7 76 f6+ Kxh7 77 f7 Kg7 78 Ke8!) 75 h7 Kg7 76 f6+ Kxh7 77 f7 Kg7 78 Ke7!

White: Peter Svidler

Black: Viswanathan Anand

Ruy Lopez Open Variation

1 e4 e5

2 Nf3 Nc6

3 Bb5 a6

4 Ba4 Nf6

5 0-0 Nxe4

6 d4 b5

7 Bb3 d5

8 dxe5 Be6

9 Nbd2 Nc5

10 c3 d4

11 Ng5 Bd5

12 Nxf7 Kxf7

13 Qf3+ Ke6

14 Qg4+ Ke7

15 e6!! Bxe6

16 Re1 Qd7

17 Bxe6 Nxe6

18 Nf3 Re8

19 Ng5 Ncd8

20 Bd2 h6

21 Nf3 Qd5

22 Re5 Qd6

23 cxd4 h5

24 Qe4 Kf7

25 d5 Kg8

26 Qg6 Re7

27 Rae1 Nd4

28 Qxd6 Nxf3+

29 gxf3 cxd6

30 Rxe7 Bxe7

31 Rxe7 Nf7

32 Ra7 h4

33 Ra8+ Kh7

34 Rxa6 Kg6

35 Rb6 Rc8

36 Rxb5 Rc2

37 Bc3 h3

38 Kf1 Ng5

39 Rb7 Nxf3

40 Rxg7+ Kf5

41 Rg3 Ke4

42 Rxh3 Rc1+

43 Ke2 Rxc3!?

44 bxc3 Ng1+

45 Kf1 Nxh3

46 a4 Kxd5

47 Kg2 Ng5

48 h4 Ne4

49 h5 Ke6

50 c4 Nd2

51 a5 Nxc4

52 a6 Nb6

53 a7 Kf5

54 f4 Na8

55 Kf3 d5

56 Ke3 Nc7

57 Kd2 Kf6

58 Kc2 Kf5

59 Kb3 d4

60 Kc4 Kf6

61 Kd3 Kf5

62 Ke2 Kf6

63 Kf2 Kf5

64 Kf3 Na8

65 Ke2 Nc7

66 Kd3 Kf6

67 Ke4 Kf7

68 f5 Kf6

69 h6 Kf7

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