The whole opening line ( 6.Be3 Ng4 in Najdorf ) became rather popular during the last years. 10.Qd2, however, is in my opinion inferior to 10.Be2 when White is aiming for more concrete play. Kasparov won against Shirov in Hoogovens 99 with 10…h5 11.Bxg4 hxg4 12.0-0 e6!? but it's another story. Also 12.a4 ( instead of 12.f3 ) deserved attention but Vassily was aiming for position from the game Anand - Kasparov ( Linares 1998 ). So naive! One year before Kasparov played passive move 14…Bd7 and got into worse position. Afterwards FRITZ & Dokhoian device was switched on and brand-new conceipt with 14…b4 was worked out. Looks so natural, doesn't it? The problem is that WC Council Champion can't even claim "the best novelty" as the move 14…b4! was already played in October 1998 by 11 years old Georgian girl Nana Dzagnidze during U12 girls' World Championship in Spain. Somehow her opponent ( also 11 years old girl, certainly) reacted better than superGM Vassily Ivanchuk. She retreated her knight to e2 so the real novelty in Ivanchuk-Kasparov game was played by Ivanchuk, and hardly successful. After 15.Nd1 Nxd4 16.Bxd4 d5! Black is doing really fine. 17.Ba7 would be lesser evil from Ivanchuk's point of view but caught by surprise he went astray and played the second part of the game obviously depressed. Somehow I've got a strong feeling that Kasparov started playing chess around move 23 and played the final phase quite well. Exchange sac is quite nice although obvious. It's a pity that he missed direct win with 28…Nxd1! and preferred to transpose the game into technically won ending. Ivanchuk was so shocked that he resigned in position where he could hang on for a while.

Poor Vassily! I think he prepared some improvement to abovementioned Anand-Kasparov game. We will never know exactly which one. But anyway this severe punishment was well-deserved. So long when people will play Kasparov this way (I mean sharp theoretical lines even with some prepared novelties) he will win all the tournaments. I wrote about this in tournament preview. Unfortunately our website is not very popular yet. One can't win the race on "Volkswagen" vs. Formula car even being born-driver . Imagine: how many men and computers are working for Ivanchuk on his opening lines just every day and every night? And for Kasparov? So, Vassily, taste this bitter difference. Why wasn't he so aggressive the day before against Anand? Why didn't he play somewhat supersolid and boring (1.e4 c5 2.d3 or somewhat even more obscure) against Gazza? This man is champion - just let him show how good is he. No way. Playing Kasparov everybody concentrates all the aggression, chooses the sharpest opening line and… commits suicide this way.

I can understand that all what Kasparov has done to destroy the chess world can cause such a reaction but please, a bit more quiet.

Really I want to see Morozevich playing Kasparov. I bet he wouldn't challenge the champion in opening preparation. I hope he would choose the right way.

after 14.Nd4 (14…b4!)

after 28.Kg1 (28…Nxd1!)

Kasparov played 28…Rc8 and won anyway