Contents

Title page
Index of Games
About the Author
Foreword

Chapter 1. A Hallowed Meeting

Chapter 2. First Steps (1973-1975)
Chapter 3. First Leaps (1976-1977)
Chapter 4. Recognition (1978-1981)
Chapter 5. Selected Games (1972-1981)
Games 1-7
Games 8-15
Games 16-22
Games 23-31
Games 32-39
Games 40-46

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 Coaching Kasparov, Year by Year and Move by Move
Volume I: The Whizz-Kid (1973-1981)

Alexander Nikitin

Coaching Kasparov, Year by Year and Move by Move

Volume I: The Whizz-Kid (1973-1981)
Author: Alexander Nikitin
Translated from the Russian by Ilan Rubin
Chess editors: Grigory Baranov and Anastasia Travkina
Typesetting by Andrei Elkov (www.elkov.ru)
© LLC Elk and Ruby Publishing House, 2019. All rights reserved
Published in Russian in 1998 © Alexander Nikitin and 64 Publishing House. All rights reserved (the
games and commentary from the Kasparov vs Tal blitz match of 1978 are published for the first time)
Versions of this book were published in German, French and Spanish over 1991-1996
Photo on the About the Author page: © Evgeny Surov (www.chess-news.ru)
Other photos provided by Alexander Nikitin
Analysis of the Kasparov vs Tal blitz match was carried out by the author in 2019 using modern
computer engines. Analysis of the other games has generally not been updated since it was completed
in the early 1990s, although a small number of corrections have been made, as the main purpose of the
analysis is to provide practical advice from the point of view of a coach, and to explain the thought
process of the young Garry Kasparov and his opponents, and that advice and explanation has not
changed
Follow us on Twitter: @ilan_ruby
www.elkandruby.com
ISBN 978-5-6041769-5-5

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 Index of Games

1. G. Weinstein – S. Muratkuliev Spanish Opening 1972

2. E. Kengis – G. Weinstein Sicilian Defense 1973
3. E. Magerramov – G. Weinstein Sicilian Defense 1973
4. G. Weinstein – O. Privorotsky Sicilian Defense 1974
5. G. Weinstein – A. Yermolinsky Alekhine Defense 1975
6. G. Weinstein – B. Kantsler King’s Indian Attack 1975
7. A. Karpov – G. Kasparov Sicilian Defense 1975
8. V. Korchnoi – G. Kasparov King’s Indian Defense 1975
9. G. Kasparov – A. Kayumov Caro-Kann Defense 1976
10. S. Lputian – G. Kasparov King’s Indian Defense 1976
11. G. Kasparov – E. Pigusov Queen’s Gambit 1977
12. G. Kasparov – L. Zaid Sicilian Defense 1977
13. A. Nikitin – G. Kasparov King’s Indian Defense 1977
14. J. Arnason – G. Kasparov Sicilian Defense 1977
15. E. Magerramov – G. Kasparov Queen’s Gambit 1977
16. S. Yuferov – G. Kasparov King’s Indian Defense 1978
17. G. Kasparov – A. Roizman Spanish Opening 1978
18. M. Shereshevsky – G. Kasparov Queen’s Pawn Opening 1978
19. G. Kasparov – A. Panchenko Sicilian Defense 1978
20. G. Kasparov – S. Palatnik Alekhine Defense 1978
21. L. Alburt – G. Kasparov King’s Indian Defense 1978
22. G. Kasparov – L. Polugaevsky Sicilian Defense 1978
23. M. Tal – G. Kasparov Sicilian Defense 1978
24. G. Kasparov – M. Tal Sicilian Defense 1978
25. M. Tal – G. Kasparov Caro-Kann Defense 1978
26. G. Kasparov – M. Tal Spanish Opening 1978
27. M. Tal – G. Kasparov King’s Indian Defense 1978
28. G. Kasparov – M. Tal French Defense 1978
29. M. Tal – G. Kasparov Sicilian Defense 1978
30. G. Kasparov – M. Tal Sicilian Defense 1978

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31. M. Tal – G. Kasparov Modern Defense 1978
32. G. Kasparov – M. Tal Spanish Opening 1978
33. M. Tal – G. Kasparov Sicilian Defense 1978
34. G. Kasparov – M. Tal Spanish Opening 1978
35. M. Tal – G. Kasparov Caro-Kann Defense 1978
36. G. Kasparov – M. Tal Sicilian Defense 1978
37. G. Kasparov – W. Browne Queen’s Indian Defense 1979
38. G. Kasparov – K. Lerner Nimzo-Indian Defense 1979
39. G. Kasparov – V. Kupreichik Slav Defense 1979
40. G. Kasparov – J. Pribyl Grunfeld Defense 1980
41. G. Kasparov – M. Chiburdanidze King’s Indian Defense 1980
42. G. Kasparov – R. Akesson Queen’s Indian Defense 1980
43. A. Karpov – G. Kasparov English Opening 1981
44. G. Kasparov – L. Yurtaev Nimzo-Indian Defense 1981
45. G. Kasparov – T. Petrosian Queen’s Gambit 1981
46. V. Tukmakov – G. Kasparov King’s Indian Defense 1981

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 About the Author

Alexander Nikitin, born 1935 in Moscow, coached Garry

Kasparov from 1973 until 1990. He was Kasparov’s chief
second in his candidates and world championship matches
from 1983-1987. In 1992 Nikitin seconded Boris Spassky
during the latter’s return match against Bobby Fischer, and
later in the 1990s he coached the young Etienne Bacrot.
Other illustrious former pupils include Grandmaster Dmitry
Jakovenko.
At just 17 years of age Nikitin became one of the
youngest USSR masters of sport in chess, in 1952. He was
awarded the title of International Master in 1992. Nikitin
gained the titles of honored trainer of the Azerbaijan Soviet
Socialist Republic in 1980 and of the USSR in 1986. He
became FIDE Senior Trainer in 2004. Nikitin participated in several Moscow championships, and his
best result was sharing 2nd-5th places in 1954. He also played in the USSR championship in 1959. As a
member of the Soviet team he won the student world championship in 1955, 1957 and 1958. Nikitin
shared 3rd-4th places together with Razuvaev and ahead of Taimanov at the Botvinnik Memorial
veterans tournament, held in Elista in 2002. He was a senior trainer in the Petrosian School from 1977
to 1993, which he ran from 1984 after the ex-world champion’s death. Super grandmasters that Nikitin
coached at the school include Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk and Boris Gelfand.
He is the author of a number of chess books in several languages, including on opening theory. In the
2000s, Nikitin assisted Kasparov in producing the latter’s autobiographical works. Living in Moscow,
he remains an active chess writer, completing a Russian-language book in 2019 on the games and
legacy of his friend Grandmaster Evgeny Vasiukov.

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 Foreword(1)

I promised to knock Karpov off his throne

A February evening of distant 1978... Just a few days earlier, Garik and I had parted after his latest
session at the Botvinnik chess school. The lad had attended it after a sensational victory in an adult
tournament, where he had amazingly easily scored 3.5(!) points more than needed to make a master of
sport norm. This success opened bigger prospects for him, meaning that I would have to resolve new,
more complicated challenges. This chess eaglet had begun his rapid rise and demanded ever more high-
quality food. The coach would need to work out a new ration and regimen for feeding him chess.
When the Patriarch, as everybody respectfully called Botvinnik, approved the proposed principles
and plan of the upcoming work, I decided to establish deadlines for completing its stages, in order to set
markers to guide us on our long journey. So on that wintery February evening I wrote down a long
message for Garik’s mother, who was organizing all of her son’s work in Baku. The letter turned out to
be very serious, as though an academic paper. I want to begin this book with an extract from this
message:

...Today Garik is the most likely successor to the current world champion... So we shouldn’t get
euphoric about the lad’s successes, but instead adopt a long-term work program aimed at raising an
extra-class grandmaster, achieving a level of 90% of his maximum possible ability as measured above
by around 1983.
I think that the Patriarch justifiably believes that the USSR Sports Committee will not help to address
this problem, if for no other reason than the fact that the bosses need victories today, victories to meet
plans and socialist obligations. Moreover, the prospect of exchanging the current world champion for
Garik might significantly annoy “some people”. However, we need to think about the future, and hence
I decided to draw a chart to demonstrate the chess strength of your son and placed some markers on it:

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 I believe that now, at the age of 15, Garik has achieved around 60% of his potential. This year we
can help him add another 10%. Then he will reach a playing level (let’s call it hypothetically
“international master”) when we won’t be embarrassed to send him to play abroad. I think that this
year he is quite capable of making the Higher League of the USSR adult championship.
By the end of next year, 1979, Garik can reach a playing level of an average grandmaster, which will
enable him to confidently win the title of world junior champion and play regularly in the Higher
League. In order to ascend to the level of a strong grandmaster (a super-GM) he will have to work
another 2-3 years. To say what will happen to a greater degree of accuracy and, especially, further out,
is difficult – nobody knows how his student years and other circumstances will pan out.
Having reached the level of “90%” (which might happen in 1982-83), Garry can start the fight to
join the candidates cycle. Evidently, he can become a real candidate in the 1985-87 cycle. If everything
runs smoothly, we can think about a new leap. But it’s too early to talk about that.
Of course, to achieve this forecast we need a favorable convergence of many circumstances,
including non-chess ones. However, if we work hard, and, most importantly, effectively, the timetable
that I have drawn up with the markers doesn’t look like fantasy...

Well, time has passed, we achieved everything that we planned, and the actual timetable of Garry’s
achievements and growth in chess ability was very close to the one we set out. Well now I’m totally
proud, not because I turned out to be so foresighted without expecting to be, but because the efforts that
I invested in those years, the knowledge and nerves, were not expended in vain.
This book tells you about my work with Garry Kasparov, about the victories, difficulties and even
obstacles on our journey. I really want the curious reader to see not only how Garry’s chess ability
grew, but how the personality of the 13th world champion was formed. He has already written a book
about his battle for the crown. I think it will be interesting to read how this battle looked from the

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coach’s bench.
The author hopes that this book will be read with interest by many chess fans who will find out about
one of the most interesting pages of chess history, rich in sudden and quite elaborate turns. After
thinking hard I decided to leave in the book a description of little-known but very important episodes
which, I think, significantly influenced the chess career of this super-talented lad nurtured under the
bright son of Azerbaijan.
I have great respect for all aspects of Garry Kasparov’s chess output and consider him to be one of
the brightest and strongest chess players of all time, and, without doubt, the strongest chess player
today. Many generations of chess fans will enjoy his amazing works of chess art. However, everything
unrelated to chess or only on the sidelines of chess that is connected with his name one way or other is
not material for history and will be soon forgotten.
The selected games are addressed above all to chess players. Looking at Kasparov’s games, which
are provided here in chronological order, the curious reader can trace how his mastery grew with every
year, with the content of his play becoming richer and more intricate.
The book contains games by Kasparov that were particularly memorable for me as a trainer and
which generated ideas that may prove useful to young talents searching for their path in chess. From the
commentary, and, more precisely, from the stories about the games, you can learn how decisions are
taken in the heat of chess battle, how psychological factors influence them, and, ultimately, how errors
occur.
Many of the games include the number of minutes spent by the players on each move. Time becomes
an active participant in events on the board, which is something I try to show in my commentary. One
of the appendices to this book explains the undoubted benefits of chess chronometry.
For young players there is no example or benchmark more appealing than the high achievements of
their classmates. Everybody can find in Kasparov their contemporary by selecting the appropriate year
of their life and making a comparison, not only of their games but also of tournament results and
ratings, which are given in the appendices.
I hope that this book will be useful for ambitious players, inquisitive coaches working with young
players, and devoted parents playing an active role in their child’s chess upbringing.

(1)This foreword covers both Volume I and Volume II of this book. Volume II is planned by the
publisher to appear in English in 2020. The appendices referred to in the foreword will be contained in
Volume II

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 Chapter 1. A Hallowed Meeting

13 is Garry Kasparov’s favorite number, often mystically found among his memorable dates and
events. He became the thirteenth world champion after the ad-hoc match for the chess crown held in
1985 (8+5=13). “Naturally”, Garry was born on 13 April 1963 (again, 4+6+3 =13) in the sunny city of
Baku, on the banks of the Caspian Sea.
His parents were highly educated with a wide range of interests and skills. His father, Kim
Moiseevich Weinstein (pronounced “Vainshteyn”), was born into a family which had been musicians
for generations, and the father was pretty talented with the violin. Garry’s uncle, Leonid Weinstein,
became a famous composer in Azerbaijan.
Kim Moiseevich was not only a loving father, but a wise and insightful person. At an early age he
noticed the unusual aptitude of his child, and when the little boy was five he showed him how the chess
pieces moved. As Garry himself recalled, just two years later he started to take chess seriously. The
child’s chess abilities developed early and rapidly partially because of his natural desire to learn as
much and as quickly as possible, which was gladly satisfied in his kind and intelligent family. This
supported the development of many aspects of the lad’s talent.
Garik’s parents were of different ethnic backgrounds (his father was Jewish and his mother is an
Armenian from Nagorny Karabakh), each nation famous for its ancient and rich culture. Such mixed
marriages often deliver talented offspring. Garry’s father, as though foreseeing his own sad demise,
devoted much time to his son’s moral upbringing. Each day, the lad waited impatiently for his dad to
come home from work to go for a walk with him – which had become something of a ritual – and to
chat unhurriedly with him. Kim Weinstein on all evidence seems to have been a strong and unusual
personality, highly valuing fairness and honesty. He managed to pass on much to his son, but alas it
could have been more. Garik wasn’t yet seven when his father died at the age of 39 from lymphoma in
a Moscow hospital. I saw photos of Kim – the son is strikingly similar to the father, but, above all, he
treats his memory of his father as sacred.
Garry’s mother, Klara Shagenovna Kasparova, is a remarkable woman who loves art and is pretty
knowledgeable about it. She has unusually well-developed intuition and ambition. After her life
suffered this terrible blow, she took on the role of father in Garry’s upbringing. She directed all her love
to her sole child and became his sovereign ruler, closest friend and devoted slave all at once. She
played a huge role in his formation as a personality and as a citizen, fully passing on to him her strong
points but her weaknesses, too. I don’t know any example of a stronger bond between a mother and her
son.
I frequently visited the Kasparov’s home, where the cult of Klara’s parents reigned – Shagen
Mosesovich and Susanna Bogdasarovna. The time I spent with these calm and wise people I now
recollect like a pleasant dream. They invested much good in the soul of their favorite grandson. The
grandfather was an indisputable authority for Garik right until his death in 1981. To this day the
grandson always hurries to visit his grandmother, whose particular wisdom and kindness are
remarkable.
The lad’s chess abilities turned out to be quite extraordinary. After just a few lessons at the Baku

10
Pioneers Palace the seven-year-old was solving problems normally given to much older children. At the
age of nine Garik was already a first category player. One year later, in summer 1973, as a member of
the Azerbaijan team, he flew to Vilnius to take part in the first serious competition in his life: the All-
Union Youth Games.

When I was seven, I found a chess textbook written by Emanuel Lasker in my uncle’s bookcase. I
devoured this thick book, full of attractive and enigmatic pieces, in a couple of days, after which the
mysterious kingdom of the goddess Caissa found itself accommodating yet another permanent prisoner.
Indeed, the textbook of the great maestro occupies an honored position in my bookcase to this day.
These sweet childhood memories of over half a century ago still come to me and I occasionally pick
this ancient book from the shelf.
I started to play in children’s tournaments from the age of ten, as soon as I was capable of
independently making the lengthy journey from home to the pioneers palace located in the very center
of Moscow. The first time I showed up I lost near all my games, but the defeats only spurred me on,
and the next day I repeated the trip. That’s how my own love for chess was tested. Those two cozy
rooms at the Palace drew me like a magnet for the next few years. Like Garry, I became a first category
player two years later – at the time it was considered rapid progression. The country was still struggling
to heal its wounds inflicted by World War II. The All-Union Youth Team Championships only resumed
in 1948. I was the youngest player in the Moscow team, but already played on a high board – number
three. My opponent in the match against Leningrad was just a child – the 11-year old Boris Spassky.
Thus began a short-lived rivalry but a long friendship. In 1953 it was him and not me who was sent to
Bucharest to a major international tourney. Boris caused a sensation there and rose rapidly in the world
of Big Chess. I, on the other hand, deeply disappointed, headed in a different direction, far from chess.
A school gold medalist, I had to make a critical decision, and I chose to give up chess for a while and to
become a radio engineer.
I managed to “slam the door hard” as I departed – I won my final youth tournament, which was
between the leaders of teams competing for the national championship. I placed above Spassky, Misha
Tal and Lev Polugaevsky. However, by then we were already sitting on different trains. During my
university studies I occasionally played in competitions and even managed to take part in the world
student championships, where for a short time I joined the company of my previous rivals, who by then
were already GMs. Once I even qualified for the adult national championship, but it was there that I
discovered it was impossible to devote myself seriously to two competing activities.
My study in the Energy Institute and then 15-year engineering and managerial career in a very
respectable and professionally strong firm gave me, apart from firm ground under my feet, the ability to
plan endeavors and, most importantly, to bring them to a successful conclusion. I was surrounded by a
large number of people capable of thinking outside the box. Interaction with them instilled in me a
constant need for creativity, and developed a sober approach to innovation and a critical attitude to all
dogma. All of this came in useful when my life’s journey took an abrupt turn, and I see it as my first
and as a very important step in learning to be a coach.
My work left me with no time to play in tourneys, but my passion would not leave me be. In order to
satisfy my hunger for chess I began to analyze the games of grandmasters and write commentary on

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them in magazines. I wrote theoretical articles and a number of books. Once I tested my skills in the
role of special editor of a book on a match between Spassky and Petrosian. This meant engaging in
chess discussions with two leading grandmasters, Isaak Boleslavsky and Igor Bondarevsky, who
between them wrote the book independently of each other. Together with my friend Evgeny Vasiukov I
commented on the games of the great Russian chess player Chigorin in a book about him. Analyzing
the works of other players, finding their strengths and mistakes, I not only preserved a decent playing
level but I – imperceptibly to myself – grew as a coach.
It’s as though fate had prepared me to work as a professional coach. In 1963 I aided Bondarevsky in
preparing a student team for the world championship, and then in 1967 I assisted Andrei Lukin in his
battle against Anatoly Karpov, Yuri Balashov, Rafael Vaganian and Viktor Kupreichik to win the
national junior championship. At the time, these seemed like occasional episodes that distracted me for
a short period from addressing engineering problems. However, in early 1973 I was unexpectedly
offered the chance to change jobs and work in the State Sports Committee of the USSR as the coach of
the country’s chess team. Although by then my engineering career was a decent one, I switched
professions without a moment’s thought. Actually, Americans believe it useful to change professions
periodically, as it forces you to break with old thinking frameworks. All those years chess had never
been far from my mind. It had remained part of my life, as though forced underground.
My new calling involved re-organizing chess literature to make it appropriate for the country’s
strongest GMs. The huge and ever-growing inflow of chess books, magazines and sets of games from
numerous tournaments meant that new methods were required to digest it all, and my combination of
an engineering and chess background was very handy. So it turned out that I had been trained for a
managerial career, and so that I could gain a better handle on chess life in the provinces, my bosses
advised me to spend my first months traveling around the country. And so it came to pass that in 1973 I
found myself in Vilnius at a major children’s chess festival. Fate had delivered me to a truly hallowed
meeting.
I might not have gone to Vilnius. Youth competitions were beyond the scope of my duties. But my
colleague and friend Anatoly Bykhovsky, a children’s coach and team selector well-known in the chess
world, had left for an important international tournament and asked me to take his place in Lithuania. I
decided to help him out.
In those days, children were not yet split up by age group, so both 18-year old youths and little boys
who were barely taller than the tables played in the same tourney. Well, that’s just how I discovered
Garry on the first day, with the top of his head lower than that of the other boys hunched over the
boards. He had recently turned ten, and before me I saw a rather small, scrawny boy unable to sit still
on the chair. He found it hard to retain his composure during the game, and lost it completely as soon as
the game was over.
Although he didn’t gain many points in that tournament – two wins and four losses – the coaches
took note of him. The childlike directness of his intentions simply added charm to the set of his
evidently extraordinary chess skills. The ability of his pieces to occupy the right squares in a natural,
speedy and as though obvious way was surprising. I was struck by his opening erudition and amazing
memory, which was vast and absorbent like blotting paper. He found it easy to calculate long variations
– for him this wasn’t hard work, but just an amusing game. Several times during the tournament I

12
managed to speak with this remarkable boy. It turned out that he liked to read, and the range of his
reading interests was unusually broad. He had a great grasp of geographical names, historical facts and
dates. He read at high speed, and his exceptional memory meant he retained a great deal. Attempts to
check his erudition often left the examiners in a difficult position, as it often transpired that the boy
knew more than they did.
Yet most of all, I was struck by Garry’s eyes – smart, with a kind of unusual spark in them. I decided
right then, purely intuitively, that such eyes signified a great talent. That ability to identify talent in a
child through his eyes became part of my know-how as a coach, and I used it to make a provisional
assessment of the prospects of children who showed up at the Petrosian Chess School. I was “proud” of
my trade secret, until I found out that the famous Soviet coach Rastorotsky, who had brought up an
entire generation of gymnastics stars, including Turishcheva, Yurchenko and Shaposhnikova, had
already been using this test for many years to tell whether a little girl would grow up to become an elite
gymnast. Even if the girl’s physical parameters were appropriate for gymnastics, Rastorotsky would
find any excuse to refuse to accept her in his group if her eyes didn’t shine with intelligence. The great
coach admitted that this test, which he had verified many times, was not his own invention, but handed
down from his own teacher. After hearing that we employed the same method I felt even happier –
“my” invention had turned out to be a ploy that had already been effectively used for many years.

