Kasparov in Saint Louis

2017 Saint Louis Combined Standings Saint Louis, USA Aug. 17-18, 2017 Final Standings (Rapid counts double)

1. Levon Aronian ARM, 24.5/36 2- 3. Sergey Karjakin RUS, Hikaru Nakamura USA, 21.5/36

4. Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS, 20.0/36

5-7. Leinier Dominguez Perez CUB, Fabiano Caruana USA, Le Quang Liem VIE, 16.5/36 8. Garry Kasparov RUS 16.0/36 9. Viswanathan Anand IND 14.0/36 10. David Navara CZE 13.0/36 Levon Aronian scored a dominant victory in the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz event, but the big story in Saint Louis is that former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, who many consider the strongest chess player in history, came back and played again after 12 years of retirement.

How did he do? Garry drew all his three games in the first day of the Rapid and had 5.5/9 in the last day of the blitz, not bad for someone who has not played in a long time, but for the rounds in between his rust showed.

Taking it all as a whole, in the Rapid Tournament Kasparov won once ( Le Quang Liem), had five draws and three losses (Caruana, Nepom, Navara)

In the Blitz portion he had four wins (Nakamura, Dominguez twice, Caruana), 10 draws and four losses (Karjakin, Aronian, Le Quang Liem, Caruana)

Kasparov usually started well but lack of sharpness and the consequent missed opportunities were in evidence all throughout. For someone who used to lord it over the field this can be very painful — for example, he mentioned his “Navara moment,” that point in his game against the Czech no. 1 where he botched a winning position and then threw away the draw, and how it will haunt him for the rest of his life. But c’mon guys it wasn’t that bad – even the online commentators Grandmasters Seirawan and Ashley did not see Navara’s saving resource until it was executed on the board. *** Kasparov, Garry (2812) — Navara, David (2737) [B12] Saint Louis Rapid 2017 Saint Louis (7), 16.08.2017 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nc3

Kasparov plays one of the most aggressive lines, 4.Nc3 followed by g2–g4 then maybe Nge2, Be3 and then either Nf4 or h2–h4 or f2–f4. This is known as the Shirov Attack. 4... e6 5. g4 Bg6 6. Nge2 c5 7. Be3 Ne7 8.f4 h5 9.f5!?

The idea is to lock in the black bishop on g6 while making f4 available for his knight. Nobody seems to have ever played this before but it is a good plan.

9... exf5 10. g5 Nbc6 11. Nf4 a6 12.Bg2 cxd4 13.Bxd4 Nxd4 14.Qxd4 Nc6 15.Qf2 Bb4 Suicidal is 15...Nxe5? 16.0–0–0.

16.0– 0– 0 Bxc3 17. bxc3 Qa5 18.Rxd5 Qxc3 19.Qc5 Qxc5 20.Rxc5 0–0 21.Bxc6 bxc6 22.Rd1! This should be winning for Kasparov. He continues with perfect play.]

22...Rab8 23.c4 Rfd8 24.Rd6! Kf8 25.Rcxc6 Rdc8 26.Kc2 h4 27.Rxc8+ Rxc8 28.Kc3 a5 29.Ra6 Rb8 30.Rxa5 Rb1 31.c5 Re1 32.Ra8+ Ke7 33.Ra7+ Ke8 34.Nd3? Now Kasparov starts to unravel, voluntarily removing his knight from its great position. He could have crowned his great play with 34.e6! Re5 35.c6 Rc5+ 36.Kd4 Rxc6 37.e7 Black can resign as he will be mated. 34...Re3 35.Kd2 Rh3 36.c6 Rxh2+ 37.Ke3?

Another mistake — White should have played 37.Kc3. Why allow the black rook to get to c2? 37...Rc2 38.e6 h3

The win is no longer there and unbelievably Black’s h-pawn is two squares away from queening. 39.Nb4 f4+ 40.Kd4! h2 41.Ra8+ Ke7 42.Rh8 Rd2+

According to Navara he had already seen the possibility of his final winning maneuver hereabouts.

43. Kc5 Be4 44. c7! Bb7 45. Kb6 Bc8 46. Rxc8 h1Q! 47. Re8+ Kxe8 48.c8Q+ <D>

POSITION AFTER 48.C8Q+

Kasparov thought he was winning here. It turns out he had made a serious miscalculation. 48...Ke7! 49.Nc6+?

