Impressions of a chess game

A Garry Kasparov postmortem captured on disk 

We've all seen it happen -- Garry Kasparov analysing with his
opponent after a game, the pieces flying accross the board. In
the end the opponent gets up in a daze, wondering how he could
have survived forty moves without seeing most of the variations
just demonstrated.

After the finals of the Intel Grand Prix in New York I had the
unique opportunity of actually recording this kind of postmortem
analysis by the World Champion. Garry had enthralled the audience
with a brilliant, attacking game, only to let Kramnik escape with
a draw. In the second game the missed opportunities were still
playing heavily on his mind, and he was ground down by his rapid
chess nemesis.

That evening a dinner was on the agenda. As we met in Garry's
suite in the Trump Plaza it was obvious that the lost match was
still churning around in his system. "I had the game of the year
on the board," he cried out in anguish, and switched on his
laptop to show me where 
he had gone astray. While hungry friends glanced at their
watches, Garry moused in variation after variation with lightning
agility, starting new lines and sublines, entering evaluations,
periodically glancing up at me with the mute questions: "Why
didn't I do that, how could I let the chance go by?"

In about half an hour the analysis was complete, and I did not
forget to press Ctrl-S and save it all in ChessBase. "Can I use
this material?" I asked. "Okay, but check it with Fritz and call
it 'impressions'," he replied. Indeed, one must remember that
this is not the result of weeks of painstaking research but
spontaneous analysis immediately after the game.

Back in Hamburg I ran the game through the new auto-analysis
function of Fritz3. The program closed some holes and found a
couple of interesting alternatives (all commentary by Fritz is
given as "RR" variations in brackets). 

Frederic Friedel

========================

Kasparov,G (2805) - Kramnik,V (1) (2710)
New York PCA 25' (04) [Kasparov], 1994

**1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 dxc4 6.e4 b5 7.e5 h6
8.Bh4 g5 9.Nxg5 hxg5 10.Bxg5 Nbd7 11.exf6 Bb7 12.g3 c5 13.d5 Qb6
14.Bg2 0-0-0 15.0-0 b4 16.Rb1! (Uhlmann) 16...Qa6 17.dxe6 Bxg2
18.e7 Bxf1 19.Qd5 Bxe7**

[19...Bh6 20.exd8Q+ Kxd8 (Yermolinsky-Ivanchuk/Podolsk/1986/)] 

**20.fxe7 Rdg8 21.Ne4 Rg6 22.Rxf1?** This was played in the game.


In his analysis Garry concentrates his attention on the missed
opportunity arising after the moves: 22.Qa8+! Nb8

A) 23.Bf4 Qb7 24.Qxb7+ Kxb7 25.Kxf1 Kc6 (25...Nd7 26.Rd1) 26.Rd1
Nd7 (26...Re8 27.Bxb8 Rxb8 28.Rd8 Rg8 29.Rxg8 Rxg8 30.Nf6+-) 

A1) RR 27.Nd6! (Fritz3 finds a remarkable improvement to
Kasparov's analysis.) 27...Re6 (27...Nf6 28.Nxf7 (with the idea
Ne5) 28.Nxf7+- (idea Nd8);

A2) 27.Rd6+ Rxd6 28.Nxd6 Nf6 29.Be5 Rg8 30.Nxf7 Nd5 unclear;

B) 23.Rxf1 Qc6 

23...Qb7 24.Qxb7+ Kxb7 25.Bf6+-) 24.Rd1!! Qxa8 25.Rd8+ Kc7
(25...Kb7 26.Rxh8 Re6 27.Nxc5++-) 26.Bf4+ Kb6 27.Rxh8 Re6 28.e8Q
Rxe8 29.Rxe8 Qd5 30.Rxb8+ Ka6 (30...Ka5 31.Re8 f5 32.Nxc5! Qd1+
33.Kg2 Qd5+ 34.Kh3+- 