13
 Chapter 2. First Steps (1973-1975)

The fact that a coach from the capital had noticed the talent of a boy from Baku could definitely bring
pleasant and long-term consequences. For example, a couple of years later, once the boy had built up
physical strength, he could have expected to be invited to training sessions of the strongest juniors in
the country, where his real chess education would have begun. Taking the typical journey in such
circumstances, he could have hoped to reach the level of a strong master by the age of 15.
However, here too, fate made its own adjustments, arranging events and circumstances in such a way
that they accelerated the development of the boy’s talent. That same summer, Mikhail Moiseevich
Botvinnik decided to return to working with junior players after a three-year break and he gathered a
new group of pupils, given that his previous charges – Karpov, Balashov, Razuvaev and Timoshchenko
– had already embarked upon independent careers. Upon my recommendation, just one month after the
Vilnius tourney ended, two nice-looking young lads arrived at the green-covered city of Dubna in the
Moscow region to meet the great master – ten-year-old Garik Weinstein and twelve-year-old Boris
Taborov. They were both highly talented, smart and inquisitive, but my – how their lives soon panned
out so differently!
The phlegmatic and good-natured Boris soon became the first Soviet player to gain the master title at
the age of 14. He played a couple of times in the junior championships in Europe, but failed to achieve
further success and gradually faded. Who today remembers master of sport Taborov with his rating of
around 2380? What happened to him? Boris was raised in a family of scientists who had little
enthusiasm for their son’s chess achievements. His parents really wanted Boris to become a scientist
like them and continue their work. They got quite worried at seeing that chess for their son was more
than a game. Feeling no moral support from those near and dear to him, the lad was torn between two
occupations at once, unable to make a definitive choice, while time was slipping away... Actually, after
Botvinnik spoke with Boris’s father, who had brought his son from Kiev to Dubna, he told me he
predicted Boris being drawn in two directions at once and, as a result, that his chess career would hit a
cul-de-sac. Mikhail Moiseevich proved to be a wise fortune-teller! Boris indeed chose to focus on
science, but, like me years earlier, was unable to shake off his bondage to chess. He returned to play in
tournaments several years later, but without success. His focus on two activities at once in fact
prevented him from achieving great things in science, while he was quite unable to jump on to the steps
of the prestigious carriages of the chess train as it disappeared into the distance. Caissa doesn’t favor
the indecisive.
The maestro took great delight in meeting Garik. It was as though he had suddenly turned much
younger when talking to the boy, who immediately became his favorite pupil. The teacher liked
everything – the sharpness of his replies combined with their accuracy, the speed with which he
calculated variations, and his astounding memory. They both clearly looked forward to each new
encounter. Their friendship would help both of them for many years, especially Garry.
My meetings with the lad weren’t at all frequent. After Vilnius I returned to my day job at the Chess
Department, which was taking up too much of my time. However, I maintained contact with Garry.
From Moscow I sent fat packages to Baku with chess magazines and books, and I would speak with

14
Garry on the phone most weeks. Sensing how the boy’s future would pan out, I wanted to avoid
imposing on him an early psychological overload and I asked his mother, who had taken it upon herself
to resolve all of her son’s domestic problems, not to force his chess progress. For some time chess
should remain nothing but a game for him. The assignments that I occasionally sent him in those years
were never accompanied by the words “compulsory” or “necessary”.
I am convinced that any serious and, even more so, systematized information should only be given to
children up to the age of 12 in the form of games, as games are the only “work” that they will carry out
enthusiastically. The knowledge that they gain from this reaches their brain naturally and settles in it
for a long time.
Being registered as a pupil of the great Botvinnik had a huge impact on Garry mentally and he started
to study the game very seriously. His mother wrote to me that she sometimes had to physically pull him
away from the chess board. Lessons at the Botvinnik chess school, where that year the great teacher
trainer Mark Dvoretsky assisted Mikhail Moiseevich, were extremely useful, because the lad was given
sufficient time to complete the assignments. Even though I continued to send him my own challenges,
Garik not only found the time to tackle all the assignments but even asked for additional ones. Artur
Yusupov and Sergei Dolmatov also came to those sessions with Botvinnik. Since then they became
good friends, and their rivalry couldn’t spoil their relationship.
Mikhail Moiseevich did a great deed by deciding after ending his own tournament play to take on the
raising of the next generation. Twice a year he gathered 12-15 of his pupils in pretty locations in the
Moscow region or Crimea for ten-day study sessions. The kids showed their creations to their teacher
and played training games, while Botvinnik would precisely note their weaknesses and give them wise
advice. Leaving each session, the children would take homework tasks with them, different for each
pupil depending on their playing strengths and weaknesses. The children matured, their chess ability
strengthened, and the set tasks became harder. They would bring proper essays to the sessions. One of
them, called “The Works of the Young Alekhine” – an exercise book filled with the handwriting of a
13-year-old boy from Baku – is still in my personal library.
Botvinnik jealously protected his pupils, helping them not only with advice. When necessary, he
would phone or write to any government official, and artificial barriers before which his charges
stopped would no longer be insurmountable, such was the authority of his name. He forbade the most
capable of his pupils from playing over 50 serious games per year and he strictly monitored them to
ensure that this rule was kept. He never tired of explaining to the kids and their coaches that this
requirement was anything but some whim. He would say:

A lad striving to become a true chess player needs to be able to do many things. He needs to work at
chess independently, prepare for every competition, analyze the outcome of each tournament, and love
analysis not only in respect of the opening. He also needs to know how to relax and regain his strength
after a competition. If he isn’t successful in that, chess will not become an art form bringing joy, but
instead just a trade bringing sadness. Therefore, he should not play many games and should not play
often.

15
 After their first session, Botvinnik sent a letter to the chairman of the Sports Committee of
Azerbaijan in which he wrote, in particular: “... I believe it makes sense to organize individual lessons
for Garry, as well as games in tournaments with stronger competition. He should not play more than 40
tournament games per year in 1973-75. I recommend severely restricting the number of blitz games that
he plays...” The letter proved effective, and after that it became possible to plan a comprehensive chess
study program for the boy without sending him to play in competitions that would not have an
important impact on his chess progress.
Very much thanks to Botvinnik’s efforts, after Garik’s first, modest successes we managed to obtain
in 1975 a monthly stipend for the boy of one hundred rubles. Further teacher support became more
critical with every year of Garry’s achievements, and each time is was provided promptly and put to
good use.
As the years progressed, the union of Teacher and Favorite Pupil transposed into a comradeship of
colleagues of equal playing strength. This can be found throughout this book. However, the great
Botvinnik was neither the first nor the sole teacher of the whizz-kid from Baku.
When Leonid Weinstein brought his little nephew to the chess circle at the Baku Pioneers Palace for
the first time, the children were taught by Oleg Isakovich Privorotsky, and he was thus Garik’s first
teacher. After the first lessons, the shocked teacher said: “I don’t know about other cities, but there has
never before been a novice chess player with such abilities in Baku.” Garik literally leapt up the steps
of chess qualifications and became a first category player incredibly quickly. By the age of ten he was
too good for the group lessons held at the Palace. However, Privorotsky didn’t have any time left for
individual lessons with Garry, and so his influence on the boy soon waned. After his first sessions at the
Botvinnik school the lad mostly came to the Palace to play some friendly games with the older kids and
his first teacher.
A valuable contribution to Garik’s chess progress was made by Mark Izrailevich Dvoretsky, who
assisted Botvinnik in running lessons at the school until 1977. A very strong over-the-board chess
master, he discovered his true calling in analytical work and teaching – he devised innovative methods
for teaching chess strategy and the endgame, and created a library of positions for teaching that is today
well-known to all professionals. These positions were also given to the kids who came to the sessions.
For many of the pupils, these lessons were just sporting fun. Garik, however, tried each time to unearth
the essence of the position, and this essence would be etched in his memory, little by little expanding
his chess technique. Garik is greatly obliged to Dvoretsky for his endgame knowledge. They worked on
sessions together for around three years. Dvoretsky’s teaching skills grew and he created his personal
method for working with talented juniors. However, his assistant’s growing independence didn’t please
Botvinnik very much, and they parted company at the beginning of 1978. Garry’s friends Yusupov and
Dolmatov left the school together with Dvoretsky. Both “defectors” immediately became world junior
champions, and a few years later gained the GM title. Today they are among the elite. Dvoretsky at first
held lessons in his own school, but when it, like all other schools, died once state support for it ended,
he started to work as a private coach. Many young players dreamed of working with him.

16
 When talking about Garry’s teachers, one should begin with the people who shaped him as a person,
without thinking whether or not he would become a major chess player. Garry had no problem with
academic studies at school, and I only ever met his teachers once, at a school evening event when he
studied in the final, tenth grade. I witnessed the teachers and other pupils conversing with him warmly
and at ease even though he was already famous, and he was clearly already embarrassed at his fame.
All those years, Garik, despite his frequent trips away to tournaments or training sessions,
consistently scored 100% results in “competitions with marks”. Yes, you read that nonsensical sentence
correctly: when the boy was in fifth grade, I suggested, half-jokingly but half-seriously, to change
school marks into chess scores. So five marks out of five would be treated as a victory and worth one
point. Four out of five was a draw and hence half a point, while anything else was a defeat, a bagel. The
boy liked this sporting element, and carefully monitored his results in this new “sport”. Therefore, if the
teachers had any worries about Garry, then it was only in the last years, due to his extensive reading
and huge volume of knowledge. When he turned up to lessons, especially history, and came to the
blackboard to answer questions, he could say things that at the time children were forbidden from
knowing.
Garik grew up to be an outgoing and kind boy and he was on good terms with lots of people. But he
didn’t have many close friends among his contemporaries – he simply didn’t have time for friendship.
Even boys games were for him treated like strictly regulated doses of physical exercise. He never spent
more than one or two hours on homework. Chess and books took up the rest of his time.
From what I recall, his mother was always his main teacher and friend. Grade after grade, she went
through the entire year’s syllabus with him once again, helping him to do his homework, including
writing essays on literature and history. Here I could grin knowingly, all the more so if I add that many
of Garik’s essays were recognized as benchmark setting in Baku. No, of course it was not his mother’s
hand who wrote line after line in his exercise books, but every one of Garik’s thoughts was polished
after long family conversations. His mother taught him how to think and express the outcome of his
thoughts engagingly and convincingly. It was she who determined his artistic preferences, who taught
him to love real literature, to value contemporary art and to take delight in beauty.
I firmly recommended to her son that he intensively go swimming and running. My advice would
have been ignored without Klara Shagenovna’s energy and tenacity during the search for appropriate
places and coaches for such activities. She was her son’s skillful doctor when he was struck down by all
the usual illnesses, and it was she who had to address the first symptoms of celebrity disease that hit
Garry at 13 (again, this enchanted number!). Klara tried to develop independence and a sense of
responsibility in the boy, while at the same time suppressing his initial sense of uniqueness. Not
wanting to place hopes on pre-emptive chats, she saddled her son with everyday housework: she would
send him to the shops to buy bread and milk and she charged him with looking after his cousins. She
fought quite successfully against the rust of celebrity disease...until she caught it herself in the 1980s.
Garik’s first years of serious chess study were not overloaded with big chess tourneys, while school
wasn’t much of a burden either. With top marks in all subjects, he learnt more at home than in school,
devouring one book after another. His love of history was complemented by a fascination with science
fiction, which further developed his already rich imagination.

17
 The Moscow chess scene learnt that an amazing talent was growing up in Baku, but they only saw
him in the capital for the first time in summer 1974. At the age of eleven, Garik first met the strongest
Soviet grandmasters. This encounter took place at a tourney in the Pioneers Palace – an unusual and
unique competition. It was only possible to hold such a tournament in our country, with its numerous
GMs. “What have grandmasters got to do with it?” I hear you ask. Well, according to the tournament
rules, each of the six children’s teams was led by a strong GM who gave a simul against the kids from
the other team. Thus, each tournament day included six simuls on seven boards with clocks (each team
had six boys and one girl), and it wasn’t at all easy for the grandmasters. Even though they didn’t play
against each other, and competed only in terms of their simul results, their habit of being first forced
them to fight as though playing in a highly prestigious tournament.
There was another unusual feature of this competition. Once time control was reached, the game
would go to adjudication by a jury. Once the jury chairman was none other than Botvinnik. The junior
player was allowed to disagree with the adjudicated result and file an appeal, providing it was backed
up with variations. Such appeals were infrequent, but a couple of times the revered maestros were
forced to acknowledge the correctness of their opponents standing nervously in front of them and the
results were changed. Over the years, all the strongest grandmasters of the country found time to take
part in these simuls at the Pioneers Palace, and Garry and Artur Yusupov managed in a short time to
transcend from one role to the other. It’s a shame that the economic difficulties currently being
experienced by Russia led to this series of wonderful competitions being interrupted. Hopefully, not for
long. As far as the chess futures of the kids playing in these simuls was concerned, it wasn’t so much
the result that was important as much as the impression left from the play of their fearsome opponents.
Garik played in two of those tournaments, both times with a minus score. Nevertheless, he got
noticed each time. In 1974 he outplayed in an endgame the famous Yuri Averbakh, who was
particularly known for his endgame skill. He also scored a draw in a difficult rook ending against
Gennady Kuzmin. The grandmaster was shocked that the boy so easily saved the endgame a pawn
down.
The work done with the boy in 1974 was tested in the country’s junior championships, held at the
very start of the following year in Vilnius. This was the boy’s first serious sporting test. He had to
compete with lads 6-7 years older than him who had a huge advantage in both physical endurance and
tournament experience. Botvinnik and I didn’t give Garry any results to reach, but simply asked him to
play a number of good games without worrying about the score. Lasker’s thought: “a person is
responsible for the quality of his work but not for its results” from that year on became one of the
mottos driving Garry’s work. That way he gradually learnt to do everything comprehensively, and
when analyzing chess games or theory he tried to dig until he got to their essence.
The small debutant at the country’s junior championship didn’t get flustered and was no whipping
boy in the company of much older children. After eight games he had scored 5.5 points and was in the
leading group. I managed to arrive in time for the last three rounds and replaced “telephone” training
with face-to-face communication. We hurriedly prepared for the opening in the final round (as we
needed to preserve our strength) and this was mostly done during a walk in the park. In fact, we would
go on to apply this method of preparation for many years to come. That day, I didn’t give him any
instructions, as I saw that he was tired. For his competitors it was a decisive day – nearly all of them

18
were juniors for the last time – and each of them wanted to score well as they bade farewell. The
tournament had already shown Garik’s potential, and too much success could have turned out to be an
unbearable burden. The result of the last game against the Leningrad player (and now US grandmaster)
Alexei Yermolinsky wasn’t fair, but I was happy as a coach. The newspapers merely threw in some
references to the interesting play of a young competitor from Baku, but there was no commotion about
him. So we were able to quietly resume our work.
That year I still didn’t have a lot of time to devote to coaching Garry, yet time wouldn’t wait – the
lad’s chess strength, as the Vilnius championship had demonstrated, was growing rapidly. A search
began for an appropriate local coach. After examining several candidates, a choice was made in favor
of an unexpected one. Klara Kasparova needed to deploy all of her art of diplomacy in order to
persuade this person to give Garry even a few lessons. So one spring day in 1975 Vladimir Andreevich
Makogonov, who had been one of the strongest masters of the pre-war period and a player with a subtle
positional style, who had a wonderful grasp of the nuances of battle and without doubt understood the
game at a grandmaster level, showed up at the Kasparov apartment. For some reason he had stopped
playing after the war and spent some time coaching youngsters. Then, after bringing Vladimir Bagirov
through the ranks, he suddenly ended all contact with the chess world. Few people knew about Garry’s
contact with Makogonov – the master didn’t want to advertise it. I don’t think that even Botvinnik
knew about it, while when I went to the Kasparovs’ apartment I would deliberately time my visits to
avoid meeting Vladimir Andreevich. The two great chess elders who coached the kid had their own
eccentricities: Botvinnik was overly jealous about allowing other coaches to work with Kasparov, while
Makogonov had taken offense at society.
Garik’s lessons with Makogonov were infrequent, but continued for over two years. They took place
in the form of conversations, and I told the boy to listen carefully to the logic of the vastly experienced
player and to understand his approach to evaluating specific moves and positions. These conversations
brought Garik priceless benefits, while the TMB (Tartakower, Makogonov and Bondarevsky) system in
the Queen’s Gambit and the concrete wall with 4...Bf5 in the Caro-Kann became after these lessons a
reliable weapon in his opening repertoire. The transfer of experience ended in 1977 as imperceptibly as
it began.
I immediately want to warn fussy parents. It’s far from always that a large number of teachers or
coaches (especially when working with a talented child simultaneously) will ensure success, if their
efforts are not coordinated and are not appropriate for the child’s abilities and his capacity to digest the
information given to him promptly and effectively. Even Garry, with his phenomenal ability to
memorize and master the material provided to him, had times when he “choked” on the flow of
information. It was our job to pre-empt such circumstances and make appropriate adjustments to his
study timetable.
In mid-1975 Garry played at the junior Spartak championship in Leningrad. It was very much a
transitory tournament, which I viewed as a preparatory stage to future serious tournaments. I again
asked him to try and play quality games without allowing the slip-up he had made in Vilnius half a year
earlier, and to finish in the top six. The future grandmasters Mikhail Gurevich and Leonid Yudasin
played at this tournament, but they didn’t perform spectacularly. Garik fulfilled my request – he came
second and played three good games.

