Chess

Gata Kamsky's dreams of winning two world championships could all be over today if he loses the 11th game of his match against Viswanathan Anand. Perhaps that would be the best thing for him to do. Then he would be free to concentrate on the match with Karpov later this year for the Fide title. And if the Karpov hurdle can be surmounted, he can look forward to a unifying match against the winner of Kasparov-Anand.

Such a plan, however, is unlikely to appeal to the ambitious Kamsky, who can be relied on to pursue his battle against Anand to the last breath. If he can avoid losing today, then a win with the white pieces in the last game will level the scores and take the match into a quick-play shoot- out. And the last time Kamsky and Anand were involved in such a tie-break, it was the Indian whose nerves collapsed.

The only trouble with the draw-with-Black, win-with-White

plan, however, is that Kamsky has, throughout this match, been struggling with the black pieces and finding it difficult to gain any advantage with White.

The most recent game seemed to underline the deficiencies in Kamsky's opening preparation. Meeting the Grnfeld Defence with the sharp Exchange Variation, he experimented with the unusual 10.Rc1 (instead of 10.0-0) and 12.Kf1. When 13.Qb3 followed, however, it all looked completely unconvincing.

The exchange of queens left a standard type of endgame in which Black has few problems. Anand quickly gained the bishop pair and gave up a pawn to keep his pieces as active as possible. With 21...f5 destroying White's over-extended centre, it was clear that White, despite his extra pawn, was not going to win the game.

White: G. Kamsky

Black: V. Anand

1 d4 Nf6 22 exf5 Bxf5

2 c4 g6 23 Rd1 Ba3

3 Nc3 d5 24 Be3 Bd6

4 cxd5 Nxd5 25 h3 Ra2

5 e4 Nxc3 26 Nd4 Bd7

6 bxc3 Bg7 27 Re1 Kf7

7 Bc4 c5 28 g4 h5

8 Ne2 0-0 29 Kg3 Ra5

9 Be3 Nc6 30 Ne6 Bxe6

10 Rc1 cxd4 31 dxe6+ Kxe6

11 cxd4 Qa5+ 32 Kf3 Ra2

12 Kf1 Qa3 33 Rd1 Rb2

13 Qb3 Qxb3 34 Rd3 hxg4+

14 Bxb3 Bd7 35 hxg4 Rb1

15 f4 Rfc8 36 Bd2 Rf1+

16 Kf2 Na5 37 Ke4 Rg1

17 d5 Nxb3 38 Kf3 Rf1+

18 axb3 Bb2 39 Ke4 Rg1

19 Rxc8+ Rxc8 40 Kf3 Rf1+

20 Bxa7 Rc2 41 Ke4 draw

21 Kf3 f5

William Hartston