Chess

Garry Kasparov has made certain of retaining his PCA world championship. By drawing the 17th game of his match with Viswanathan Anand, he took his score to 10 points. While his title is secure, he still needs another half-point to take the $1m winner's purse offered by the match sponsors, Intel.

As he had promised, Anand did "give it one last shot" in the 17th game. Meeting Kasparov's Dragon Sicilian for the fourth time, he finally adopted the theoretically critical variation of 13.Bg5. Kasparov's reply was not totally convincing, and he needed to defend accurately to save a difficult endgame.

White: Viswanathan Anand

Black: Garry Kasparov

17th match game

Sicilian Defence

1 e4 c5 17 Bxf6 exf6

2 Nf3 d6 18 Nde2 Rc6

3 d4 cxd4 19 Nd5 Qxd2

4 Nxd4 Nf6 20 Rxd2 Nc4

5 Nc3 g6 21 Bxc4 bxc4

6 Be3 Bg7 22 Red1 f5

7 f3 0-0 23 exf5 Bxf5

8 Qd2 Nc6 24 Nd4 Bxd4

9 Bc4 Bd7 25 Rxd4 Re2

10 h4 h5 26 R4d2 Rxd2

11 Bb3 Rc8 27 Rxd2 Kf8

12 0-0-0 Ne5 28 Kc1 Be6

13 Bg5 Rc5 29 Rd4 Bxd5

14 Kb1 Re8 30 Rxd5 Ke7

15 Rhe1 Qa5 31 Rb5 Ke6

16 a3 b5 32 Rb7 Rc5

33 Rxa7 g5 49 f4 Kc8

34 Ra8 gxh4 50 f5 Kd8

35 Re8+ Kd7 51 Kf4 Rc5

36 Re4 c3 52 Kg5 Rxc4

37 Rxh4 cxb2+ 53 Kg6 Rg4+

38 Kxb2 Rg5 54 Kf7 d5

39 a4 f5 55 f6 Kd7

40 a5 f4 56 Kf8+ Ke6

41 a6 Kc7 57 f7 Rf4

42 Rxf4 Rxg2 58 Kg8 d4

43 Rf7+ Kb8 59 f8(Q) Rxf8+

44 Kc3 h4 60 Kxf8 Ke5

45 Kd3 Rf2 61 Rxh4 d3

46 c4 Ra2 62 Rh3 Ke4

47 Ke4 Rxa6 63 Rxd3 draw

48 Rh7 Ra5

The course of this game confirms the view that it was Anand's play in games 11 and 13 that lost him the match. A blunder in game 11 and a piece of disastrous opening preparation in game 13 presented Kasparov with two gift points when he should have been sweating to defend himself in difficult endgames.

In pure ability, Anand is Kasparov's equal. He has just had a painful lesson in fighting qualities, match temperament and sheer ruthlessness.