19
 The inconsequential Spartak junior tournament was the last one where Garry Weinstein competed.
People change their citizenship, sportsmen change their clubs, and sixth-graders of a certain school in
Baku returned to classes after the summer vacation to discover that “their” Garik now bore the surname
“Kasparov”. His change of surname was a delicate matter. It’s usually found in women, very rarely in
men, and, as a rule, only happens to men when it’s forced. Garik’s mother had to bear the main burden
of stress and battle when arranging the legal formalities and, above all, when convincing all friends and
relatives that this was the right decision. Klara had to endure so many unpleasant hours. So many tears
were shed after conversations with relatives of her by then long departed husband. The boy’s favorite
uncle, Leonid Moiseevich, was particularly upset. “It’s really important to do this, Lyonya,” I told him.
“Nobody will let him forget his father.” Lyonya said nothing and frowned at me, but in a way that
conveyed understanding. He knew that even a year earlier, with Botvinnik’s assent, I had tenaciously
started to try and convince Garry’s mother of the need to change her son’s surname from his father’s to
her own – which, by the way, she had not changed upon getting married.
From the very beginning I had no doubt that the lad would have a fantastic chess career. I knew from
my work in the Sports Committee just what inexplicable difficulties of a totally non-chess character
could suddenly appear to a youth with the “wrong” surname during the development of his talent,
especially at the stage of transition to Big Chess, when somebody’s sporting career could be held back
and perhaps even badly damaged, without much notice being taken at the top and without much
discussion. Garik was now heading rapidly towards this transition point. We needed to move fast, while
it was only those close to him who took interest in his achievements and while it was the names of
other chess players that were cited in the press. We were almost too late with his change of surname.
That November, the lad won the Baku Cup adult tournament, ahead of a field of masters. Two months
later, Garry Kasparov became the youngest national junior champion in the history of Soviet chess. He
started to be mentioned as a rising star on the radio and in the newspapers. Chess fans throughout the
world quickly got used to this surname without having learnt unnecessary details. Life was to confirm
the justification of my fears and the need for this difficult decision. Enough has now been written about
hidden anti-Semitism, especially in the lower corridors of the government. I am convinced that Garry
Weinstein would have never got to play a world title match against Karpov in 1984 or even in 1987. He
wouldn’t have been allowed. He would have been isolated in the periphery of chess. The system
functioned like clockwork in those days.
I spent the first half of that year involved in ensuring that Karpov was fully prepared for his match
against Fischer. Formally, I was even a member of his seconds team, and I was awarded an honorary
certificate of the Soviet State Sports Committee for my work. That match never took place, of course,
and I was able to return to my work as a coach, which was proving useful for members of the Soviet
chess teams. Above all, though, I was now able once again to focus on working with Garik.
It was only in December that we next met in person, in Leningrad at the tournament of Pioneer Palace
teams, which had that year attracted a very strong team of GMs playing simuls, led by the world
champion. Garik again failed to reach 50%, but his play had vastly improved since the previous year.
The young warrior’s hand did not yet grip firmly, but the GMs all faced a number of difficulties against
him. It was not for nothing that Karpov, Korchnoi and Polugaevsky drew attention to the boy’s play
after the tourney. The world champion noted his “serious approach to the game” and Korchnoi referred

20
to his “sober understanding of complex positions. Such praise for the play of a 12-year-old boy
recognized the uniqueness of his talent. I could see from his play that his first, nervous steps along the
road to Big Chess would soon be replaced by a leap, one that would interfere with his regular everyday
studies.

21
 Chapter 3. First Leaps (1976-1977)

The next national junior championship, which by tradition opened the annual chess calendar, delivered
a pleasant surprise. I sensed that Garik would play well, but this result was quite unexpected. The little
boy from Baku eventually managed to achieve a difficult draw in the final round... thereby winning the
tournament! For the first time in the history of Soviet chess, the national junior champion was a 12-
year-old schoolboy! This time, it wasn’t the boy crying in bitterness at the end of the tourney, but his
mothering weeping for joy.
After congratulating the champion for his victory, I immediately reminded him of the large number
of deficiencies in his “champion’s” play, as I didn’t want this win to go to his head. The winner at the
time didn’t yet comprehend how “great” he was and kept trying to convince me that he was crafty – as
he had noticed in time, towards the end of the final round, that he had a lead in the tie-break score that
ensured he would be the winner.
The commotion raised by the newspapers helped the Kasparovs to solve minor everyday problems.
Doctors from a decent clinic began to look after the boy’s health, and he was given an entry pass to the
best swimming pool.
His success opened the door to more important tournaments, ones that required serious opening prep.
It was still difficult for me to spend time in Baku, and so we brought in the Baku-based master
Alexander Ivanovich Shakarov to work with Garry. We were gradually building an opening repertoire
for the boy, and this is why we immediately chose the young Shakarov, as he already had a reputation
for systematizing opening information. He was so occupied in this work, in fact, that he had to give up
playing in tournaments, as they were distracting him from his far more interesting notebooks.
“Ivanich”, as we fondly call Shakarov to this day, not only provided invaluable help in broadening
Garry’s opening knowledge, but became the reliable keeper of Kasparov’s chess database. At any time,
Garry could receive a report on any opening, confident that it would be exhaustive.
Strikingly modest and quiet, Ivanich was also remarkable for another unique trait that no Soviet
person could comprehend – a complete refusal to travel abroad. It was only in 1990, when I stopped
working with Kasparov, that Shakarov was forced (!) to accompany the world champion, first to the
USA, and then to France.
In 1990, the Shakarov family shared the fate of the Kasparov clan and other Armenian refugees.
After losing their home and almost all their property in an instant, they flew to Moscow. Now, the
Shakarovs have set up a new home in the Moscow region. Ivanich’s study once again sports a
constantly switched-on computer monitor, and his cherished notebooks lie on his shelves. Kasparov’s
chess database is once again fully in order.
In May that year, Garik played a tournament in his home town where he had the chance to gain a
master of sport norm. He was not yet ready to storm the heights of a master, although he had played a
number of games at that level. His games with masters there were a big challenge for him, but came in
very handy. Garry won several games towards the end of the tourney to finish with 50%. This was a
good score, signaling that at the tender age of 13 he was capable of withstanding the heat of a serious
adult competition. In several of his wins, Garry demonstrated maturity in growing a positional

22
advantage through very accurate play. Childhood had disappeared from his games.
That summer, the Soviet Sports Committee decided to send Garry to the U16 world championship.
However, we objected – as Botvinnik was categorically opposed to Swiss tournaments, while I believed
that the boy was not mature enough to defend his country’s honor, and that he should wait for at least a
year. His mother was also disappointed – she had not been included in the trip, yet at that age success in
a tournament depends more on somebody close to you being there than on the presence of your
professional coach. Garry nevertheless flew to France, as it turned out that there were no players in the
country below 16 who were even close to our 13-year-old in terms of playing ability. His international
debut, much as we had predicted, was unsuccessful. Garik only managed to share third place.
The next session at the Botvinnik school was held on the Black Sea coast at the fashionable Orlyonok
(“Eaglet”) children’s camp. The teacher sternly tested his pupil in response to his failure to defend the
honor of Soviet sport. He provided one of his strongest charges – Dolmatov – to be Garry’s sparring
partner, in order to demonstrate that play in his school was stronger than at some foreign tourneys.
However, this was no punishment for Garry – he scored 1.5 out of 2, proving above all that the concept
of nervous depression after failure was quite unfamiliar to him.
At the end of the year, he performed very credibly in a series of team matches among players of the
Caucasus republics. And in a simul against the fearsome grandmaster Romanishin he crushed his
opponent, even though the latter was well aware of whom he was facing. I then gained the unexpected
opportunity to spend two months working with Garry in Baku. We achieved a lot in that period. So now
is just the time to diverge and relate how I worked with Garry all those years.
Until close to the end of 1976 my encounters with him barely resembled lessons or coaching
sessions. Their time and place were determined by the calendar of children’s competitions and training
camps, as well as my workload supporting the country’s strongest GMs. Taking her son to tournaments
or school sessions, his mother always tried to make a stop in Moscow, where I lived as well as their
relatives. At other times we would meet in cities where children’s tournaments were held. Least of all I
met up with the lad in his home city, but that was compensated for by fat letters and parcels sent in both
directions, as well as frequent and long phone calls.
Good advice to the boy and his mother was the maximum that my role as coach to the Soviet adult
team allowed me to provide. So what powers forced me to spend much of my time on serious
correspondence with Garry, thinking about his problems when there were other, more tempting and
perfectly realistic prospects for my own career? A big talent acts like a mighty magnet or bright star – it
draws those who have discovered its strength, blinds their judgement and takes them prisoner for years
to come. And that happened with me. Maybe I would have remained first Garik’s trusted advisor, and
then his devoted fan. But fate decided otherwise. My first years of conversing and working with the
boy became my coaching university, enabling me to use my accumulated life and chess experience to
the best effect. I learnt by observing how Botvinnik worked with children, I learnt by reading books
written by well-known sports coaches and psychologists, and I learnt by recalling and analyzing the
mistakes of my own chess journey.
I was struck by Garik’s wide reading from the beginning of our encounters, by his ability to read
quickly and by his unquenchable thirst to know more and more. This child was perfectly capable of

23
reading all the books from a large chess library in a year and then... drowning in the flow of
unsystematized information thus obtained. Therefore, we first needed to organize a strict rationing of
his information input, optimizing it for each study period. The selection of useful information is an
important albeit pernickety job. Only a coach who has seen and thought through much about chess can
properly assess what their charge needs now, what he might need in the near future, what he has to
understand, and what he must memorize.
At first I would send Garik selections of good chess games so that typical positions would remain in
his mind, with technical ploys and pretty combinations. Very soon, there was no longer any need to tell
him what to note when reading the materials – the lad quickly came to understand why particular
material was selected. About a year later he started to send only correct answers, adding notes on
mistakes by the commentators and additional commentary that demonstrated the growth of his chess
understanding. When in 1976 I suggested he solve tough challenges from a book that had just been
published called Together with Grandmasters (by Hort and Jansa, the English version is known as The
Best Move) that was aimed at very strong players, he demonstrated that around a quarter of the correct
solutions were actually quite different from those proposed by the authors.
It wasn’t just chess books that I sent him, but everything that could satisfy his curiosity, thereby
further developing his logical thinking. For example, one parcel that I sent in 1975 contained the latest
issue of Chess Informant, a selection of endgame articles required in order to tackle homework that
Dvoretsky had set, excellent commentary by Spassky showing how to assess positions, Bronstein’s
book on Zurich, accompanied by a request to study carefully how the world’s best players handled
King’s Indian positions, alongside... a Go set, in order for him to better understand how to gain space,
and, for dessert, interesting articles on history, which the boy so loved.
As I mentioned earlier, Botvinnik, Dvoretsky and I tried in the early years not only to make the
homework as interesting as possible, but also to wrap it in a game-like format, given the pupil’s age.
However, as the material grew in complexity the accent on fun gradually disappeared – the boy got
used to serious adult work. Botvinnik took great pleasure in discussing high-level problems of chess
strategy with Garik, while Dvoretsky navigated him through the depths of the endgame, and the boy
and I were left to build his opening repertoire and select material that would help to make his play even
deeper and more spectacular. However, I didn’t force this work. At first we needed to identify his chess
preferences, amending them where necessary, and this was achieved in the process of studying the
basics of chess strategy.
Solving our homework, Garik gradually learnt to analyze opening positions whether or not these
were from his favorite openings. He transferred his habit of having an opinion about every position that
arose when composing answers to our homework to the game’s opening phase. This meant that the
generation of new opening ideas didn’t become something supernatural for him, and didn’t become an
end in itself, but turned into an interim result in the everyday process of seeking a solution. The first
opening analysis with a novelty, which he sent me in May 1975, concerned an opening which he didn’t
play. During a coaching session for the Azerbaijan junior team, Grandmaster Bagirov had asked the
team to discuss the position after 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 Bf5 4.c4 e6 5.Qb3 and to assess the move
5...Na6. After returning home from the session, Garik found a refutation of the GM’s idea – 6.Qb5+!
c6 7.Qxb7 Nb4 8.Ne5! Nd7! 9.Nxd7 Nc2+ 10.Kd1 Nxa1 11.e4! dxe4 12.Ne5! Bg6 13.Nxg6 hxg6

24
14.Bxe4, and black can resign. So that’s how a new opening analyst was born.
It was only in mid-1976, with the appearance of Shakarov in our group, that systematic work on his
opening repertoire began, taking into account the constantly improving playing technique of the boy,
his ability to master the most complicated of situations, and, of course, his amazing memory. From the
beginning I pointed Garik in the direction of having a large variety of openings in his repertoire – and
this had nothing to do with making it more difficult for his opponents to prepare. A wide opening
repertoire allows the player to select each time the type of battle that is consistent on the day of the
game with his playing style, place in the tournament or even his mood.
Before studying any opening position, Garik would as a rule study several example games
recommended to him that demonstrated both the key subtleties of that opening and characteristic
mistakes. Selecting such games is a subtle affair, resulting from the coach’s opening erudition and
chess ability. Any chess information should be not only “tasty” and cleansed of unneeded additives, but
also optimal in size – that’s when it delivers the best results. At first I did not always manage from
Moscow to follow the volume of work carried out by the boy independently. He found everything
interesting and wanted to learn more and as quickly as possible. However, this led to information
overload, leading to interesting symptoms, which I called “know-all disease”. The boy’s agile and deep
memory digested everything fed to it, but the process of comprehending what he had read lagged
behind. He would mechanically memorize variations, but they were not given the time to settle in his
mind in the right order, and they would get mixed into a messy and, consequently, fairly useless tangle
in his brain. Petrosian called this illness the symptom of “Informant children”. The majority of young
players now suffer from this ailment, especially abroad, where the computerization of chess has sharply
increased the volume of information available.
Klara wrote to me that in those times Garik resembled an excited madman. When preparing for a
game he would dive from one line into another and didn’t know where to stop. Variations and ideas had
battered him so much that his natural sense of harmony had started to desert his thinking. “It seems that
he’s playing worse than a year ago,” she told me with alarm from far-away Baku. However, I wasn’t
worried about that, as I knew that a month or two would pass and all his knowledge would get properly
arranged in his memory, and then his over-excitement from “know-all disease” would give way to calm
confidence in his abilities. For a while the information flow arriving from Moscow contracted to a
minimum, and soon everything returned to normal.
We carried out our first special opening preparation for a tournament at the very end of 1976 before
the national junior championship. For the first time, Garik was able to play “with two hands”, i.e. on his
first move as white he could push either of his central pawns two squares ahead, and in reply to 1.e4 he
could choose how many squares to push his c-pawn.
For me, 1976 became a turning point in my work with the whizz-kid from Baku, thanks to its
dramatic climax. The reason for this was the world champion’s fury with me, technically one of his
former seconds, as I mentioned earlier. In truth, we had never managed to establish a trusting
relationship, and my functions in supporting his prep were carried out only formally. I was glad when
they ceased after Fischer refused to play.
Soon after I stopped aiding Karpov’s effort I was tasked with organizing medical support for the

25
leading Soviet players, and it then transpired that many GMs, even young ones, needed help from
doctors. Karpov stood at the top of this list. The next Soviet championships were approaching, in which
the new world champion was supposed to take part, but he was suffering from a chronic cold. I found
Karpov tired and ill at the end of 1975 at the Pioneers Palace tournament in Leningrad. I had to raise
the alarm. The world champion’s “local doctor” Mikhail Gershanovich lived in Leningrad and together
the two of us managed to convince Anatoly, not without difficulty, that he should spend the next few
months getting treatment rather than playing, otherwise he risked a long-term absence.
When I returned to Moscow and told the sporting chiefs about this, they, who had spoken so often
about how much they loved the world champion, were quite unhappy at my concern for Karpov’s
health. His withdrawal would significantly reduce the prestige of the national championships, which
were also to be held in Leningrad. However, I continued to insist and Karpov didn’t play, instead
following a course of treatment. He returned to tournament play in February 1976 with a serious of
excellent victories. The champion soon forgot about the battle over his health. His memory was only
good at retaining affronts. He took it for granted that people would take care of him.
In summer 1976 I flew to the Philippines as part of a large chess delegation. The interzonal was being
held there, with some of our grandmasters playing – Spassky, Polugaevsky, Balashov, Tseshkovsky
and Tukmakov. After returning from Manila I had to get closely involved in organizational affairs for
the USSR team, as our chess boss was tied up at another interzonal in Switzerland. This just happened
at the very time that the chess world was shaken by events almost out of a detective story, ones which
ultimately led to a pivotal change in my career.
First, Viktor Korchnoi defected to the West, refusing to return to the USSR from Holland. A couple
of weeks later, Agence France-Presse reported on an “unexpected” – rather, it was simply secret –
meeting between Karpov and Fischer in Tokyo. There they discussed the terms for playing a match that
they had decided to hold without FIDE’s involvement, but according to the rules for a world title
match.
The great American’s abandonment of chess, beginning from 1972 immediately after defeating
Spassky, was a tragedy for this wise game. Thanks to his phenomenal success, Fischer had sharply
increased interest in chess throughout the world. For the first time since the war, the crown had been
taken from Soviet chess players, and never before had they looked so doomed in fighting for it.
Spassky half-jokingly, half-seriously called Fischer the head of the world’s chess trade union. For both
me and Garry, the American genius of those years remains the benchmark of high professionalism. His
independent behavior was unusual for that time, and many of his demands were considered to be
whims. Now, though, the majority of those demands are considered to be the norm. And as far as the
match terms are concerned, his successor made it much more difficult for the challenger to become
world champion than Fischer did.
I still don’t know whether I did the right thing when I placed the report from the French agency about
our champion’s secret meeting on the table of the country’s sports chieftains. I believed that my job
responsibilities dictated such a move. I still don’t believe that the chances of such a match ever
materializing were serious. Fischer was already disturbed by then. I probably should have paused for
thought instead of interfering, but I couldn’t sit still and ended up being drawn into some dirty games.

26
 The leadership’s initial reaction suggested that they knew nothing about this meeting, although
Karpov had already managed to return to Moscow, met them and left for a short tour to Vladimir. I then
naively decided that our bosses preferred to learn about chess life abroad only from the newspapers. In
actual fact, though, this was a deliberate image of being ill-informed that allowed them to pretend,
when something unexpected happened, that they didn’t know about it. I proposed properly organizing
the collection of information about chess life throughout the world, obtaining as many foreign
publications as possible. The core of this flow of up-to-date information would be extracts from the
foreign press sent to the editor’s office of the weekly 64 magazine, which at the time was headed by
Karpov. Such materials were regularly sent to the office, but only a few of them were reprinted in our
magazine due to a lack of space. My proposal was accepted, and I got down to work, looking for other
legal sources of chess information. This was my tactical blunder.
Karpov, it turned out, had been trying persistently to force a match with Fischer all year, and one can
only guess what prompted him to take risky steps towards this aim. The champion said at the time that
he didn’t want to be considered a “paper tiger”, and proved everywhere that he was capable of fighting
Fischer on equal terms. However, the matches with Korchnoi in 1974 and 1978 demonstrated that the
champion had difficulty in sustaining a protracted battle. I think, though, that what really blinded him
was the opportunity to obtain some part – any – of that match’s multi-million dollar prize fund.
Judging by another AFP report three weeks after the meeting in Tokyo, the grandmasters were again
due to meet “by chance”, but this time in central Europe, in order to a sign a match contract and then
announce it to the world. Such a deus ex machina was evidently hidden in Switzerland, to where
Karpov planned to head for several days.
It’s now clear that when assessing the arising situation I committed a number of errors, which placed
a cross against my further administrative career for the state and drove me to take up the rocky but
ultimately fortunate profession of full-time coach.
Firstly, Karpov’s negotiations with Fischer were no secret. More precisely, they were a secret for the
State Sports Committee, and, naturally, for the USSR Chess Federation – but not for other, far more
influential committees and organizations. Then our champion’s conviction that his significant
professional violations would go unpunished becomes understandable.
Secondly, by informing the leadership of the State Sports Committee about the meeting in Tokyo, I
put the sports functionaries in a truly awkward situation, where they had to take a decision about an
event they were not supposed to have heard about. I think that they were soon made to understand
“from above” that this decision had been taken by a more powerful committee on the basis of motives
that were none of their business. And so I found myself in a situation that was typical for our society,
when a person who had taken an initiative not sanctioned by the leadership and which forced the
leadership to act now needed to be punished.
Thirdly, Karpov, Urals-born and bred, had a “perfect personal background” and since 1973 had
received powerful support from the party and state apparatus. He became the official, state symbol of a
Soviet man achieving great things thanks to the socialist way of governance. He was primed to enjoy
not only a sporting, but a state career, about whose scope we can now make all sorts of assumptions,
but, I think, its steps were at the time expected to extend high. Evidently, he was already on that list of

