C30 Video Chess Tutor 6/30/96 Kamsky v Karpov (Petroff's Defense)
FIDE World Championship

Hi everybody. The game for today is from the Karpov - Kamsky match that is still under way in Elisa, Kalmykia. That is east of Turkey, near the Caspian Sea. This is going to be the game from round six, played June 16th (Ed.-1996). Several games have been played since then, but this is the shortest. If you'd like to see the other games, go to www.uschess.org or just do a search on chess. (Ed.- They might still be there)

Anyway, in this game, Gata Kamsky has white against Anatoly Karpov. I think Gata is the highest rated American player right now, but he's never been the world champ like Anatoly. Nevertheless, both of these guys are way over my head, so I won't try to get into the subtle ideas involved. I'll just try to give the basics.

Gata has the first move, and he starts off with pawn to e4. To that, Anatoly answers with pawn to e5. Although the two pawns block each other, this is a lively opening, because already both sides have two open diagonals. Mobility is very important, and both sides are trying to get open lines, so their pieces can attack.

As you might expect, Gata next plays knight to f3. Top players almost always make that move in this situation. That attacks the black pawn in the center; but it also is a good defensive move as well. This next move is a little unusual though. Anatoly decides to counter-attack by moving his knight to f6. Those of you who study openings will know this is the trademark of Petroff's Defense. Some Grandmasters still use it; but I think it is a little riskier than other defenses.

Now this is a surprise to me. Normally, the white side grabs the black pawn here; but Gata doesn't do that. He plays pawn to d4 instead. That opens his dark-squared bishop. Now Anatoly could take this white pawn with his pawn; but that would give the other white pawn a clear path to advance. I think that is why he takes the white e-pawn with his knight instead; but let's keep going.

Now Gata has given up a pawn; but he can easily get it back. First though, he plays bishop to d3, attacking the black knight and giving his king a place to castle. Anatoly doesn't want to retreat just yet, so he defends his knight by moving his pawn to d5. This also gives his light-squared bishop an open diagonal.

Gata still has his sights on the black pawn on e5 though, and here he takes it with his knight. You know, this position looks familiar. Actually, I think it is just the same as another game I used here some time ago. Anyway, Anatoly next puts his other knight on d7, confronting the white knight in the center. Although this blocks one of the black bishops, I suspect this is standard procedure.

I bet the same goes for this next part. Here Gata trades knights. He takes the black knight on d7 with his knight, even though it will help Anatoly to develop his bishop when he recaptures the white knight.

Why did Gata trade knights? He could have castled, as he does here; but if he had, Anatoly might have traded knights on e5. That would have pulled the white pawn into the e-file; and that would have spoiled the potential attack that the white rook might get in the near future. Gata would like his rook on e1, aiming at the black knight and king in that file. If his pawn were also in that file, it would ruin the pin he hopes to get. Of course, Anatoly sees what Gata would like to do, and he prepares to castle by putting his other bishop on d6. Incidentally, that aims down near the white king.

Next, Gata plays knight to c3. That attacks the black pawn and knight in the center. While you might think that would prompt Anatoly to retreat or maybe trade these knights, he decides to counter-attack by moving his queen to h4. That leaves the black pawn hanging undefended; but along with the black bishop that moved a little earlier, the queen poses a deadly threat. I'm sure you see what I mean. They both aim at the white pawn on h2; and if Anatoly got the chance, he'd take it, with his queen calling "checkmate".

Gata has a couple of ways to deal with that though. He could push his pawn to f4 to block the bishop; but he goes with pawn to g3, attacking the black queen in the process. Nevertheless, Anatoly doesn't have to move his queen. Has has knight takes knight on c3. He can do that, because from there the black knight attacks the white queen.

That gives us an interesting position. What would you do here? One idea would be to play queen to e1, check. Do you see how that could be a major problem for the black side? The white queen would then be safe from the black knight, while both the black king and queen would be in danger. Whenever you counter- attack, like Anatoly has here, you have to be very careful about a counter-counter-attack. In this case, if Gata moved his queen to e1, Anatoly would have only one logical move, retreating his queen to e7.

I'm sure that both Gata and Anatoly looked at that possibility; but Gata decides to take the knight on c3 with his pawn. That doubles his pawns; but I don't think Gata liked the other alternatives. After this, Anatoly will have to move his queen somewhere. Now this might seem odd, but Anatoly offers to trade queens. He puts his queen on g4, right in line with the white queen on the diagonal. A black bishop also aims at g4, so Gata wouldn't really profit from taking the black queen.

The resulting position is something to consider though. Who do you think would have the better position after a queen trade? Evidently both players think the black side would be better. Otherwise Anatoly would not have offered the trade; or Gata would have accepted. He doesn't though. He moves his rook to e1 instead. That is check. That makes sense, because Anatoly doesn't have a good way to block the attack, and he can't castle out of check. What is wrong with bishop to e6? Why, that would leave the bishop pinned and unable to defend the black queen. Anatoly is practically forced to move his king. He moves him to d8. That is a nuisance, because it rather shuts in one of the black rooks; but at least the other can get out. This ought to show why castling can be important. Now Anatoly will have to waste time if he wants to use his rook on a8. A rook usually belongs on an open file, like the white rook is; and the quicker you can get one there, the better.

So now how about a queen trade? Gata still doesn't like the idea. He puts his bishop on e2, offering something cheaper than his queen for the black one. Naturally Anatoly won't go for that though. He pulls his queen back to f5. Why f5? To be honest, I don't know right off. You can bet that that is the best square for her though. For one thing, from there, she aims at f3 and h3; and both squares are weak points in the white king's defense.