[49.Qc7+ will draw by perpetual, but a draw was farthest from Garry’s mind] 49...Qxc6+! 50.Qxc6

[50.Kxc6 Rc2+] 50...Rd6 0–1

Black’s f-pawn will queen. To be fair to Garry we should show you his best game, which was played in the last round. Leinier Dominguez of Cuba played a bit passively but Kasparov receives full credit for the following positional masterpiece, motivated by (according to Garry) the thought that this might be his last Najdorf!

*** Dominguez Perez, Leinier (2739) — Kasparov, Garry (2812) [B81] Saint Louis Blitz 2017 Saint Louis USA (17), 18.08.2017 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.h3 e6 7.g4 h6 8.Bg2 g5

This has to do with fighting for control of the e5 square. More people would play this line if most of Black’s pieces were not in their home squares. So, to summarize, White has to attack hard or otherwise Black will take over in the latter stages of the game. 9.Be3 Nbd7 10.Qe2 Ne5 11.0–0–0 Nfd7 12.h4?!

Dominguez’ play is uninspired. He has to start pushing hard already with 12.f4 gxf4 13.Bxf4 b5 14.Rhf1 with chances for both sides. 12...Rg8 13.hxg5 hxg5 14.Kb1

[14.Rh5 b5 15.Rdh1 Qf6 16.Nf3 Nxf3 17. Qxf3 Qxf3 18. Bxf3 Ne5 White is not making any headway. ½– ½ ( 18) Mihok, O ( 2443)- Flumbort, A ( 2503) Budapest 2012] 14...b5 15.a3

Neither does 15. f4 gxf4 16. Bxf4 Bb7 17. g5 Qa5 18. Rh7 0– 0– 0 19. a3 Kb8 20. Qf2 Rc8 21. Na2 Ka8 achieve anything. ½–½ (21) Kasimdzhanov,R (2681)-Sasikiran,K (2679) Evry 2008. 15...Bb7 16.Bc1 Rc8

With the idea of 17...Rxc3 18.bxc3 Nc5 19.Rh3 Na4 20.Rdh1 Qc7 21.Qe1 Be7 followed by ...Ng6, ...Bf6 and ...Rgc8.

17.Rh3 Ng6 18.Bh1 Nde5 19.Rg3 Be7 20. Na2 Rh8 21. Rc3 Rxc3 22. Nxc3 Qc7 23. Bg2 Qc4 24. Qxc4 bxc4 25.f3 Rh2 26.Bf1 Nf4

Kasparov has taken over the board, but it is not yet clear where the breakthrough is going to come from. 27.Be3 Bd8!

This is it! He will switch the diagonal of the bishop. Please remember that this is a blitz game — most GMs would have

been happy to see this move in standard time controls. 28.Rd2 Rxd2 29.Bxd2 Bb6 30.Bxf4

The point is that 30. Be3 Bxd4 31. Bxd4 Nxf3 32. Be3 ( the bishop is en prise so White does not have time for Bxc4) 32... d5 33. exd5 Bxd5 next to fall will be the g4– pawn. Black is completely winning. 30...gxf4 31.Nce2 d5 32.exd5 Bxd5 33.Bg2 Nxg4! 34.Nxf4 Ne3

Of course not 34... Bxd4? 35. Nxd5 exd5 36.fxg4 the tables have turned.

35. Nde2 Nxg2 36. Nxg2 Bxf3 37.Nef4 Ke7 38.Kc1 e5 39.Nh4 Be3+ 40.Kb1 Bxf4 41.Nxf3 Ke6 42.b3 e4 43. Nd4+ Kd5 44. c3 Be5 45. bxc4+ Kxc4 46. Nf5 Kxc3 47. Kc1 Kd3 48.Kd1 e3 0–1 A textbook crush. The games show us that Kasparov is still up-to-date in his theory — once bitten by the chess bug you are infected for life. Now we know what Garry does at night during his constant travel around the world.

Garry explained that the reason for his participation in this tournament was to show his appreciation for the sponsor of the Saint Louis Chess Club, Mr. Rex Sinquefield who has been his supporter for the past so many years. Mr. Sinquefield is a fund manager who manages more than $300 billion in assets. In 2007, he and his wife opened the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis to promote awareness of the educational value of chess. He also provided seed funding to relocate the World Chess Hall of Fame to Saint Louis.

Since then Saint Louis has become the de facto chess center of the United States and starting 2009 all of the USA Chess Championships have been played there.

At the closing ceremony, Garry Kasparov did not rule out coming back to chess in the future but he qualified that if and when he does it will be at the Saint Louis Chess Club.