27
people about whom it was forbidden to collect even publicly available information capable of
compromising them. Such information was to be destroyed immediately. This “rule” ceased to be a
secret once the Communist Party archives were opened ajar. Actually, Karpov’s membership of this
Teflon-like caste was confirmed by his appointment two years later as head of the powerful state
organization with the ambiguous title Fond Mira(2). In Brezhnev’s times, people so young weren’t
appointed to leadership positions. They even turned a blind eye to his bank accounts abroad (which
were totally forbidden to our citizens at the time) and to the secret contract that he signed in 1978 in
Baguio City to endorse a chess computer that was only revealed to a shocked public, by accident, nine
years later.
Upon hearing that the Soviet Chess Federation had learnt about their negotiations and that they were
preparing a statement in this respect, Fischer, who had a pathological hatred of all organizations,
immediately lost interest in the match. Karpov was furious upon hearing about my action, which I had
no intention of hiding. Evidently, he decided to make an example of me, to show what would happen if
somebody dared to challenge him. As always, he targeted me via his lobbyists while himself remaining
behind the scenes. He simply ignored all my suggestions to meet and find a compromise. He demanded
that the chairman of the Sports Committee fire me, intensifying these demands by phone calls from
“higher bodies”. The sports leadership, pushed into a corner by Karpov, found themselves in a no-win
situation. The poor leadership were facing a demand to fire a man immediately and without any formal
reason, even though that man had up until then received only their thanks and to whom they had
granted awards and bonuses on several occasions. They started to jump from one possible solution to
another. They suggested first that I move to another job, then that I suddenly leave for a business trip
abroad, and then to resign of my own free will.
This tense standoff lasted three months, as they could not find any reasonable reason to sack me.
However, Karpov took the matter under his “personal control” and again organized pressure on the
State Sports Committee, which finally decided to give me a “New Year’s present”, issuing an order
sacking me on 31 December with the stunning wording “for amoral behavior in respect of his pupil, the
world champion”. Naively, I turned to the trade unions for protection, but there I saw that they were
frightened to the point of panic to take a stance against the leadership. So I ended up hiring a good
lawyer and appealing to the people’s court with a request to prevent this malfeasance. Ex-world
champions Botvinnik and Petrosian took my side. The leadership got nervous.
Unwritten rules of the party bosses banned such legal disputes from happening, especially if there
was no chance of winning them. So a few hours before the case was due to be heard the phone went in
the judge’s office. One of the State Sports Committee bosses told him that they had just reached a
peace settlement with Nikitin. Back at the beginning of this “war” I had told them that I was always
ready to agree to a reasonable compromise, so now I went off to discover what settlement we had
“agreed”. It transpired that we had agreed that the State Sports Committee would cancel its unfortunate
order, and I would request a transfer (which would be granted immediately) to the Spartak sports club,
retaining my post as a coach of the USSR team. Clearly, the sports bosses had had enough of the world
champion’s obstinacy, given their readiness to satisfy my main demand to reach a compromise – the
opportunity to work with Garry.
Leaving the State Sports Committee I publicly promised to knock Karpov off his throne. Everybody

28
knew what would be done to achieve this. From now on, my work coaching the young candidate master
had acquired a new, powerful incentive.
I realized that the leaders of the State Sports Committee would not forget this affront and would try to
find an excuse to cancel my job on the grounds of redundancy. So that first year I needed to do
something that would tie their hands. I approached the ex-world champion Tigran Vartanovich
Petrosian with the suggestion to organize a chess school for junior Spartak players under his leadership.
I was joyous when he agreed with gusto, and as early as April 1977 15 boys were brought to the
Zhemchuzhina holiday center in the Moscow region. Work had begun.
We didn’t have as much support as the Botvinnik school, whose budget was met by funds from the
Komsomol Central Committee, the All-Union Central Soviet of Trade Unions, and the State Sports
Committee. We were working under the wing of the Spartak club, and mostly brought children to its
modest training centers. First category players came to the first session, and their names were
meaningless even to specialists. We were functioning in the shadow of another, famous school, and we
weren’t supposed to receive the cream of the crop.
Beginning work, I thought that the ex-world champion would only play a high-level role. However,
the unexpected happened. Petrosian demonstrated excellent teaching ability and, above all, a desire to
work with the children. The Spartak school became one of a kind. Regularly, without interruption,
twice a year, it invited children for a full 15 years. Of the kids who came to our school more than once,
over 30 soon became masters of sport, and Boris Gelfand, Igor Novikov, Svetlana Matveeva and Yuri
Dohoyan became grandmasters famous throughout the chess world. Until 1984 the wise Tigran
continuously ran the school and was at each session from bell to bell. In the middle of that year we lost
our founding father and the school was formally renamed in honor of its late leader.
Unlike the Botvinnik school we placed a heavy emphasis on lectures and conversations with the
students. The teachers would also played clock simuls with the kids. Towards the end, simuls were held
increasingly rarely, as these children had learnt to bite quite painfully. One of the GMs once lost 2:8,
and another performed even worse. From the very start, Tigran Vartanovich and I stressed the key role
of a coach working constantly with the child. The latter would not automatically be called a Petrosian
pupil – this was how discreet the great Master was. A very benign atmosphere reigned during our
sessions, and relations with the kids remained warm beyond the school’s walls.
Following Petrosian’s lead, ex-world champions Vasily Smyslov and Mikhail Tal got to work with
the kids, as did GMs Lev Polugaevsky, Evgeny Sveshnikov, Alexander Panchenko and Vladimir
Bagirov. This enabled us to continue the tradition of handing down grandmaster experience to the
young generation after Botvinnik retired from coaching.
The second key focus of my work at Spartak was, naturally, working with Garry, as a result of which
he became a Spartan. From then on, trips with him to tournaments and training sessions became a job
function, rather than a bonus. This gave me a huge energy boost.
At Spartak a former footballer became my boss, but not just anybody! I could tell you a lot about
Andrei Petrovich Starostin, and only great things. Wise and unusually intelligent, he worked hard to
ensure that my work with Garry didn’t encounter obstacles.
Luck began to accompany my coaching career straight away, and quite spectacularly, although I was

29
actually quite far away from my charge at the breakthrough moment. In the first month of 1977, Garik
literally tore his opponents apart at the next national junior championships, held in Riga. Yusupov and
Chernin both played in that competition, but nobody could compete with Garik. The results of the work
carried out with him over the past year were stark – an exceptionally varied and complex opening
repertoire, in keeping with the times, and an equally varied set of ploys that enabled him to chalk up
win after win. The record score for the junior championships that he posted – 8.5/9 – was fully
representative of the quality of his play. He was also the first junior in Soviet history to successfully
defend his national title. And he was only 13!
The level of play with which he brilliantly defended his title was easily at the level of master, and
Garry couldn’t wait for the next tournament that would give him the chance to gain a cherished norm.
Nobody seemed to doubt that he would fulfill it at the first opportunity, yet I wasn’t so sure, as I saw
weaknesses in the boy’s play and believed it would be useful to work for another half year to ensure he
arrived at a stable master’s level. “You don’t need to rush after the master title,” I told him, “and you
don’t even need to gain it especially. Rather, it should arrive in passing along the journey to other,
higher titles.” And that is indeed what happened.
Three months later, the champion came to gain his master’s norm at a tournament for the strongest
juniors in the country in Leningrad. Although the other players were at least three years older than
Garry and were already holders of the master of sport title, he had no doubt that he would succeed here
and nothing I said could shake his confidence. However, the awaited triumph failed to materialize. It
was wrong to assume this tournament would deliver success, as his opponents were experienced guys
well aware of his strength and able to exploit his still childish impetuosity. Garik finished just half a
point behind the winner, his friend Artur Yusupov, but that was also half a point less than the norm
requirement.
This was the first time that I’d spent an entire tournament with Garry, and I discovered how hard it
was to work with him when he overestimated his powers. At this point serious problems began in
respect of his chess psychology. Klara Kasparova took it upon herself to solve this particular challenge.
Meanwhile, I tried to strengthen the boy’s play, by working with him on a playing style to which he
was unaccustomed. “I’m a poor psychologist,” I reasoned, “but if I manage to achieve what I’ve
planned then the lad’s perception of his great ability will actually help to resolve his psychological
issues.”
My program to make Garik stronger really jolted him. We decided that by the end of the year he need
to learn how to play in a “ripped” rhythm, meaning that he could suddenly switch styles during the
game, from sharp combinational play to positional play and vice versa. I also selected a number of
games where convincing wins were achieved through the scrupulous accumulation of such tiny
positional advantages that it sometimes seemed that neither player was making progress. Games where
ten moves later it was time for the loser to resign. “Winning games by standing still” is how I named
this subtle means of battle, when your opponent doesn’t notice that you are regrouping your forces in
order to create a new, unexpected situation on the board. I didn’t intend to change Garik’s style of play,
but I considered it essential to diversify his arsenal of technical tools. The fruit of this work
materialized a year later in an unexpected form. Garik got really into this method of imperceptibly
regrouping his forces. He mastered it and adapted it to his own style, having learnt to secretly and

30
quickly divert his pieces to the zone of decisive action.
The junior team championship was held while we were at the very thick of our work. Garik arrived at
the competition with total chaos in his head, where old and new variations and playing styles were all
mixed together. It was only according to the timetable that I included at the beginning of this book that
the theoretical gain in his playing strength was progressing smoothly and resolutely. Everything is
much more complicated in life. Given that Garik had not yet developed a professional attitude to chess,
or, to be more precise, he had not yet matured enough to master all the subtleties needed for his
profession, his periods of progress would alternate with periods of creative failure, when he was unable
to make himself play at his best level. Work at eliminating his weaknesses and acquiring new strengths
was going at full speed, and in such times it’s better to hold off from competitions. Normally you don’t
fight wars when you’re re-arming. The mess in his head reflected the mess in his play, yet Garik put in
a good performance in Moscow due to his clearly improved playing level.
The name Kasparov first appeared in the Soviet rating list in 1976, at 2320. Right above it, in
alphabetical order, the row read “Karpov 2739”. From then on, the alphabet firmly linked these two
surnames, as though formally fixing their rivalry, which the chess world was now impatiently awaiting
with interest. Another trip to France for the world cadet championship delivered only third place. In his
play Garry looked no worse than the winner, Jon Arnason from Iceland, and they had equal points with
three rounds left. However, the tournament rules, which stipulated playing 11 games in 11 days, were
better suited to the 16-year-olds. Garik was lacking in energy towards the end. He drew his last three
games and also thereby allowed an American to finish above him. The State Sports Committee also
made its contribution to Garik’s relative failure, by rejecting prior to the trip the candidacies of people
meant to accompany him who could actually have helped him in difficult times. In respect of me, the
State Sports Committee simply said: “We’ll send anybody but Nikitin.”
The boy returned home tired and disappointed. However, neither Botvinnik nor I turned his third
place into a tragedy. We spent the rest of the year working quietly and Garry conspicuously improved.
At the end of the year he played a wonderful game against Elmar Magerramov which in a way signified
the end of a five-year cycle of intensive chess education, a unique education targeted from the very start
at reaching the top of Chess Olympia.
During lessons with the kids in the Petrosian school I interacted with lots of capable and
independently thinking boys and girls who were frenziedly in love with chess and willing to spend an
unlimited amount of time sitting at the board, studying books and magazines and attending sessions
while other children played in the square – and all this to unravel the mysteries of this profound game.
Looking at them, most of them highly talented, I couldn’t help asking myself “Could I, using the
experience and knowledge that I’d accumulated, create another chess titan like Garry Kasparov?” but I
couldn’t firmly answer “yes” to that question.
I had been convinced for some time that for all the phenomenal talent that God had endowed the boy,
his endless desire to know as much as possible and his huge ambition, an important and lucky
combination of a whole host of circumstances materialized that made the process of polishing this
diamond from Baku as effective and optimal in duration as possible. By the way, the Academy of
Sciences member Yuri Kobzarev indirectly supported me when he wrote in 1984: “In any type of
human activity only optimal external circumstances enable skills to be employed to their maximum.”

31
Well, the coincidence of which circumstances led to such huge success of our five-year education?
Firstly, Garik was born in a “chess city”, where even All-Union tournaments were held regularly.
Strong chess masters lived in Baku and experienced teachers worked with the children. Further, it was
at the start of the 1970s that a group of talented lads studied at the Pioneers Palace, the strongest of
which were Elmar Magerramov, Rostislav Korsunsky and Rachik Tavadyan. Garik would analyze
games with them, tackle problems and studies, and play against them in tournaments. All questions
arising in their little heads would be immediately raised within the group for general discussion. Chess
talents grow particularly rapidly in such a creative atmosphere. Many talented and hard-working kids
never made it to the world of Big Chess simply because they lived in a village or small town with no
chess environment.
Secondly, Garik grew up in a close family where children were loved and raised with care. Relatives
helped his mother to nurture the talented boy. When it came to the time to decide whether to make
chess the focal point of his life nobody sowed any doubts or hesitancy in the boy’s mind. The support
of parents, at least moral support, is as vital to a talented child as the role of black earth for growing
plants.
Thirdly, it was in 1973, immediately after the junior games in Vilnius, that the Botvinnik school
reopened, and this is where the boy gained his main chess education. Mikhail Moiseevich taught Garik
a lot, and became for a long time a powerful wall protecting the pupil from troubles. The Patriarch’s
huge authority made it possible to send Garik into the orbit of Big Chess as soon as he had sufficiently
matured to play in serious competitions. As a result, the boy didn’t “burn out” and his chess ability
grew year by year. A good teacher and protector are huge luck for a pupil.
Fourthly, my appearance at Vilnius in 1973, the ensuing contact between us and our intensifying
creative interaction turned out to be good fortune for both of us. I had significant experience, a pretty
decent playing level, and an ability to organize, plan and carry out research. I had a lot of ideas that I
fully managed to implement working with Garik. As a result, he gained a huge volume of knowledge
and quickly increased in playing strength.
Even my “war” with Karpov worked in Garry’s favor. From 1977 onwards I gained the opportunity
to spend much more of my time working with him than before. The sports bosses sort of launched an
experiment to try and raise a player at an accelerated pace capable of defeating Karpov. The experiment
proved to be totally successful.
Fifthly, the educational team working with the lad managed to work together smoothly and
effectively. Nobody attempted to become the leader. Everybody carried out their duties for the common
good. I’m grateful to my colleagues in this work – Klara Shagenovna, who sacrificed everything for her
son’s education, and Mikhail Moiseevich Botvinnik, who not only managed the educational process but
also provided massive support and protection.
I doubt that such a trio will again be established who would begin such work in the company of a
small number of helpers. I’m sure that had any of us left the team or even sharply reduced their effort
then the gain in Garik’s chess ability would not have been so rapid or consistent. Up to now none of the
young grandmasters has had such a team and none of them has demonstrated results that have improved
as quickly and steadily as happened with Kasparov.

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 At the end of 1977 we started to look hard for tournaments where Garik could once again try to make
his master’s norm. There was a threat that he would develop an inferiority complex from his undoubted
master’s playing strength failing to receive formal recognition. The next such tournament looked to be
the following January in Minsk, but the organizers weren’t interested – there were too many local
players also looking to make the norm. “Diplomatic” negotiations began involving sporting and even
party bosses. But it was Botvinnik’s appeal to the Belorussian Chess Federation that proved decisive.
The chess organizers couldn’t possibly turn it down, and the desired invitation arrived in early
December. We began to prepare for the trip to Minsk.

(2) This could equally translate as “Fund for Peace” and “Fund for the World” – translator’s note

33
 Chapter 4. Recognition (1978-1981)

Minsk met us with cold winter weather, a cold hotel on the outskirts of the city, and cold transport that
took us to the playing hall. Indeed, the tournament organizers at first didn’t take kindly to the Baku
“team” that had brought a boy not yet fifteen to their traditional adult tournament, which was
considered prestigious in their republic. It was only the age of the not-so-welcome guest that generated
interest in his performance. Everybody expected something exotic, but nobody expected what actually
happened.
Before the tournament, I had described to Garry what I saw as an “optimal” set of scores that in total
would lead to his making the norm with a bit extra to spare:
a) a careful start (3.5 out of 6) – he had to get used to the completely new atmosphere of a tough,
purely adult competition;
b) an explosive “middlegame” (4.5 out of 6) – this would prove decisive in his overall success;
c) a reticent finish (2.5 out of 5) – it was unclear how Garry would withstand a competition over 17
games.
However, his first games shocked everybody – spectators, coaches and, above all, the other
participants. The tournament immediately became a prominent event in the city’s sporting life. Fans
came specifically to see Kasparov.
These vastly experienced masters were driven dizzy by the boy’s crafty maneuvering. His games
were remarkable for their unusual freshness and some mysterious force. After 7 rounds this alien from
Baku had accumulated 6 (!) points. His performance as a whole was inspired and he fulfilled his
master’s norm with 5 rounds to spare. Then, after defeating a grandmaster in a tournament for the first
time in his life in the final round, Garry ensured first place and scored 3.5 points more than required for
the norm! This was a truly triumphant and spectacular display.
Almost immediately after this amazing finale we met again at the next (and as it turned out, Garry’s
final) session at the Botvinnik school. Garry reported on his performance and, in place of Dvoretsky,
who had by then left the school, he took on the functions of assistant at the session, even though half
the pupils were older than him. I’m not sure that this was the right move by the ex-world champion
from the educational point of view. The newly-made master’s head was already spinning from the
commotion raised in Azerbaijan, and giving him a “promotion”, as Botvinnik had done, seemed a risk
to me. However, the teacher, who had decisively broken with his previous assistant, had decided to
prove that he could manage the lesson without him. He held it. One session. But after that Botvinnik’s
work with children once again ceased.
I now had to focus on putting together a training program aimed at bringing the boy to GM level. It
was clear that Garry’s playing strength was growing very rapidly, and that it would soon be time for
him to achieve the next title. We needed to plan our work so that he was only fed what he needed to
ensure constant improvement and to liquidate deficiencies in his play as soon as possible.
I worked intensively in the Petrosian school to develop the kids’ calculation ability, convinced that
this was fundamental to their chess improvement. Garry’s ability to calculate variations was pretty well

34
developed by the age of ten. After each game ended his opponent would usually find himself on the
receiving end of a whole waterfall of long lines that Garry had found over the board. I joked at the time
that he got rid of excess chess information via his mouth. After Minsk it became clear that Garry’s
calculation ability had developed so much further than his positional understanding that it simply
“squeezed out” the latter. When playing strong grandmasters this could lead to nasty problems. His
technique for converting an advantage also lagged. Here we needed to work both at chess itself and on
his psychology. Unlike Karpov, he wasn’t born with a killer’s instinct, and after gaining an advantage
he often reduced his concentration and his earlier playing intensity, hoping that his opponent would
bring about his own defeat. It didn’t take much to convince my charge that we needed to move to the
next stage of concentrated work. He was excited at the possibility of joining the chess elite all guns
blazing, rather than clambering last onto the boat, and Garry worked intensively with me and Shakarov
for nearly half a year.
Returning to Moscow and telling Botvinnik about our work, I continued to argue with the latter about
the next tournament in which the lad should play. This would be a much more frightening test than the
Minsk memorial. Successes in junior tournaments had given Kasparov the right to play in an All-Union
qualifying tournament for the adult national championships. However, none other than Botvinnik was
opposed to Garry participating, believing that it would be harmful for him to play in tournaments under
the Swiss system, which was a novelty at the time, allowing a tournament with over a hundred players
to be held in just ten days. Two or three days after the start of such tournaments, when the draw brings
together players with equal points, the tournament sort of “splits” into several sub-tournaments that are
loosely linked to each other. Today, most chess competitions are held using this system.
Botvinnik was opposed to the idea for two reasons: “Firstly,” he said, “neither I nor the Fischer that
you both like so much ever played in such tournaments, yet despite that we managed to become world
champions. Secondly, you can’t carry out prep for Swiss tourneys the way that I did and the way that I
taught my pupil,” (he emphasized these words in our conversation). “Moreover, during such a
tournament your next opponent is unknown right until the very last minute, and even express-
preparation for the game is impossible.” His first reason wasn’t very serious, and we soon forgot about
it. As far as the second reason was concerned, I easily convinced Garik that he needed to prepare
seriously for any tournament before it began, chiefly by eliminating weaknesses in his play. During the
tournament you need to play, rather than cramming with reference material and clever notebooks.
Since then, Garry’s preparation for games would be embodied in unhurried conversations during
walks in the park or along the streets, while the final opening system to be deployed in battle would be
agreed during lunch a couple of hours before the game started. Naturally, such a method was only
effective with the coach also carrying out detailed prep work, as well as systematic and just as detailed
study by Garry. When this wasn’t an option, he would have to cram information instead of taking
walks, and he would frenziedly flick through his notes right until he had to set off for the game. But
that would all happen later...
Garry’s mother took it upon herself to persuade Botvinnik to drop his principled objection. Her
diplomatic art had a powerful effect on Mikhail Moiseevich.
We managed to prepare thoroughly for this strong tournament. Garry worked hard on the endgame,
while Shakarov and I reconstructed the edifice of his opening repertoire, adding more and more floors,