Gata is in no immediate danger however, so he can play rook to b1, taking a shot at a black pawn. That is quite predictable. As I said before, a rook belongs on an open file. Also predictable is Anatoly's response. He pushes his pawn to b6. His wedge of pawns should keep the white rook at bay for quite some time.

From the white point of view, these pawns are something to get rid of, so it's not surprising that Gata now shoves his pawn ahead to c4. Anatoly would probably like to avoid a pawn battle in front of his king; but he can't very well, so he takes the white pawn on c4 with his pawn.

After Gata recaptures on c4 with his bishop, you might see how this pawn trade has helped the white attack. The white queen has a clearer shot at the black king, the white bishop is more aggressive, and the white rook on e1 is no longer blocked. This last factor is going to convince Anatoly to play rook to e8, to try to neutralize the white rook.

Now Gata could trade rooks; but that would help Anatoly to shift his king over behind his wall of kingside pawns. I'm not surprised that he doesn't take the black rook; but I wonder why he plays bishop to e3 instead. It is about time that he moved that bishop; but that looks a little too defensive. Just compare it to Anatoly's next move, bishop to c6. That looks pretty scary. From there is threatens to join in a mating attack.

The light squares around the white king are very weak; but Gata can protect himself with pawn to d5. The white queen and bishop defend the pawn from the black queen and bishop, so this move shuts off the longest diagonal going to the white king. It also forces the black bishop back; and here Anatoly retreats his bishop to d7.

I rather wonder why Anatoly bothered to move the bishop up, when it was rather clear that Gata would push the pawn; but I also wonder about Gata's next move, bishop to f1. I like bishop to b5 instead. On the other hand, after that, Anatoly plays pawn to h6; and that doesn't look like it does much for the black side either.

Next comes pawn to c4. That should be expected. Gata wants to mix it up in front of the black king. Rook to e7 looks logical too. From there, the black rook can go in front of the king; or Anatoly might shift his king behind the rook.

The next move is bishop to d3. With this move, Gata attacks the black queen; but I don't see any long-range plan connected to it. Since the white queen defends the bishop, Anatoly next retreats his queen to f6. The queen still covers the f3 square from there; but there might be some other reason for going to f6.

Now let's look at Gata's next move. It's king to g2. That looks rather strange, doesn't it?, putting the king in a more exposed position. I think he does that to keep the black bishop away from h3. It would be pretty uncomfortable for Gata if the bishop went there, trapping his king. Evidently Anatoly doesn't feel safe with his king where he is either, because his move is king to e8. Although this puts the king in front of a white rook, the king will be a lot safer after he goes one more square to that side.

Next Gata tries bishop to c2. What do you think? Is he planning to move the bishop to a4, for a showdown with the black bishop, or is he clearing a path for his queen? I don't think we're going to find out, because Anatoly now charges in with queen to c3. . . That changes quite a bit.

Mainly, that attacks the undefended white c-pawn, so Gata puts his bishop on b3. I rather like offering a queen trade instead, but I'm sure that Gata knows more than I do. I agree with king to f8 though. Anatoly does that for a couple of reasons. One is to get the king to a safer place; and the other is to make room for his rook to line up behind the other one.

I'm starting to like the black side of this; but Gata can still cause trouble. Here he slides his rook to c1, aiming at the black queen. That will make the black queen retreat; but Anatoly moves her back to f6. Once again, she is back where she might harass the white king.

That looks like a good move; but I don't get this next one. Gata moves his bishop back to c2. Actually, I think it is connected to his next move, so let's keep going. After Gata moves the bishop, Anatoly slides his rook from a8 to e8. That sets up a nice battery of rooks in the e-file. The white bishop that blocks their path is safe while a pawn defends it; but Gata will have to be careful about those rooks from now on.

His next move is queen to d3. Now his bishop move makes more sense. If the bishop wasn't backing her up on the diagonal, Anatoly probably would now put his bishop on f5 to chase the white queen away. However, now Anatoly can move his bishop to g4. That puts a lot of pressure on the f3 square; and Gata can't do much to keep the black side out of there.

Bishop to d2 is his way to try to hang on. That lets his queen cover f3, and it gives his rook on e1 the extra protection it needs from the black rooks.

Anatoly has a really cute move now though. It's rook to e2. That's a monster. Do you see the threat? That sets up queen takes pawn on f2, check, and mate one move later.

Gata is in trouble now. He takes the black rook with his rook; but Anatoly can replace it with another black rook, because he has a bishop backing it up as well. After Anatoly recaptures on e2 with his other rook, Gata has to worry about the two move mate threat once again.

What can he do? Rook to f1 looks pretty good; but that really doesn't do the trick. Maybe I should say that doesn't do the job, because Anatoly has the trick. He takes the white bishop on d2 with his rook, making defense nearly impossible for the white side.

As a matter of fact, Gata resigns here. He sees that the white queen is overworked. Taking the rook with his queen would leave the f3 square undefended again. Why is f3 so important? If Anatoly got the chance, he would play queen to f3, check, then bishop to h3. Then Gata would have only one move to stop queen to g2, checkmate. Unfortunately for him, he would need more moves than that.

Now that was round six, and the last time I checked, Anatoly was leading 8 to 4. It is possible that Gata could make a comeback; but it looks like Karpov will be the FIDE champ again. (Ed.-FIDE is the Federation International de Echecs).

Well, I guess this is it. I hope you have enjoyed this show. Good luck and have fun!