B1) 31.Nd6 c3 32.bxc3 bxc3 33.Nb5 Qd1+ 34.Kg2 34...Qd5+ (34...c2
35.Nc7+ Ka5 36.Rb5+ Ka4 37.Rxc5+-) 35.f3 Qxa2+ 36.Kh3 Qe6+ 37.g4
Qe2 unclear;

B2) 31.f3 f5;

B3) 31.Re8 f5 32.Re6+?+- Ka5 33.Bc7+ Kb5;

B4) 31.Nd2! c3 32.bxc3 bxc3 33.Nb3 c4 34.Nc1

B41) 34...Qd1+ 35.Kg2 Qd5+ 36.f3 Qf5 (RR 36...Qd2+! offers more
resistance) 37.Re8 Qc2+ 38.Re2+-;

B42) 34...c2 35.h4+-

**22...Qc6 23.Qxc6+ Rxc6 24.Rd1?**

24.Bf4! Re8 25.Nd6+ Rxd6 26.Bxd6 Kb7 27.Re1 Kc6 28.Bf4 Nf6 29.h4
Nd5 30.Bc1

A) 30...Rxe7 31.Rxe7 Nxe7 32.h5 Kd5 33.h6 Ng6 34.h7 Ke4 35.Be3+-;

B) 30...c3 31.bxc3 Nxc3 32.h5 Nxa2 33.Bg5 c4

B1) 34.Rd1! (?RR) 34...b3 35.Rd8 b2 36.Rxe8 b1Q+ 37.Kh2 Qf5
38.Rd8 Qxf2+ 39.Kh3 Qf1+ 40.Kg4 Qe2+ (RR Here Garry misses a mate
in two: 40...f5+! 41.Kh4 Qh1#) 41.Kf4 Qf2+ 42.Ke5 Qb2+ 43.Kf5
Qf2+ 44.Bf4 Qc5+ 45.Kf6+-;

B2) 34.h6 (RR Fritz3 gives the move an "!" - see variation B21
below) 34...c3 35.h7
         
B21) 35...c2 36.h8Q (RR 36.Bh6! After knocking a hole in the
variation B1 Fritz3 now proceeds to repair it for White 36...Nc3
37.Bf8 Nd1 38.h8Q c1Q 39.Qf6+ Kb7 40.Qd6+-) 36...Rxh8 37.e8Q+
Rxe8 38.Rxe8 unclear;

B22) 35...b3 (Garry only gives this move, Fritz3 completes the
variation) RR 36.Bf6 Kd7 37.h8Q Rxh8 38.Bxh8 Ke8 39.Kg2 c2 40.Bb2
(idea Re3) 40...a5 41.Ba3+- (idea Rh1);

C) 30...Kd7! 31.h5 Rxe7 32.Rd1 (32.Rxe7+? Kxe7=) 32...Kc6 33.h6
f5 34.Kg2 c3 35.bxc3 Nxc3 36.Rh1 Rh7 37.Rh5 Nxa2 38.Be3 c4
39.Rxf5 c3 40.g4 b3 41.g5 b2 42.Rc5+ Kd6 43.Rb5+-

**24...Re8 25.Nd6+**

25.h4 f6 26.Rd6 Kc7 27.Nxf6 (27.Bf4 Rxe7 28.Re6+ Kd8 29.Rxc6 Rxe4
30.h5 c3 31.bxc3 bxc3 32.h6 c2 33.h7 Re8 34.Re6 Rh8 35.Re2 Rxh7
36.Rxc2) 27...Nxf6 28.Rxc6+ Kxc6 29.Bxf6 Kd7 30.g4 Ke6 31.g5
unclear.

**25...Rxd6 26.Rxd6 f6 27.Bxf6**

(27.Bf4! Rxe7 28.Kf1 and white has an advantage, since the white
h-pawn is very dangerous) 

**27...Kc7 28.Re6 Nxf6 29.Rxf6 Rxe7 30.Kf1 Re4 31.Rf4 Rxf4
32.gxf4 Kd6 
33.Ke2 a5 34.a4 c3 35.bxc3 b3 draw.**