35
and throwing out the outdated garbage. Apart from chess problems we solved other ones, psychological
and educational, which directly impacted the lad’s strength of character and ability to take decisions
independently. I always believed that a player’s method of solving chess problems at the board
reflected their character, and hence I insisted that Garry not be exempted from carrying out small pieces
of housework or from resolving some of life’s more minor problems.
64 players descended on the All-Union selection competition in Daugavpils, mostly weaker
grandmasters and strong masters who had lost neither their ambitions nor their illusions. The players
took noticeable interest in the boy. A constant crowd of perfectly competent observers would
accumulate by his table. There were even more when Garry would take part in analysis. These
observers, his colleagues, didn’t care what the newspapers would write about the lad. A new and
genuine master had charged headlong into the world of chess warriors, and they wanted to figure out
whether it was a new phenomenon or simply a little star that was soon destined to fade.
This time, there was no storm at the start of the competition. A fine win in round one was followed
by a cold shower delivered by the experienced ace Ratmir Kholmov. Garry played the next two games
more calmly, as though getting used to the tournament’s measured pace. His acclimatization turned out
to be successful, and the resulting burst of four consecutive wins was spectacular, powerful and logical.
I was pleased to note as a coach that my six months of prep weren’t wasted – the force of his moves
had greatly increased, together with the danger residing in his thoughts. However, the tournament finish
gave us food for thought. He ended with five straight draws, and a psychological weakness was evident
in the first of them that I will return to several times. After gaining a clear advantage, he suddenly lost
his fighting mood and offered a draw after a painful battle with himself. Maybe he picked the wrong
moment, or maybe his opponent decided that Garry didn’t like his position, but in either case his peace
proposal was rejected. After that, like recently in Minsk (see the story about game No. 18), the lad
roused himself and began to play inventive and strong moves. However, after seeing a way to force a
draw, he didn’t seek a stronger move.
Karpov once described a similar situation of a battle against himself, providing the apt conclusion:
“you mustn’t play for a win if in spirit you’re happy to draw.” In order to rise above yourself in such
circumstances you have to love chess madly, like the legendary Fischer. It was impossible to force
Garry to play in the final four games – he was demob-happy and willing to agree a draw in any
position. However, this wasn’t calculation, but a defensive reaction from his young body. He had spent
so much nervous energy in hesitation and emotions during the previous games that he ran out of it
before the end. It was as though the lad’s body contained a limit switch that wouldn’t let him fight to
win when his nerves were exhausted.
After the last round was over, Garry was jumping for joy. So where had his tiredness gone? Well,
despite this lackluster finish he had unexpectedly come first and gained a direct place in the USSR
Championship Higher League! It was an amazing success. For the first time ever, a 15-year-old lad had
joined GMs to fight for the title of Soviet champion. Even Botvinnik only made his debut in the
national championships at 16.
The astonishing success of my pupil provided me with a mass of interesting but equally unexpected
work. Our annual work-plan, which until recently had seemed appealing and convincing, was bursting

36
at the seams. Playing in the Higher League hadn’t been envisaged in it. But this meant that our strategy
of gradually leading the boy to a playing level suitable for the Higher League now gave way to forced
preparation. It was no longer a matter of years before battling GMs whose names had until recently
frightened Garry, but just four months. Time had compressed astonishingly. It was just recently that the
lad had played them in simuls, yet now he had to play them in a tournament. These four months merged
for me, Shakarov and Garry into a single uninterrupted stretch of time, yet for Garry it also had to
include school lessons, homework, swimming and playing football in the streets. He began to take
autogenic training lessons from an excellent specialist Khalid Sagarovich Gasanov. The kind Khalid
was for ten years the guardian of the lad’s mental balance and accompanied Garry at nearly all of his
world championship matches. Our doctor’s benevolent and calm disposition had such an effect that it
was enough just to talk to him for a few minutes to reach a state of mental tranquility.
An external element that tore an entire 20 days out of our preparatory period was the mandatory,
“planned” appearance at the All-Union youth spartakiad. Garik put in a decent shift, but returned to
Baku exhausted and having lost weight. At the same time, this was his first lesson in the university of
life in conditions where nobody was there to feed him material and where he didn’t have his mother
there to care for him.
The short time available for further prep forced us to work in a particularly coordinated fashion. In
those months we strictly verified the good principles of division of responsibility, which had by then
existed for several years and had led to the establishment of a creative, efficient team. We managed to
achieve a lot in that time.
While preparing for the Higher League we comprehensively studied the games of the Karpov -
Korchnoi match, focusing in particular on the big picture in play. Realizing that gaining an advantage
in the opening against the elite players would be quite difficult, this time we worked above all on
mastering play in so-called equal positions. I said to Garry that the evaluation “equal” didn’t mean that
a draw was inevitable, but that it merely signified a battle with equal chances of winning (and losing)
for each player. Such positions were usually won by the player who was familiar with the largest
number of their subtleties. You could only get to master these subtleties through independent thought
about a position, living that position, just like an actor gets to live his role. No coaches could do this
work for you. They might study some position wonderfully well, grasping its subtleties. However, that
would be their evaluation, their understanding, and it would probably not be appropriate for you. You
have your own understanding, your own signature when you play, and it needs to be your evaluation.
The lad’s debut in the Higher League in Tbilisi in December 1978 was awaited with great interest.
Even the magazine 64 in its ten-year anniversary issue provided a photo collage of several old issues
where “quite by chance” large portraits of Karpov and Kasparov appeared on two of them. The world
champion was unavailable to play in this tournament, but the journalists had already begun to compare
their results.
For the first time, Garry found himself playing on the stage of a beautiful theater with a large number
of spectators. Yet he surprisingly quickly got used to both the big stage and the noise from the
audience. At times I got the impression that the stage and multitude of fans only inspired him. In the
very first round, with black against the fearsome Geller, he played with great confidence and even
rejected a draw prior to the adjournment. The lad’s play was immediately appreciated by the GMs, and

37
the following three draws were all agreed at their initiative in 20-25 moves. I can’t remember any other
case of such respect being accorded to a debutant. After six rounds complete confusion had been sown
in the world of chess maestros. There were three leaders, among them Garry, who had lost no games
and defeated Kuzmin and Polugaevsky.
His debut in the Higher League used up far greater energy than his later performances in that same
tournament. Garry, naturally, began to feel emotional tiredness, but it was the commotion that had
gathered around him which knocked him off the leader’s saddle. The lad’s rich imagination had sent
him to the peak of Mount Olympia. Meanwhile, his mother and I, remaining on firm ground, called on
the “near champion” to keep a grip on reality and objectively assess his strength, but he barely heard us.
Two defeats by some of Azerbaijan’s less prestigious grandmasters quickly pulled the boy back down
to Planet Earth and into another extreme – a whole week of despondency and self-punishment. He was
again listening to us by the second rest day, and so we managed to refocus the despairing “champion”
towards a more or less objective perception of the situation and to treat the next three games seriously.
Most importantly, he promised me that he would not get up from the table during his next game,
against GM Beliavsky, and that he would close his “consulting agency” on the stage.
I applied my experience as an engineer and convinced the lad to work the next day in alternating
modes of a radar. Firstly (when it was his opponent’s move) – in chess board viewing mode. After
making his move, Garry should stay where he was and relax a little. In doing so, he was allowed not to
look at the board, but he wasn’t allowed to completely switch off from the events on it. A relaxed pose,
diluted attention, a look sometimes scanning the board and sometimes disappearing into nowhere (but
never migrating to the neighboring boards) was the ideal behavior for a player waiting for his opponent
to move. It’s at this time, sometimes subconsciously, that his brain thinks calmly, new ideas appear,
and subtleties of the position get noticed that up until then had escaped him. Now the opponent makes a
move, and then the second mode switches on – capturing mode, when the radar’s antenna locks on to
the target and no longer spins, instead strictly following the target’s movements. In the same way,
Garry would change suddenly when it was his move – he would appear alert, carefully examine the
board and grab his head with his hands. His look would not dart around the board, but would be
focused on the part where the outcome of the battle would be decided. His thought process would be
intensive.
He won the game against Beliavsky ever so convincingly. Garry’s new manner of behavior on the
stage became an unwelcome surprise for people who liked to consult with him during play. From the
very first rounds we could observe an amusing scene: the boy only had to stand up from his chair for a
number of GMs to crowd round him straight away with the aim of exchanging a few sentences. Before
answering, Garry usually glanced at one of the boards, so the subject of his consultation would be
obvious. The role of consultant in assessing positions, as I called him at the time, fed the boy’s vanity,
but by the middle of the tournament was interfering with his play, and I convinced him to stop, as I
mentioned above. It was amusing to observe several players standing puzzled around his table, where
Garry looked distractedly at his opponent thinking over his next move. No inviting looks would now
make him get up from his chair.
I understand, and hence don’t overly condemn such garrulous players. A battle in a chess game is
frequently a battle against yourself, against your doubts and prevarications. Far from everybody

38
believes in their chess ability, especially when playing equal or better players. And many, even GMs,
need external support – any, even if it’s just a look, a gesture, but better if it’s a word of approval:
“How am I doing?”... “Fine.” And the asker walks away becalmed, even though that quick reply might
have been quite off the mark.
Garry played the next game wonderfully, too, and might have hoped to win on the second session.
However, the lad’s ambition egged him on, and, sensing he was getting tired, Garry decided to try and
force a win by opting for sharp play. He then tasted bitter disappointment at the end of the fifth hour
after making a blunder in time trouble, ruining a good position. His disappointment grew during the
adjournment when I couldn’t find any decent way to help my tired charge in finding a technically
complicated way to beat Boris Gulko. The long second session discouraged us all and extinguished all
of Garry’s remaining mental energy. By the end he was more a spectator than a fighter. In the four last
games it was he who offered draws, and at the most unexpected moments. During a game against
Evgeny Sveshnikov the light on stage suddenly switched off. The GM had the worse position and little
time left on the clock. When, after 25 minutes, the lights were finally switched on, a sign stating “draw”
was quickly hung over the demonstration board. “Why did you agree to a draw?” was my first
comment, when we met up. “Oh, it was me who offered it,” replied Garry simply and tiredly.
There was an even stranger event the next day in his game against Romanishin. The players were also
crawling to the finishing line, and Garry’s opponent sacrificed the exchange still in the opening,
without even knowing what for. The lad missed a quick win on several occasions, but didn’t give up his
material advantage. After he made his 39th move the players shook hands to signify the end of the
battle. I thought to myself: “Oleg, well, he’s a true gentleman, he didn’t want to adjourn a hopeless
position.” Then having immediately calmed myself I started to calculate Garry’s realistic chances of
claiming a top five place. A noise in the playing hall interrupted my variations. The audience was
angrily booing this feckless move demonstrator, believing that he had put up the wrong sign with the
result. The demonstration board with Garry’s game now sported the sign with the laconic word “Draw”.
As we exited, we repeated our conversation from the previous evening...
Garry ended the tournament...with a blitz match against his chess idol, ex-world champion Mikhail
Tal. I persuaded my Latvian friend, who had effectively won the tournament with one round to spare, to
test my charge. Their game in the last round, on the 26th of the month, had ended in a draw in just half
an hour, and the match, which took place in the press-center, was really its replacement for the players.
They both played risky chess, and with obvious pleasure. It ended 7:7 and was a good way for this tired
and slightly disappointed lad to wind down. The games are published here for the first time in the
English edition of my book (2019), with my commentary and modern computer analysis (see Chapter
5).
Actually, I didn’t see any grounds for disappointment in the tournament score, as I always preferred
running to leaping. The 50% score, which in any event was perfectly reasonable for a debutant, allowed
Garry to return to play in the Higher League the following year. And now we had a whole year to
prepare. Moreover, the modest point score was actually down to a large number of missed
opportunities. This pointed to his great potential, and that this accelerated training process was on the
right path.
The reason for hiccups at the finish was obvious, as was its treatment – hard work! We needed to

39
improve his chess understanding, so that next time he played at the Higher League he would perform
not at the very limit of his abilities, but keeping some gunpowder in reserve. We needed to build up this
reserve during the year. In that year, we needed to learn how to manage our emotions and mature in
character... about three years’ worth to catch up. Yes, here, unfortunately, we had to hurry to shed our
childish illusions.
Childhood seemed to have come and gone in a flash, and Garry’s favorite game had turned into a
serious business, dragging off his only recently arrived youth by the nose. Garry’s school mates were
engrossed in typical adolescent worries, often naive and frivolous, the sort you experience when you
have no idea of what future awaits you. He, though, already knew perfectly well that his life’s journey
was now charted on the 64 squares, and that this life had already begun – adult-like and demanding.
Not long before that tournament, Karpov had returned from Baguio City, having defeated Korchnoi.
Splendid celebrations were held, including popular events. The champion was asked at one of them
how he viewed the young Kasparov. “Yes, I’ve heard about this player. However, he still hasn’t proven
anything, and we know of many cases where talented players never reached the apex of their
development,” the victor replied with poorly hidden annoyance.
The lad’s excellent debut in the adult national championship changed nothing in his career path,
which had been set by the Moscow-based sports functionaries. The following year, in 1979, they again
planned for Garry to play in the Higher League of the adult national championship, in Minsk in
December. In the middle of the year he was also due to play in the national team championship,
representing Azerbaijan. And that was it! Including the likely participation in some junior international
tournament he was unlikely to have to play more than 35 serious games in the coming year. For a fast-
growing young chess player this would mean true hunger.
No, he wasn’t being persecuted so far – he simply had to go through this mill of attrition, a procedure
that was compulsory for almost all Soviet grandmasters, with the natural exception of the world
champion. Garry was not yet a GM, hence our requests to grant him a place in a decent international
tournament, not necessarily abroad, were met at best by perplexed looks and questions: “But in what
way is Kasparov better than his colleagues already standing in the queue for tournaments? He’s still
young, he can wait. Others wait for years.”
The system of social justice for the hungry had long reigned in Soviet sport. However, this hunger
was quite specific – there was plenty of ordinary food around, especially at the team training sessions,
but there was a catastrophic shortage of chess tournaments – food just as important for professional
players. The iron curtain, erected by our leaders going back to Stalin’s time, allowed every year only a
small group of GMs and masters to play in the West, which was rich in competitions. This group was
restricted by a mysterious “quota” that would be announced to the sports functionaries by powerful and
no less mysterious people from the Party Central Committee, hidden under this strange term “instance”.
Any attempt to find out how this “quota” was set would be stamped out immediately, and persistence in
asking questions would lead to the curious questioner being long forgotten when it came to putting
together teams to be sent to foreign tourneys. Players dying to be granted places on those trips would be
placed in a queue, which included both veterans who had already played their best games, and young
masters desperate to show what they were capable of in any competition. The meagre crumbs of
competition assigned to them dried their talent and damaged their nervous systems. In this exhaustive

40
wait for benevolence to come their way future grandmasters burnt up, and experienced pros lost their
form before their time. This queue embittered and divided colleagues, but its organizers, or to be more
precise its perpetrators, speaking quietly but as though expressively, sat in spacious offices deciding
whom, when and where to allow to go and play.
Garry was destined to boil in this same cauldron, had it not been for Botvinnik. Upon learning that a
large international grandmaster tournament was shortly due to be held in Yugoslavia, he again moved
mountains in negotiations with the organizers. The Yugoslavs couldn’t resist that ex-champion’s
massive authority and agreed to receive the young Soviet master among the tournament competitors in
the seaside resort of Banja Luka, even though he had neither an international title nor an international
rating. In advocating for his pupil, Botvinnik assured them that the lad would play very well, and if
anybody would regret his inclusion it would be the other players, when after several rounds they
realized just how he could play. As it later transpired, several Yugoslav GMs had indeed protested his
participation, as they were afraid of losing rating points against a lad who still had no rating.
The State Sports Committee played no role in Botvinnik’s diplomatic negotiations, but when they
realized that the organizers were inviting Garry together with Petrosian, they categorically refused to let
either his mother or his coach accompany him. Well, that proved to be a blessing in disguise: the
tournament created a friendship between the lad and this experienced ex-world champion, and in the
following five years, while Tigran was still alive, Garry and I learnt a lot from the wise master, who
would come and visit him for creative conversations.
While Botvinnik negotiated, Garry, after catching up on his schoolwork, prepared for the tournament.
At my request he drew up a chess self-portrait analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of his play.
There wasn’t time for detailed chess prep, so we had to rely on the experience and knowledge gained in
the Higher League.
The tournament wasn’t just a strong one. Of the 16 players only two weren’t grandmasters, and half
of those were among the elite. The Yugoslavs received our players warmly. Petrosian always had lots
of fans there, while Garry immediately gained a supportive press as well as the sympathy of chess fans,
for his youth and sincerity. Evidently, the artistic foundation embedded in his genes created inspiration,
all the more so given the major public interest in the competition. Garry was on fire from the beginning.
After a fighting draw with his compatriot Petrosian in the first round, he won game after game, and was
on nine points after ten rounds!
This tournament immediately became a phenomenon in the sporting world. At this point Garry was
already a sensation, but now a super sensation was coming our way: at this pace, the unrated player
looked like he could reach fantasy-level heights, outperforming Karpov and even Fischer in terms of
rating. However, the lad failed to grip this unique chance – he suddenly reduced his playing intensity
sharply and in the last five games again made do with draws. Once he had exceeded the most
outrageous sporting targets he once again heard the delighted exclamations of the fans and relaxed.
Nevertheless, he came away boasting 11.5 points with no defeats and a two point gap from second
place, a GM norm with a point to spare and a tournament rating performance to support the norm, a
large number of great games at true GM level, and the thrilled recognition of the chess world – all this
and at just 16!

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 Success at a major international tournament brought Garry not only international recognition but also
the all-powerful protection of the party leadership, which was extremely important for nurturing talent
in our country. Support came from none other than the head of the Azerbaijan Communist Party,
Geidar Aliev. As soon as Garry returned to Baku, Aliev invited the mother and son to a meeting. At this
long chat he delighted the Kasparovs with his kindness and support. From that moment on, the
republic’s sporting leaders provided all the aid needed for this fast rising Azerbaijani star to improve
further. This powerful support made us train even harder, as we knew that the strict rules of sport,
which obey no leadership, could quickly send Garry back down, into the mix of unnoticed and
unsupported sportsmen, or to the group of sportsmen who failed to meet the hopes invested in them.
Garry would appeal to his protector for support only in extreme circumstances, when nothing else could
re-establish deliberately flattened fairness. However, from time to time he was led to understand that
Aliev was following his events with his previous attention and kindness. I have no doubt that without
the support of that extraordinary leader Garry would never have got to play his match against Karpov in
1984.
It was naive to assume that only Kasparov had a protector in the upper echelons of power. All strong
GMs in the country tried to gain the “necessary” acquaintances, some of them successfully. All our ex-
world champions (with the exception of our “unpractical” Tal and Spassky) had “powerful” friends.
Karpov enjoyed particularly strong support, and from many sources. His friends or highly-ranked fans
were to be found at all levels of party and state governance. Apart from everything else, they created
for him the image of a state champion and strengthened it thanks to two short meetings with the party
leader Leonid Brezhnev.
Garry’s holiday period, after his traditionally successful finish to his school year – this time, ninth
grade – was short. The spartakiad of the peoples of the USSR was approaching, and this time he was
due to play top board. However, Azerbaijan fielded an uneven team, with no real hopes of reaching the
main final, where Garry could meet the leaders of Soviet chess. With his successes going to his head,
the lad couldn’t make himself prepare seriously to play opponents less illustrious than those in
Yugoslavia. Nor did he treat seriously my exhortations that Soviet masters play no worse than many
western GMs. He showed up in Moscow without the mood to play Big Chess and collapsed in the
semi-final. His modest score of two out of four was incapable of driving the team on to a great
achievement, and it came bottom of its sub-group.
This was a cold shower for his young hot head and a slap on his nose, which had been pointing too
high. For a time, his sense of uniqueness disappeared and he again got down to serious chess study. I
devised a three-month plan to prepare for the Higher League, including chess, physical and
psychological exercises, some of which involved autogenic training. While putting the plan together I
had to consult a lot with Botvinnik, who was convinced that we needed to prepare solid opening setups
without risk but with counterplay for the Higher League. I disputed this, pointing out that in his
repertoire Garry didn’t have any setups that were vulnerable or which didn’t match his style of play.
And as for black needing to play with heightened concentration from the outset, surely that was the
case in all openings? I decided that resolving the important problem of what openings to select as black
was actually a continuation of our work on both improving his playing level and... physical exercise.
This would allow Garry to play a more tense first half of the game than before, without worrying about

42
finding himself lacking in strength at the final stage of the game. We replaced the advice to prepare
new “solid” opening systems with major renovations to our current edifices, and we were proved right.
Garry encountered no problems in his openings during the most important tournament of the year.
Many years later, after he had become world champion, Garry thanked Botvinnik for his valuable
advice in preparing openings for the Minsk championship. What can I say? World famous chess players
need to have advisors of an appropriate level – evidently, that’s what they believe in the East.
The Higher League promised to be very interesting, and, as always, with a strong playing field. Up
until the last moment the world champion had been expected to take part. Just one week before the
start, he arrived in Minsk and met the republic’s leadership. However, just before the draw he
withdrew, on the grounds that his son had just been born. I think that he just wanted to postpone his
game against Kasparov for another year, spending the time with his coaches carefully analyzing the
play of this new and powerful troublemaker on Chess Olympia.
Garry travelled to Minsk with big hopes, considering it his lucky city. He began the tournament as
spectacularly as the previous year, with three wonderful and truly grandmaster-level victories. The
natural pleasure from his creative success and the flow of congratulations bestowed on him from all
around led Kasparov into a state of euphoria, and it again became difficult to work with him. His next
opponents all defended stubbornly, due to which he posted six consecutive draws and his euphoria
quickly switched to annoyance. No remonstrance or exhortations to be patient had any effect. Garry had
no desire to be patient. The role of leader in the tournament turned out to be one he couldn’t handle.
A harsh crisis arose in round ten, when, having gained a clear advantage, Garry again came upon his
opponent’s resolute refusal to resign. His nerves gave way and he even lost. After this failure he fell
apart. The outcome of his next game was unpredictable until the very last move, and depended neither
on his prep nor on the opening. He lost won games and won lost games. You will understand the pains
experienced by his coach over those five evenings when you read the story of two games from that
period later in this book. Then Garry’s downhill journey suddenly stopped and he managed to gain a
bronze medal, sharing third place.
After this somewhat unexpected and, as I believed, unjustifiably benevolent outcome of the
tournament, the lad was included in the adult national team setting off for the European championship.
Although Garry was not formally a GM, his strength was universally recognized in the chess world.
Nobody doubted that he would gain the title after his next tourneys, which chess fans were now really
looking forward to. A player with an amazingly spectacular and pretty style had appeared on the stage
of adult chess. Luckily, the chess world had yet to witness his emotional turmoil and setbacks.
1980 turned out to be full of very important events for Garry, yet at the same time it was the last calm
year in his career when he could think about battle solely over the chess board.
His future rival followed the rapid strengthening of the lad with interest and alarm. In January,
Karpov saw Kasparov in action for the first time, when they played together for the Soviet team in the
European championships in Sweden. They were on opposite ends of the team (Garry played on bottom
board) and played opposite roles in the team’s performance. Our three leaders – Karpov, Petrosian and
Tal – all performed poorly, for different reasons. Of their 17 combined games they drew 15 with two...
defeats. Garry, meanwhile, ceded just half a point, and this thrift played a major role in ensuring the

43
team won the competition.
Garry returned home happy, but already suffering slightly from celebrity disease. The world
champion helped to treat this illness, by ceasing to mention Kasparov in his many lectures. Taking the
champion’s cue, journalists sharply moderated their enthusiasm. I was happy – better confirmation of
the kid’s rapid growth and of the effectiveness of our work was impossible to imagine.
As soon as he got back to Baku, Garry began a training match against Tal, but with the score at
1.5:0.5 in the lad’s favor they had to end the match unexpectedly, as the ex-world champion had to
return home urgently.
In the first half of the year Garry was faced with two important challenges – gaining his second GM
norm, at the international tournament in Baku, and taking his school graduation exams. He dealt with
both tasks brilliantly. Everything was working for him that year. Firstly, after fierce competition from
Beliavsky he took first place in his “local” tournament, scoring far more than needed for his norm. The
shadow of the alarmed world champion incessantly followed Garry all that time – the champion’s
coach Igor Zaitsev played in that tournament. Further, the head of chess at the Sports Committee also
showed up, to verify the extent of support for Garry being provided by the republic’s leadership. He
relayed the bad news back to Moscow – Garry’s support was doing very nicely.
After completing the tourney, Garry immediately dived into his schoolwork. As I mentioned before,
in order to further encourage his study, I had years earlier suggested that we convert his school marks
into chess points. Liking my proposal, Garry had started to report on his school marks by telling me the
number of draws he had made (he had no defeats). His final, tenth grade and graduation exams, he dealt
with scoring 100%. His gold medal, despite its actual absence of gold, gave him the right to a
university place. A significant part of his gold medal belonged to his mother, who all those years was
his main and perfectly skilled coach at school studies.
The problem of university studies was solved easily. Lately, mother and son had been thinking about
history or law faculties. History always drew Garry, while the profession of a lawyer was in his eyes
prestigious and relatively stable. However, I told Klara that he was worrying about nothing. Her son’s
future was perfectly clear, and it dictated professional study of foreign languages so that he would be
more at ease abroad. Evidently, she liked my reasoning, as Garry wrote in his memoirs: “...Mum and I
decided that knowledge of foreign languages would be more useful for my chess future.” Garry became
a student at the foreign languages faculty of the Azerbaijan Pedagogical Institute. His rich language
practice enabled him to progress rapidly in English. Now he speaks English fluently and has no need
for a translator.
After a short break, Garry flew to Dortmund for the world junior championships. He took first place
easily, with no real competition, 1.5 points ahead of Nigel Short, who would soon become the West’s
greatest hope of challenging Kasparov. Garry’s dominance over his young competitors was huge. At
times it seemed that he was playing different chess, at a level to which his peers had not yet grown. The
chess world realized that the new prince was capable of maintaining course right to the top of Olympia.
Grandmaster Hort wrote at the time “...of the well-known chess players only Garry Kasparov can
seriously threaten Karpov, and only some years ahead, when he gains experience from playing top-
level international competitions.” Garry, when asked about his long-term plans, would merely provide

44
our prepared reply, that he only planned for one year ahead.
We felt how Garry’s success made the champion nervous. Setbacks appeared in his impressive series
of victories. Karpov played at the national team championship in Rostov, where he repeated his
performance from Sweden in January (+0 –1 =6).
In 1980 Garry had just two coaches, Shakarov and myself. There was much work to do, but our
forces were sufficient. Our new challenge – to prepare a grandmaster-level player – took up all our
time. I felt that I was growing as a coach just as much as Garry was growing as a player. I was learning
how to coach from books by major sports teachers and coaches, where they described their experience
of raising young sportsmen, long conversations with our wise ex-champions, my own observations, and
thinking about the mistakes that had prevented me from becoming a grandmaster way back in my
younger days. I hadn’t attended any lectures at PE colleges – they would have been useless. I’m
convinced that you cannot learn to become a coach through study – you have to work as one. My
coaching progress was spurred on by life itself, or to be more precise, by my duty to raise a replacement
for Karpov on Chess Olympia.
Meanwhile, the coaching team put together to work with Kasparov contained within itself elements
of self-destruction from the start. The external amenity of the Azeri leadership and their willingness to
help were not entire sincere. They wanted to hold the threads controlling our work in their hands, while
remaining all the time behind the stage. In Baku it wasn’t easy to find somebody for the role of head of
“team Kasparov”, and nobody wanted to be openly seen to be involved in an enterprise to topple
Karpov. At the time it was still unclear how Garry’s battle for the chess throne would end. Moreover, it
wasn’t even certain that it would begin. Meanwhile, the names and position of people backing Karpov
were well-known, and this standoff with Moscow, even on the chess front, didn’t promise any joy. So it
was then decided to place a local person at the head of our effort, one who was formally not connected
to the local government but who for a variety of reasons was willing (or forced) to implement all its
recommendations and keep the authorities fully informed of all goings on and sentiments.
A more ideal candidate for this role than Garry’s highly ambitious mother was impossible to
envisage. She was assigned this role gradually and quite subtly. Klara Kasparova’s candidacy had to be
approved by all interested parties. I was glad that she willingly took on resolving all technical issues
involving our training sessions and trips, as well as negotiations with local administrators – I had more
than enough chess issues to deal with. I didn’t reckon with her influence over her son being total. That
bell rang for the first time when Garry stated in an interview: “... In Moscow and at tournaments,
Master Nikitin works with me, Shakarov in Baku, but my main coach is, of course, my Mum.” The
degree of his childishness, which in my opinion has not yet completely disappeared even today, was
made evident by the continuation of his reply: “...By the way, if you’re planning to publish this
interview, then my mother needs to check the text first, to make sure that I haven’t said anything I
shouldn’t.”
A professional coach shouldn’t allow a division of roles that from the beginning would lead to a mess
and incompetent management, even if this meant ending his relationship with his pupil. However, I was
still a young coach, and my standing in the chess world depended entirely on the results of my work
with Garry. And so I stayed silent...

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 The incessant and obvious growth of Garry’s chess ability enabled him to play for the country at the
next Olympiad. The newbie’s place in the team was the most modest one, but he was happy and proud.
For the first time, we managed to arrange the team training before this critical tournament at a
government sanatorium, located in Zagulba – a small resort 40 km from Baku. From then on, Zagulba
became Kasparov’s training base. The amazing sandy beach of the Caspian Sea, the shaded park alleys,
and the quiet all around gave Garry and his coaches the opportunity to prepare for the most serious of
chess battles. Ten years later, the bus was to drive Garry and his relatives to the airport from that same
Zagulba, saving their lives and separating them forever from their homeland.
The chess Olympiad in Malta was an unexpectedly difficult challenge for the Soviet team. It led for
most of the way only thanks to the desperate efforts of two GMs, Balashov and Kasparov, who had
been sent there as reserves. Garry even ended up playing eight games in a row. Karpov’s play stepped
up a gear half-way through, and this enabled the team to catch up with the then leaders, Hungary, at the
very end. Thanks to a tiny advantage in the tie-breaks, our team claimed the gold medals. Garry posted
the best score in the team with 9.5 out of 12, although upon returning to Moscow he concurred with me
that he didn’t deserve more than 4 points out of 5 (in the school and university system) for his
performance there. With his playing ability he could easily have secured another 1 or 1.5 points, but the
eating and sleep regimen typical for adult pros proved to be tough for the young debutant. This very
much non-chess circumstance led to his excess restlessness and, as a result, to a loss of ease in his game
and to time trouble. He didn’t always select the right opening. I was deliberately stern in my criticism,
trying to bring this lad who had rapidly climbed high back down to earth.
1980 was truly a stellular year. Three gold medals for winning championships and a fourth one from
school graduation! Plus he gained the title of GM! It’s no wonder his head was spinning! Such an
amazing performance by Garry led to a chess boom in Azerbaijan. Chess clubs opened in cities across
the republic, with many children wanting to repeat Kasparov’s career path.
Meanwhile, we sensed a cold wind from Moscow, from the offices of highly-ranked sporting
officials. Far from everybody in the sports world was enjoying Garry’s rise to the top. People from the
all-powerful Central Committee of the Communist Party, used to controlling the fate of sportsmen, as
well as the sport bosses who obeyed the party officials unquestioningly, had not expected Garry to
grow so rapidly. Once they realized their mistake they came to the conclusion that it was time to act.
In the first days of 1981 Moscow suddenly demanded a detailed one-year plan of Garry’s activities,
including those outside chess. This wasn’t Garry’s first year in the orbit of sportsmen under the
guardianship of the Center, but interest in his career had never been as widespread as it now was. We
found out that it wasn’t only the Sports Committee that was taking an interest. So what was hiding
behind this interest? Replies soon began to arrive.
A tournament of generations was due to be held in Moscow in February – a unique competition with
the strongest Soviet players, split into four age groups – children, fathers (two teams) and grandfathers.
However, before the start some inexplicable commotion was raised around the candidacy of the leader
of the children’s team. Garry was by then far ahead of his peers according to all parameters. Not long
before, he had been the only youth to play for the Olympic team, and he saved them in a critical
moment. It seemed that there could be no argument, that the place of leader in his team was settled,
however, the sports leaders steadfastly refused to name the team. The mess continued, but the true

46
reason for the commotion around the first children’s board was obvious to many – the world champion
still didn’t want to meet the chess prince over the board. At the same time, this was an opportunity to
determine the degree of the lad’s conformism and his reaction to a stark injustice. Somebody really
wanted to learn whether Garry Kasparov was a young rebel or an obedient soldier, willing to implement
the leadership’s every whim.
Garry refused to acquiesce, and at the very last moment a resolution to the problem of board one of
the children’s team was given over to that team itself, which lacked unity. Garry’s old colleagues
Yusupov and Psakhis, who had finished first equal in the last national championship, which had been
held at the same time as the Olympiad, also staked a claim to first board. The lads, overexcited by their
first success, as is often the case, had lost their ability to objectively assess the situation and their place
in it. And their hugely ambitious coach who was with them worsened this absurd conflict. However,
when the vote was held only the two other candidates were opposed to Garry. Fortunately, this
instructive burst of youthful ambition had no negative consequences and was even useful for the team.
During the match, the unfortunate candidates tried to demonstrate that their claims weren’t without
merit, and they played inventively and compellingly. And by the end of the tournament there was no
trace left of their quarrel.
Those days when the children’s team played the first adult team, the hall, which seated around three
thousand spectators, was overflowing. The Moscow chess crowd was dying to witness the first battles
between Karpov and Kasparov. The world champion was nervous, and was incapable of hiding this
fact. He was on the defensive in both games. In the first he defended accurately and saved quite a
dubious position. In the second game, Karpov attempted to play actively, but as a result found himself
on the edge of a precipice and was saved only by a miracle. So Garry didn’t win his micro-match with
the world champion, but he found that he was capable of going toe to toe with him, and that he needed
to work on self-improvement in order to defeat Karpov, focusing on increasing his confidence in his
abilities. In what was effectively a double-round robin between the top boards, with Smyslov and
Romanishin heading the other teams, Garry scored the highest number of points.
This success ensured him a place among the participants of a major GM tournament held under the
aegis of the Soviet government for the first time since 1935. We weren’t able to prepare seriously for it.
In the 35 days separating these two competitions, Garry had to play the tournament at the Pioneers
Palace (but this time in the role of simul player – it was time for him to repay his debt), then he had to
recover from the flu, and after that he spent several days at his university, catching up on missed
lessons.
He was in far from the best shape when he turned up at the tournament, tired from his illness and
non-chess business. He managed to share 2nd to 4th places with Polugaevsky and Smyslov in a
tournament featuring the world’s best players, but the quality of his play with our now GM-level
requirements failed to satisfy either or us. After six rounds he led jointly with Karpov, but the last two
rounds broke him. First he was unable to turn a frenzied storm of Petrosian’s defenses into a victory,
and the following evening was unable to win in a complicated but technically won ending against
Sweden’s Andersson. The boy was totally despondent, and his mother, with him at the tournament, was
also dumbstruck. I was unable to cheer up this duet, tired from their emotional swings. He ended the
tourney with four draws, the longest of which was the last one, against the world champion, with just

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18 moves.
Even though Karpov’s first place in the competition had already been assured, I asked Botvinnik to
help prepare for this “clash of the titans” in the last round. After we had selected the opening lines,
Mikhail Moiseevich spent a long time trying to convince Garry that he could and should play to win,
and that every game against Karpov should be used to good effect. Garry listened carefully and nodded
his head. To enhance the effect of support, Botvinnik even turned up at the round – for the first time in
many years. We had “guessed right” with our opening choice, everything was going fine, but once
again the now familiar tired nerves reared their head. Having gained an excellent and, importantly, safe
position, Garry himself proposed a draw, and then spent ages trying and failing to convince us that
Karpov stood no worse.
My discussions with Garry to review the tournament results were difficult, but extremely useful.
After long, but reasoned argument, we agreed that his performance didn’t deserve more than 3/5 in
school terms. At the same time, we jointly developed methods to treat his now aggravated “illnesses”.
This is what the conclusions of our post-mortem looked like:
1. Positive results from the tournament performance:
a) A high place at the age of 18, gained competing against the world’s strongest grandmasters.
b) A solid set of missed opportunities, pointing to big and realistic growth prospects.
2. Negative results from the tournament performance (chess part):
a) A solid set of missed opportunities (and points), showing that a large amount of work remained to
improve his playing technique. We needed to identify the reasons for mistaken decisions in each
concrete case, find their common factors or tendencies, and then select appropriate positions to train
how to play them or to solve them first without any time limit, and then with a time limit.
b) The opening repertoire turned out to be insufficient to battle with experienced GMs, especially
when the opponents were happy to draw from the very first moves. We now had to work on widening
his opening arsenal and on deeper study and polishing of the systems we planned to apply, as well as
developing our own assessments and paths in the applied openings. Ideally, he needed to learn to play
any opening for either color and against any opponent.
c) The mounting cases of time trouble needed to disappear along with the weaknesses in his play,
after successfully working to better his positional understanding, and as we perfected his technique of
closing out simple positions. Chronometry, in other words recording the time spent on thinking over
every move, which Garry at my insistence had practiced for several years by then, enabled us to quickly
set a class of positions whose understanding we needed to improve as a priority.
In this respect, we managed by the end of the year to achieve a lot of what we had planned. The rest
was duly addressed as we prepared for the candidates matches, once our coaching team had been
beefed up. Five years later, Kasparov had his personal encyclopedia for the openings he used and was
an undisputed world authority in them.
3. For the first time, the list of non-chess reasons that had caused the rapid accumulation of tiredness
(both mental and physical), and with that, the loss of freshness in his play together with a lack of
certainty, which ultimately prevented the young grandmaster from battling for first place in the

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tournament, was really long.
a) Carelessness. He hadn’t been allowed even a short proper rest before the tournament. You can’t
expect success in tournaments at such a high level without a two-week holiday before it.
b) Conceit. The rapid accumulation of his sporting achievements had led him to overestimate his
abilities and place in the chess hierarchy, as well as his position in society. This meant that he had the
wrong mental state going into the tournament and quickly and increasingly suffered disappointment as
the tournament wore on, losing confidence in his play, suffering from unpredictable and heightened
anxiety during the games, frightened at unforeseen consequences.
The recipe for treating celebrity disease is well known – to nurture objectivity in everything and to
avoid thinking everybody else is a nobody just because they play chess worse than you. Not to believe
that the GM title is a measure of intelligence or life wisdom. Alas, much of such treatment depends not
on the doctor, but on the patient. It’s particularly hard to treat this disease among young people.
c) Wasting of nervous energy during the tournament. Any setback in a game would lead to spasms of
self-flagellation for missing opportunities, for his unlucky and tough lot in life, and so on. It wasn’t
worth reading the press or watching TV, especially competition reports. Nor was there anything to gain
from receiving fans during tournaments, even VIPs.
d) We noticed a sharp change of mood during tournaments, and a short temper. The treatment recipe
was simple: to remain calm in any situation, not to overestimate his abilities, and to grow wise as
quickly as possible. And until such a perfect time arrived, he should try and interact during tournaments
only with calm and self-confident professionals, avoiding less serious masters.
Unfortunately, the most difficult challenge proved to be observing the last two points. The lad’s
sudden fame awoke and developed personality traits within him (and not only him) that I would have
never noticed otherwise. His “diseases” became chronic and with every tournament it became harder to
address them.
I was even harsher on myself after the tournament. A screw-up in the analysis of the adjourned game
with Andersson, when I was unable to find a plan to convert our advantage, forced me to decide to
hand over part of my coaching work – that of improving our hero’s positional understanding – to
another, stronger player. We started to look for a fitting grandmaster.
Work as a coach, like life itself, requires a constant change of roles “played” by a person, depending
on his strength, nervous energy, experience, ability, surroundings and so on. States of discomfort and
even crises usually occur when a person fails to notice changes in the situation and doesn’t adjust in
time, in other words, he fails to change his role to address one of life’s challenges.
Until around 1977 my chess strength was no worse than Garry’s, and my erudition and life
experience allowed me to softly dictate solutions to various problems we encountered, not all of them
of a chess nature. I played the role of coach and mentor, and our relations were typical of a teacher and
a pupil.
Starting from 1978 the lad’s playing ability shot up. He continued as before to effectively digest
chess food, and his chess erudition began to exceed mine, leaving me his approximate equal only in
opening positions. The coach was now only stronger in life experience, but that no longer worked.

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Garry had by this time been led to follow the advice of the people surrounding him in Baku. So now we
had become like-minded, or to be more precise, fellow soldiers. We were strongly tied together by a
single aim – to fight Karpov.
I had long taught the lad to take decisions independently. I helped him to be guided by certain
principles that I had developed. I think that I achieved my aim, as when Garry was calm he would take
thought-through and good decisions. In life situations he wasn’t yet independent, and in decisions he
took that he declared were his own I could trace with growing regularity another ideology, which with
every year became less understandable to me and even alien. Our alliance began to acquire the features
of forced cooperation, shutting out the previous sincerity and openness in our relations.
It was around the end of 1981 that I convinced myself that my advice, especially in resolving
problems only indirectly of a chess nature, was now being treated by the Kasparovs as irrelevant. We
had ceased to be like-minded. Only the common cause remained. I was now just one of a group of
Garry’s chess assistants, and it was only our long-established and sometimes trusting relations that
separated me from the others and enabled me to continue to coach him in an appropriate, professional-
level manner. To a large extent, the difficulties that arose in personal relations were objectively
unavoidable, as Garry’s sporting and then social standing changed rapidly and frequently, and we
couldn’t adjust quickly enough to the new situation. Readjustment of a person’s awareness and the
development of new principles governing their behavior are highly inert and subtle processes.
However, it’s time to return to our hero. His 18th birthday occurred on a rest day at the Moscow
tournament of stars, as it happens prior to that fateful game with Petrosian. Garry was tired but still full
of hopes and as a birthday present I gave him all the Agatha Christie books I could find in my library –
in English, naturally. Unfortunately, this psychological “move” turned out to be ineffective. The boy
failed to obtain an additional shot of vigour and performed badly at the finish.
A month after that tournament ended Garry again journeyed to Moscow for the national team
championships. He arrived alone, his mother unable to accompany him. Having escaped his mother’s
close guardianship, Garry combined playing chess with the joys of a young man’s freedom that was no
longer hampered by money difficulties. Everybody experiences this period. I was interested to learn
what natural spiritual qualities would make themselves felt in this moment of unexpected total freedom.
Something already puzzled and alarmed me, but I had no opportunity to interfere in the lad’s non-chess
problems. At the tournament, Garry played just as he felt in those days – in a relaxed and unpredictable
manner. Although he scored 6.5 out of 9 he was unable to bring his team with him, and it again
disappointed. His play was somewhat wild and risky, but it lacked the reliability of a true leader.
In May, Grandmaster Krogius, who had worked in Saratov at the Psychology Faculty where he had
gained a doctorate on a chess subject, was unexpectedly appointed the chess boss of the USSR. The
Party Central Committee functionaries, who appointed the administrative “chess pieces” in the sporting
world, were true masters of their profession. This half-forgotten quiet man from the provinces, sent to
the capital, turned out to be an obedient implementer of all instructions of the high-ranked leadership. It
became apparent to everybody very soon that he would unquestioningly support only one chess player
– world champion Karpov. Several months passed, and our chess boss told Garry spitefully and firmly:
“We have a world champion, and we don’t need another one.” We realized that we now had one more
enemy. Krogius was consistent in his antipathy towards Garry. He fought with him when Garry was a

50
contender, but much more so after Garry had become world champion: he fought brutally and
spitefully.
That summer, Garry was top board in our youth team at the world championships, and he proved to
be a successful leader. The English team started powerfully, and we spent almost the entire tournament
playing catch-up. The fact that we eventually managed to catch and overtake them was very much
down to Garry, who played the first ten rounds without a break and scored nine points, only allowing
himself to sit out the final round once victory was assured.
After the tournament ended the victors spent two days admiring the beauty of Vienna. There, Garry
gave an 11-board simul against the strongest young players of Austria, some of whom had even played
at the world team championship. Garry won nine games and drew a tenth, generating a storm of praise.
It’s hard to say who was the greatest simul player of all time. There are legends about the unmatched
art of the genius Capablanca. I think that none of the grandmasters of the past 40 years could compete
with Kasparov in terms of pace, beauty and results of simul displays. He doesn’t like playing blindfold
chess, although he has successfully performed this trick a couple of times. Nor does he like playing
huge simultaneous exhibitions where the majority of his opponents are weak club players. But Garry
loves playing clock simuls against a set of strong opponents. He began simuls against candidate masters
in the Pioneers Palace competitions. Now he confidently wins simuls against Olympic teams of strong
chess countries and against leading chess clubs. For Garry, simuls have nothing to do with making easy
money. Rather, they are another sporting competition against worthy opposition. He prepares for such
simuls just like for tournaments.
Garry brought home from Austria a friendship with his peer and team-mate Evgeny Vladimirov,
which was to have a dramatic continuation. And Garry also brought back ten red and white jumpers
with the number 85 written in big on their chest. He decided to gift these sweaters to everybody who
would help him fight for the world championship. “Why that strange number?” I asked as I pulled the
garment over my head. “If you plan on getting through to a world title match then the next one will be
in 1984 and the one after that will be three years later... Don’t think that Campomanes will tear up the
FIDE calendar just for you.” “Let’s wait and see, but for now consider that I selected these jumpers due
to the sum of their digits. The baker’s dozen is my lucky number,” answered the lad smiling. Even
today I treasure this jumper. Garry’s mother is convinced that her son is blessed with clairvoyance.
Maybe she’s right... After all, the world champion was determined in an unplanned match in 1985!
Still in Austria, Garry played an unexpected and strong move. He forewarned the organizers of the
tournament in the Dutch city of Tilburg that he was perfectly healthy and very much wanted to debut at
their super GM tournament, which was planned for two months later. The Dutch provided him with an
invitation on the spot and immediately obtained his acceptance. This was a wise initiative. Our players
frequently learnt that they had rejected an invitation to play in a tournament abroad only after the
tournament had begun. It transpired that the telegram from our Sports Committee would explain their
rejection as a result of illness, or sometimes no reason at all was given. Garry’s move enabled us to
begin solid preparation. This was going to be an even more serious trial than the recent one in Moscow.
About ten days before Garry’s flight out to Holland, Klara phoned me and told me, in tears, that she
was urgently sending her son to me. Garry’s grandfather was dying in a Baku clinic. His beloved
grandson could do nothing to help him, and the true extent of the tragedy was being hidden from the

51
boy as much as possible. Shagen Mosesovich departed this world the same day that Garry flew to the
Netherlands. I have already written that Garry and his mother were linked by the strongest of biological
connections, and, even far from Baku, the son sensed that something had happened at home. We made
sure that the international link with the Kasparov apartment was broken (“The line is damaged, they’re
trying to repair it...” I told him repeatedly), and all communications with Garry were handled only by
me, trying by any means possible to hide this terrible secret. The sadness that he nevertheless sensed
clearly had an impact on his performance at Tilburg. It interrupted his thought processes, leaving him
distracted and lacking concentration. He missed even more chances than in his recent tournament of
stars in Moscow. It was good that the kind doctor Gasanov had taught the lad in Baku how to use
autogenic training effectively to calm himself. The tournament demonstrated that Garry was incapable
of independently creating and even more so observing the required tournament regime. All his defeats
(and there were three of them) occurred immediately after rest days. Having gained total freedom of
action for the first time in his life he expended it thoughtlessly, rushing to gain new experiences and in
endless conversations with his new colleagues, whose games had still recently served as material which
he used to learn his mastery.
That year, Botvinnik and I enjoyed productive working relations, and our frequent conversations (and
arguments) were highly useful to me as a coach. We attentively followed the progress of the
tournament, and prior to its end we engaged in a serious discussion of Kasparov’s problems. Once
Garry returned to Moscow I immediately brought him to the Teacher. However, the conversation didn’t
get anywhere. The boy was crushed, having learnt of his grandfather’s passing. The next day we flew to
Baku together.
One week later we again got down to chess study. There was little time left before the Higher League
started, where the participants of the interzonals were to be determined. Our sessions were almost
ended by an unexpected phone call. A concerned Nikolai Krogius called from Moscow. He began to
explain to Garry that despite the solid coaching team that had flown with Karpov to Merano for his
match with Korchnoi, as well as the powerful grandmaster brigade in support put up in a holiday home
in the Moscow region and working on every request by Karpov, both in respect of opening prep and
analysis of adjourned positions, there was no clarity or constructive ideas in a number of opening
systems. Garry was asked “to carry out his patriotic duty and, as other grandmasters had done,” to share
his opening secrets with the world champion and even ideas that had not been developed to the end.
At this point, Karpov led with a score of +3 –1, and Korchnoi was playing considerably worse than
he had three years earlier. The outcome of the match was obvious to any professional. I don’t think that
Karpov had any involvement in the panic that suddenly burst out in certain offices. I’m sure that it was
his second, totally non-chess support group, looking far into the future, that had attempted to cause a
commotion in order to relieve the leading Soviet GMs of their ideas and thereby leave them devoid of
chances in any battle against their favorite. Garry refused to carry out this professional striptease.
Karpov soon scored a fourth win and we were left alone.
The next, 49th edition of the Higher League was held in the capital of Kirgizia. The top three players
were to qualify for the interzonals, and so a solid group of competitors in combative mood descended
on the city of Frunze (today, Bishkek), each hoping to make the cherished places. However, two young
grandmasters proved to be in extremely fighting form and they got away with everything – their most

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daring attacking ideas went unpunished and they defended the most difficult positions successfully. As
a result, Psakhis and Kasparov each gained a gold medal as co-champions of the country, 2.5 points
ahead of third place. Garry really wanted to demonstrate that his setback in Tilburg was a one-off and
he tried harder and played more solidly than before. We managed to avoid mistakes when analyzing
adjourned positions, and he experienced no problems in the opening. This time, his mother didn’t let
him out of sight for a second, and he observed the required regime to the letter.
This is how he treated the role of coach: “...the role of coach cannot be overstated. We guessed the
opening right before almost every one of my games. An important role in my prep was played by the
dossier given to me by one of my mentors, Nikitin...”. Nevertheless, I insisted on holding preliminary
discussions with Zhenya Vladimirov and Gennady Timoshchenko, who had come to play there too.
They agreed to join the work with Garry, but we needed to resolve a number of far from simple
formalities. We needed to reach an agreement with the army leadership, as they were both officially
classified as military personnel. The key difficulty was that the world champion was formally also a
military sportsman.
Garry’s latest success, granting him the right to take part in the world championship cycle, again
messed up our long-term plans and forecasts. Garry once again had to measure a new suit, without
having got used to the one he had only recently acquired. I had assumed that the period during which
the lad would gain in strength in the All-Union arena, entrenching him in the role of one of the leaders
of Soviet chess, would last at least three years. This would have enabled us to work more
fundamentally on fixing the defects in his play that prevented him from advancing further – and that
“further” was the very peak of Mount Olympia. However, just two years had passed and Garry had not
only become Soviet champion but he had rushed along the road leading to the top. With his old
baggage and previous weaknesses he would have performed pretty well in any interzonal, but he had
got used to absolutely top results and his coaches weren’t allowed to lag.
As we waved goodbye to 1981 with words of thanks, I thought with both concern and hopes of what
the next year would bring, full of mysteries and new trials that were being thrown at us so rapidly.

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Podolsk 1977. Mikhail Botvinnik and his pupils

54
55
Moscow first saw Garry in 1974

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 Chapter 5. Selected Games (1972-1981)

Game 1
I begin the analysis of Garry’s early progress with a game that continues to amaze me. It’s hard to
believe that the white pieces were commanded by a nine-year old general. There wasn’t a single
pointless move, and we witness incredible harmony and logic in the actions of the white army. This
little masterpiece demonstrates the huge natural chess talent that Garik possessed.

G. Weinstein – S. Muratkuliev
Baku. Qualifying tournament. 1972(3)
Spanish Opening. [C77]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.e5 Ne4 7.0-0

Even at the age of nine Garik know that you had to develop pieces as quickly as possible. His innate
striving for activity on the chess board would several years later transpose into a real skill, and after that
would reach a level of an art form that would be a powerful weapon when battling the world’s strongest
players.
Note that the primitive 7.Nxd4 allows the dangerous tactic 7...Nxf2! 8.Kxf2 Qh4+ 9.Ke3 Qxd4+
10.Qxd4 Nxd4 11.Kxd4 b5 12.Bb3 c5+ 13.Kd3 c4+ 14.Bxc4 bxc4+ 15.Kxc4 Bb7 with a strong attack
for the sacrificed pawn.

7...Be7 8.Re1 Nc5 9.Bxc6 dxc6 10.Nxd4 0-0 11.Nc3 Ne6?

An experienced player would have continued here 11...f5! and taken important squares away from
white. After 12.Be3 Ne6 white’s extra pawn on the right hand side of the board wouldn’t have played
an important role, while black would gain space for maneuvering.

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 12.Nf5! Bg5 13.Qg4 Nd4?

The way with which black gets rid of the unpleasant knight on f5 isn’t a great one. His pieces
suddenly start to rush across the board and lose their coordination.

14.Bxg5 Bxf5 15.Qg3

The “later” Kasparov would definitely have played 15.Qh4, forcing black’s queen into a pin after
15...Qd7 16.Rad1. That was probably more precise. However, child-like thinking is simple and clear.
After all, he had only recently read in a textbook that the aim in chess is to checkmate the enemy king.
And to create mating threats the queen is better placed on g3.

15...Qc8 16.Rad1 Nxc2 17.Re2 Qe6?

A more stubborn continuation was 17...Bg6 18.Rdd2! Re8 (18...Nb4? 19.Be7!) 19.Rxc2 Bxc2
20.Rxc2 Qf5!, for example: 21.Re2 (21.Bf6? Qxf6!) 21...Kh8 22.h3 h6 23.Bf4 Rad8. Black’s last
mistake allowed the little boy to execute an elegant combination, winning back the pawn and then
converting his positional advantage with great skill.

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 18.Bf6 Bg6 19.Bxg7! Kxg7 20.Rxc2 Rad8?! 21.Rcd2 Qe7 22.h4! Kh8 23.Qg5!

A far from obvious maneuver. It transpires that his previous move contained a positional threat.
White unexpectedly takes control of the d-file and shifts the game into a much better endgame. “So
little, yet so crafty,” you may say! “Fantastic,” I reply as a coach. Just for that one idea – combining the
romance of attack with the prose of the endgame – you would immediately grant the little boy a place
at the most prestigious of chess schools. A high degree of understanding of technical subtleties is a
good sign when assessing the prospects of a very young player.

23...Qxg5 24.hxg5 Rxd2 25.Rxd2 Bf5 26.f4 Kg7 27.Kf2 h6 28.gxh6+ Kxh6 29.Kf3 Rg8 30.Ne4
Bg4+ 31.Ke3 Kg6?

A more stubborn continuation was 31...Be6 32.Nf6 Rh8 33.g4 Kg7, but it was already too late to
save the game: 34.f5! Bxa2 35.Rd7! Rh2 36.Kf4! Re2 37.Kg5! Rxe5 38.Rd8! and mate is unavoidable.
After this simple fork is missed the game ends straight away.

32.Nf6

Black resigned.

Game 2
This was the first game played by the whizz-kid from Baku that I observed carefully from the
beginning. In a youth match between Latvia and Azerbaijan my attention was immediately drawn to a
table where two opponents of completely different sizes were playing. This tiny dark-haired lad who
could barely stretch over the board and who gave the impression of having wandered accidently into a
room of bigger boys was fidgeting nervously. Opposite him, a tall and handsome Latvian boy sat
absolutely still, literally hanging over the board as he thought. Edvins Kengis compared with Garik not

59
only resembled a giant but he was an experienced fighter. However, events taking place on the board
made one forget about all the advantages accruing to the Latvian from having been born four years
earlier.
The opponents were up for it and confidently played out a highly complex opening system which was
well known for the fact that the legendary Fischer had once suffered a disaster in it, attempting to break
down black’s bastions. I had a good grasp of its subtleties and had even published some material on it. I
found it hard to believe that the lad was navigating all of these dangerous reefs. Once the complex
opening, requiring precise book knowledge, was over, a sharp middlegame ensued that called for quick
and accurate calculations of long variations. The experienced lad playing white managed only with
difficulty to hold off the counter attack unexpectedly launched by his opponent’s tiny hands. The boy
only relented at the end of the fourth hour of tense battle. He didn’t have the energy left to resolve the
final, quite tricky problem in a sharp endgame, and the game was drawn. The boys fought in this game
like true masters.
A couple of years later Garik drew quietly with Edvins when he won the national junior
championship, after which their chess careers sharply diverged. They again played twenty years later,
when Garry was already the “old” world champion and Edvins a newly-baked GM. This time, the
Latvian lost without much of a struggle.

E. Kengis – G. Weinstein
Vilnius. All-Union Youth Games. 20.07.1973
Sicilian Defense. [В89]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Bb3 Be7 8.Be3 a6 9.Qe2 Qc7 10.0-
0-0 0-0 11.g4 Nd7 12.g5

Fischer attempted to organize a pawn storm in 1970 with 12.h4, but his opponent’s pieces got to
Fischer’s king first and Larsen won solidly. Edvins is following the latest theory.
Today, arguments focus on the sacrifice 12.Nf5, where a fairly safe response is 12...Nc5 13.Nxe7+
Nxe7 and a likely continuation 14.Qd2 Nxb3+ 15.axb3 d5! leading to equal play.

12...Nc5 13.Rhg1 Bd7 14.Rg3 Rfc8 15.Qh5 g6 16.Qh6 Bf8 17.Qh4 Nxb3+ 18.axb3 Be7

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 19.f4?

White repeats the mistake of the famous grandmaster – he makes a natural move, but one that is
unnecessary in a situation where losing even one tempo will deliver unpleasant consequences. Black
would have faced much more danger with the quick transfer of the knight to this square: 19.Nde2 b5
20.Nf4, after which the defensive method h7-h5 becomes less safe.

19...b5 20.Qh6 Bf8 21.Qh4 b4!

And no draw!

22.Nxc6 Bxc6?

Black could have punished his opponent for his slowness with 22...Qxc6! and then either 23.Bd4 e5!
(23...bxc3? 24.Qxh7+! Kxh7 25.Rh3+ Kg8 26.Rh8#) 24.fxe5 bxc3 25.Rxc3 Qb5, or 23.Rh3 h5
24.gxh6 bxc3! 25.h7+ Kh8 26.Bd4+ e5 27.Rxc3 Qxe4!
Garry had evidently lost his way in calculating the last variation and decided to retain his queen on
the 7th rank to protect the pawn on f7. The boy didn’t yet understand how important tempi were in
sharp positions and believed that the absence of the threat of mate with the queen on c2 for one little
move wouldn’t weaken the force of his counter attack. However, this tardiness by one move proved to
be enough for white’s attack to gain new strength, and the situation again appears unclear.

23.Rh3 h5! 24.gxh6 bxc3 25.Qf6 Kh7 26.Bd4 cxb2+ 27.Kxb2 e5 28.fxe5 Bxe4!

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 This is the position black was targeting with his 22nd move. Now white achieves nothing either with
29.Rc3 Qe7 30.exd6 due to 30...Qxf6 31.Bxf6 Rxc3 32.Bxc3 Rd8 33.Be5 Bxh6 34.c4 Bg7 35.Bxg7
Kxg7, or the spectacular looking 29.Qg7+? Bxg7 30.hxg7+ due to 30...Kg8! 31.Rh8+ Kxg7 32.exd6+
f6 33.dxc7 Rxh8!, or the continuation in the game. So we need to analyze what would have happened
after 29.exd6 Qxc2+ 30.Ka3 Bxd6+ 31.Qxd6. White believed that after 31...Qxd1 32.Qf6! Qc1+
33.Bb2! Qc5+ 34.b4 Qf8 his attack would break down, failing to notice that after the unexpected queen
exchange 35.Qg7+! Qxg7 36.hxg7+! black gets mated. With the best response, similar to that in the
game, 31...Qc7! 32.Qxc7 (but not 32.Qf6? Qa5+! 33.Kb2 Rc2+ and mate) 32...Rxc7, the transfer of the
bishop 33.Be5 Rb7 34.Bf4 would have led to peace and tranquility on the board. However, another and
more appealing continuation for white was found by the 12-year old Serbian prodigy Milos Perunovic
during a lesson I had with him. “Why not retain the rook?” he asked, making the moves 29.Rf1! Qxc2+
30.Ka1. It transpired that there was no reply better than 30...Qd2, agreeing to a draw with perpetual
check.

29.e6?

Now white overestimates his chances, and his showy tactic is met by a spectacular and effective
refutation.

29...Qxc2+ 30.Ka3 d5+! 31.e7 Bxe7+ 32.Qxe7 Qc7! 33.Qxc7

There is no choice. The earlier planned 33.Qf6 is crushed by 33...Qa5+.

33...Rxc7

Black has emerged from the battle unscathed, even keeping the d5 pawn, and this gives him big
chances of winning.

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 34.Rg3 Rc2 35.Rf1 f5 36.h4 Kxh6 37.Be3+ Kh7 38.Rfg1 Rc3 39.h5

39...g5?

It’s always disappointing to lose your way when the danger appears to have passed. However, at the
age of ten it’s hard to retain concentration over four hours of tense work. At the same time, a win for
black, although it looks perfectly realistic, is not that close. You need to find the win in the sharp
position arising after the best move 39...Rb8! 40.hxg6+ Kg8 41.Bf4 Rbxb3+ 42.Ka2, where black ends
up two pawns ahead but his king is not yet out of danger, which gives white certain counter chances.
Neither 42...d4 43.Rxc3 Rxc3 44.Be5! Rc2+ 45.Ka3! Rc4 46.Rd1! d3 47.Rb1! Rc8 48.Rb2 Re8! 49.Bc3
f4 50.g7 f3 51.Rh2 Kf7 52.Kb2, nor 42...Rxg3 43.Bxg3 Rf3 44.Be5 f4 45.g7 Rf2+ 46.Kb3 f3 47.Rh1
Bh7 48.Rc1 Rc2 49.Rf1 Re2 50.Bd4 would have left white without drawing chances. The spectacular
attempt to attack 42...Bb1+! 43.Ka1 Bd3 44.Be5 Ra3+ 45.Kb2 Rcb3+ 46.Kc1 Ra2! is met by the
equally spectacular defense 47.Rxd3! Rxd3 48.Rh1! forcing black to seek a draw from a position of
weakness: 48...Ra1+! 49.Bxa1 d4 50.Rg1 f4! 51.Kc2 Rg3 52.Rxg3 fxg3 53.Bxd4 g2 54.Kd3 g1=Q
55.Bxg1 Kg7. All that remains is the exchange sac 42...Rxg3 43.Bxg3 Rxg3 44.Rxg3 f4, but that too
promised little: 45.Rg4 f3 46.g7 Bd3 47.Rf4 Be2 48.Kb2 Kxg7 49.Kc3 Kg6 50.Kd4 Kg5 51.Ke3.
Garry was afraid of the appearance of the white pawn on g6 and heads for an endgame with opposite
colored bishops but without rooks. His two extra pawns don’t give him any chance of winning.

40.Bxg5 Rxg3 41.Rxg3 Rg8 42.Kb2 d4 43.Bf4 Rxg3 44.Bxg3 Kh6 45.Be5 d3 46.Kc3 Kxh5
47.Kd2 Kg4 48.Ke3

Given that 48...f4+ 49.Bxf4 d2 50.Kxd2 Kxf4 51.Kc1 leads to a well-known drawing position, black
could have called it a day here. However, not wishing to give up Garry sought a win for another 25
moves before admitting the inevitable draw.(4)

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 Game 3
Here was another pleasant chess canvas painted by a child’s hand. Usually at this age the child will
only display brilliancy by playing a couple of nice moves, while it’s rarer for them to demonstrate an
interesting idea. However, what you see here is a small chess show whose theme will give you great
pleasure if you aren’t overly strict and don’t take issue with the instructive errors of the opponents.

E. Magerramov – G. Weinstein
Baku. City junior chess championship. 18.11.1973(5)
Sicilian Defense. [В83]

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 d6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Be2 a6 8.f4 Be7 9.0-0 Bd7

Garik’s chess tastes were acquired in his childhood. From an early age he was on friendly terms with
older lads. Rostik Korsunsky or Elmar Magerramov would walk with him on the way to the Pioneers
Palace in Baku, and they would soon grow into high-class masters. They were mad about chess and
spent a lot of time on opening theory, preferring to analyze not overly fancy positions but those which
were strategically justified with a rich content. It’s no surprise that the boy strived to employ the same
openings. At that age, older friends have as much influence as teachers. What was surprising, though,
was that he played the most complex of opening systems with great skill.

10.Nb3 b5 11.Bf3?! Qc7 12.a3 Rb8 13.Qe1 a5 14.Qg3 a4

Strictly speaking, this advance was premature. An experienced master would have preferred to castle,
moving his king out of the center and protecting the pawn. However, different criteria should be used to
assess the young player’s talent. He was following a plan, and that was the most important thing. See
just how focused and logical black’s daring play is. So far he hasn’t made a single unnecessary move.
He even postpones castling in order not to reduce the pace of his queenside attack.

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 15.Nd4 Nxd4 16.Bxd4

16...b4?

Now here’s a mistake we can put down to his young age and, hence, lack of playing experience. At
the age of ten it’s hard to master all the intricacies of such a complex system as the Scheveningen.
Therefore, in a somewhat unfamiliar situation it’s better to follow the rules, and not create exceptions
or rely on intuition, which at that age is basically absent. Here the lad fails to notice how the situation
has changed. The exchange of knights that black came up with means losing control over the e5 square,
while the protection of the pawn on g7, which was based on a tactic, suddenly collapses. In this
position there was no sensible alternative to castling.

17.axb4?

Elmar also fails to notice the typical combinational ploy allowing him to punish his opponent harshly
for ignoring the basic rules of chess strategy. With the appearance of a bishop on d4 white is master of
the center, and the break 17.e5! would leave black in a critical position. Both players missed that after
17...bxc3 the capture 18.Qxg7 is a fierce blow, as 18...Rg8 is met by the crushing 19.exf6! Rxg7
20.fxg7, and black can throw in the towel. The relatively better continuation 17...dxe5 18.fxe5 Bc5
after 19.Bxc5 Qxc5+ 20.Kh1 bxc3 21.exf6 Rxb2 22.fxg7 Rg8 23.Rad1 still left him with little chance
of salvation.

17...Rxb4 18.Ne2?

Again, white fails to notice the danger threatening the pawn on g7 after 18.e5!, although this time the
consequences of a pawn charge are less tragic, as the black rook has come into the game. After
18...dxe5 19.fxe5 Rxd4! 20.Qxg7 Rf8 21.exf6 Qe5! 22.Ba8! Bc5 23.Kh1 Rb4 black wasn’t as helpless

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as on the previous move, but his position is still unenviable.

18...0-0

Having completed his flank operation, black finally decides that it’s the right time to castle, and he
remains blissfully unaware of the nightmare that he has avoided.

19.Bc3 Rc4 20.e5 dxe5 21.fxe5 Nd5?

Pleasing to the eye, but a superficial choice that allows white to get active. After 21...Ne4! 22.Bxe4
Rxe4 black has enhanced his advantage while preventing his opponent from creating serious
counterplay.

22.Bxd5 Qc5+ 23.Kh1 Qxd5

24.Nf4!?

Maybe it would have been stronger to first introduce the rook into the game, chasing the black queen
to a less active position. However, white chooses a no less interesting path involving sacrificing a
pawn. Still, when your chess experience is limited it’s better to choose natural moves that strengthen
your position. After 24.Rad1 Qb7 25.Nf4 Bc6 26.Nh5 g6 27.Nf6+, white would not have been a
passive observer.

24...Qe4! 25.Rae1 Qxc2 26.Rf2 Qf5

The queen’s retreat to b3 would seriously weaken defense of the kingside, and after 27.Nh5 g6
28.Nf6+ Bxf6 29.exf6 a3 30.Qg5 Kh8 31.Rf3! the black king would have faced big problems.

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 27.Ref1?

After this lame move white ends up without hope of counterplay. He had at his disposal the
spectacular tactic 27.Nd5! to sharply activate the Qg3+Bc3 battery and pose his opponent a
considerable problem. As the natural 27...Qg5 is met by the strong 28.Bd2! followed by 28...Qh4
29.Nxe7+ Qxe7 30.Bh6 (30...f5? 31.exf6 Rxf6 32.Bg5), black needed to find the equally spectacular
27...exd5 28.e6! (or 28.Rxf5 Bxf5 29.e6 d4 30.Bxd4! Rxd4 31.Qe5 Bf6 32.Qxf5 fxe6 33.Qxe6+ Kh8)
28...Rxc3! 29.bxc3 Qxf2!! 30.Qxf2 Bxe6 31.Qa7 Bf6, leading to equality.

27...Bc5! 28.Rd2 Bc6 29.Rdd1

29...h5!

Beautiful! He confidently (at the age of 10!) grabs space on the kingside too, with all the black
chessmen playing an important role in the attack. In order to decide to play such an aggressive pawn
move he had to calculate the long, complicated line 30.Nd3 h4! 31.Rxf5 hxg3 32.Rg5! (32.Rff1? Rh4!
33.Nxc5 Rxh2+ 34.Kg1 Rxg2+ 35.Kh1 Rh2+ 36.Kg1 Rh1#) 32...Bf2 33.hxg3 Be3! 34.Rh5 (34.Nf4
a3! 35.Re1 a2 36.Ra1 g6! 37.Rxa2 Kg7!) 34...Rd8 35.Rh4 Rxc3! (another strong move is 35...Be4
36.Nf2 Rxd1+ 37.Nxd1 Bg5 38.Rh5 Be7 with the inevitable 39...a3 40.bxa3 Bc2) 36.bxc3 a3 37.Rc4
Bb5 38.Re4 Rxd3! 39.Rxd3 Bxd3 40.Rxe3 a2 41.Re1 Bb1

30.h3

Choosing deep defense only worsens white’s prospects.

30...h4 31.Qh2

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 He can’t take the pawn as he loses a piece: 31.Qxh4? g5!! It wasn’t for nothing that I placed a double
exclam here. During my work in the Petrosian school I watched about a hundred boys from the age of
12 to 16 with chess talent and tournament success. And I can confidently affirm that very few of them
would have come up with the idea of the pawn storm 29...h5! and then 31...g5!!
To understand how further strengthening of the position was possible only after the pawns defending
his own king were brought into play and to dare to go for such an idea you needed a chess brain
unhindered by dogma, a brain for which creativity is a natural part of the production process.

31...Qg5 32.Nd3 Bd4 33.Rf4 Rd8

It’s all calculated carefully. 34.Ne1 loses to both 34...a3 and 34...Rxc3 35.bxc3 Bxe5 36.Rg4 Rxd1!
So white has to concede the d-file.

34.Rdf1 Rd7 35.Be1 Bxe5!

Another beauty testifying to the wonderful work of the chess calculator in the boy’s mind. As a rule,
children don’t like even short lines that have several sublines where you have to select the best one.
Life still hasn’t inflicted the problem of choice on them, as adults normally make decisions for them.
Therefore, selecting at the board from among several moves that at first glance all look the same is for
them an arduous challenge. But Garik was not one of those kids. He calculated everything to the end.
The logical development of events 36.Bxh4 Rxf4! 37.Rxf4 Rxd3! 38.Bxg5 Rd1+ or 36.Nxe5 Rxf4
37.Rxf4 Qxe5 38.Rf1 Qe2 39.Rg1 Qxb2 40.Bxh4 a3 left white with no hope of saving the game.

Therefore, white resigned.

Game 4
Lessons at the chess circle of the Baku Pioneers Palace where the seven-year old was first brought
were run by master Oleg Privorotsky. He introduced the basics of chess to Garik as well as to other kids
for whom chess would remain nothing but an interesting game. Oleg performed his role in polishing
this Baku diamond so well that a few years later the pupil grew stronger than the master. See their game
played in the city team championship.

G. Weinstein – O. Privorotsky
Baku. City team championship. 12.12.1974(6)
Sicilian Defense. [В40]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.b3 Nc6 4.Bb2 d6 5.g3 Nf6 6.Qe2?! Be7 7.Bg2 0-0 8.0-0 Bd7 9.d3 e5 10.c4?!
Bg4 11.h3 Bxf3 12.Bxf3 a6 13.Bg2 Nd7 14.Nd2 b5 15.f4 Bf6 16.Nf3 b4 17.f5 a5 18.a4 bxa3
19.Rxa3 Nd4 20.Bxd4 cxd4 21.h4 Nc5 22.Rfa1 Qb6 23.g4! Rfb8 24.g5 Bd8 25.Rf1 Qb4 26.Ra2
Qxb3 27.Rd2

The slow pattern of events in the first half of the game was due to the boy’s natural timidity when
playing one of the first “serious” games in his life with an adult, all the more so with his teacher.

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 Of course, the appearance of the boy sitting at the board opposite a solid-looking man is quite
striking. Parents get all gushy and proud, and journalists love it. But you shouldn’t forget the colossal
psychological burden heaped on the lad’s shoulders, especially if before the game he’s reminded of his
“responsibility” to defend the “honor” of the team that he represents. The little defender of “honor”
doesn’t know what the true meaning of “responsibility” is, yet the very word frightens him and
prevents him from playing creatively. And that’s what happened in this game Garik threw off his
shackles only when the danger of losing reared its ugly head.
The notation marks ascribed to the previous moves and the main sublines of the following comments
were written by the winner. After the game, he sent me the scoresheet with some short notes belonging
to a child.

27...f6?

The experienced teacher makes a positional blunder, sharply changing the course of the battle. Lulled
by his opponent’s timid play he decides to cut off white’s attacking attempts at the root and moves a
pawn in a place where he has no business to do so. After the cold-blooded 27...a4 28.f6 a3! black’s
advantage would be indisputable.

28.Nh2 a4 29.Qh5 Be7 30.Ng4 Nd7 31.Bf3!

The boy immediately noticed the weakening of the squares along the h5-e8 diagonal and, above all,
clearly determines the targets of his attack. Now, everything depends on whether white will manage to
place his rook on g2 and at the same time open the file on the kingside. If he does it in time then his
attack will be irresistible.

31...Qc3

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 Black has to do very little more – just play 32...Rb2 – and then his counterplay will ruin white’s
attack. However, he is short of this tempo. Garry realizes that he needs to take decisive action and
bravely opens the g-file without worrying about material losses.

32.g6! Nf8?

He wrote in the notes he sent me: “Of course he mustn’t open the lines: 32...hxg6? 33.Nh6+! gxh6
34.Qxg6+ Kf8 35.Rg2 with mate. However, after 32...h6? the pawn barricades are destroyed
immediately: 33.Nxh6+ gxh6 34.Qxh6 Nf8 35.g7! Nh7 36.Bh5! (that’s why I placed an exclam
against the move 31.Bf3) 36...Rb2 37.Bf7+! Kxf7 38.Qxh7 Rg8 39.Qg6#.”
Unfortunately, in the last variation the boy even during home analysis missed a defensive resource
that was unusual at that age, involving a queen sacrifice to destroy the attacking constructions:
36...Qxd2!! 37.Qxd2 Kxg7! with an approximate continuation 38.Kh1 Kh8 39.Rg1 a3 40.Qh6 Rg8
41.Bg6 Rg7 42.Ra1 Bf8, allowing black a decent game.

33.Nh6+!

The attack would have been similar after 33.Rg2 h6 34.Nxh6+ gxh6 35.g7

33...Kh8

He cannot take the knight: 33...gxh6 34.Rg2! hxg6 (34...Rb2 35.gxh7#, and a double check, rare in
practice, decides the game) 35.Rxg6+! Nxg6 36.Qxg6+ Kh8 (36...Kf8 loses straight away to 37.Bh5!
and 38.Qf7#) 37.Qxh6+ Kg8 38.Qg6+ Kh8 39.Kh1! (39.Rf2? Rb1+ 40.Kh2 Rb2!) 39...Bf8 40.Rg1
and the black king gets mated.

34.Nf7+ Kg8 35.gxh7+ Nxh7 36.Rg2!

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 So David outwitted Goliath after all – the rook managed to get to the striking position on time and
that decided the game’s outcome.

36...Qxd3

The late invasion 36...Rb2 allows a mating finale: 37.Rxg7+! Kxg7 38.Qg6+ Kf8 39.Nh6! The
queen maneuver saves the king from immediate death but it cannot save the game.

37.Nh6+! Kh8 38.Rxg7!

Black resigned.(7)

Resistance after 38...Rg8 39.Nxg8 Kxg7 40.Nxe7 is pointless.

Many years passed. The first teacher of the current world champion seemed to have disappeared into
the shade. However, in January 1992 he again reminded the world of his presence. In Jurmala at what
turned out to be the last USSR junior championship I suddenly noticed a familiar face standing next to
the Baku schoolboy and tournament winner Rahim Gasimov. Bravo, Oleg Isakovich!
Game 5
A short time later and Garik, already a GM, would gain a reputation as the best tournament finisher in
the game, capable of winning all key games. However, as you will see, the first pancake was a mess(8).
After the immediate disappointments and new worries took hold of us it became clear that the bitter
Vilnius pill had brought some use. Were the lad to win this game played in the last round, the small
debutant of the USSR junior championships would have gained second place. I can just imagine the
commotion that would have been raised in the Azeri press, and what hopes would have been
prematurely associated with his name. How much that would have disturbed Garik’s chess progress!
Instead, a talented boy returned from Vilnius to Baku with a bright future and with the praise from the
press also postponed.
I wasn’t trying to focus him on winning that day, seeing his nerves and tiredness. I simply asked him
to play a “good game”.

G. Weinstein – A. Yermolinsky
Vilnius. USSR Junior Championship. 15.01.1975
Alekhine Defense. [В05]

1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 Bg4 5.Be2 e6 6.0-0 Be7 7.h3 Bh5 8.c4 Nb6 9.exd6 cxd6
10.Nbd2 0-0 11.b3

Garry quickly extracted from his memory a convenient piece setup which he had taken a look at a
week before the tournament, studying the latest issue of the famous Yugoslav Chess Informant that I
had sent him.

11...Nc6 12.Bb2 Bf6 13.a3 d5 14.c5 Nc8 15.b4 a6 16.Rc1

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 White has managed to gain a large advantage, as his opponent has nothing in reply to the approaching
queenside storm. Moreover, black fails to sense the danger and makes a mistake.

16...N8e7?

17.Nb3?

This move was logical but not very strong. At the finish the boy was very tired and incapable of
working at top gear for four hours. When preparing for the game I managed to guess his opponent’s
opening, having studied his games. This should have given my charge an additional shot of confidence
and hope that he would play without going wrong for at least the first two hours, thereby successfully
navigating a complicated middlegame.
However, the unexpected happened. The child’s tired brain would turn on and off at will. As a result,
truly master-level decisions began to alternate with moves whose origin Garry could not explain
coherently.
So here he placed his knight on b3, almost without thinking. The idea of the move isn’t bad and
doesn’t surrender white’s positional advantage. However, the unplanned pawn charge 17.g4 Bg6
18.g5!, which had become possible thanks to black’s last move, won a whole piece.
Even a mistake may become a component of a useful experience if you memorize it or are reminded
of it. So for almost a year during our lessons after this, I called Garik not by his name, but simply “g4”.

17...Bxf3 18.Bxf3 Nf5 19.Bg4 g6 20.Qd3 Bg7 21.Bc3 Qf6 22.Bxf5!

This is not a striving for simplifications, but a subtle assessment of the position. Not wanting to tie
the rook on f1 to defending the d4 pawn, white exchanges his strong bishop but deprives his opponent
of hopes of counterplay.

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 22...Qxf5 23.Qxf5 exf5

It’s unclear which is the lesser evil. After 23...gxf5 24.f4! the black pieces are caught in a firm cage.
Now, though, white is a good pawn up.

24.a4

White’s next four moves are logically connected to each other, but these links don’t represent a
deeply thought out plan. Rather than the pawn rush, it would have been more effective to open the b-
file with 24.Rb1! Rab8 25.Rfd1 Nd8 26.Na5 Ne6 27.b5! axb5 28.Rxb5

24...Nd8 25.Ra1 Ne6 26.b5 Rfc8 27.Rfd1?

The standoff of the c3 bishop and c8 rook hasn’t put white on his guard, and the young general hasn’t
considered prophylaxis such as 27.Bb2

27...b6!

An unexpected and quite strong reply, at a time when it seemed white’s pawn rush was carrying on
unimpeded. Only now Garry noticed that after 28.c6 axb5 29.axb5 Nc7! the b5 pawn dies. Nor can he
try the spectacular 28.cxb6 Rxc3 29.b7 Rb8 30.bxa6 due to the simple 30...Rxb3! 31.a7 R3xb7
32.axb8=Q+ Rxb8 and white is left fighting for a draw.
The calm pattern of the game has suddenly changed radically, and the situation is becoming sharper
and less certain. For a player who had very recently been enjoying his position, such a change is
particularly unpleasant.

28.Rdc1 bxc5 29.b6 cxd4! 30.Bb2 Rab8 31.a5 Rc4 32.Nd2

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 A critical point in the battle. White has lost a pawn, but the outcome of the game is hard to predict as
the protected passed b6 pawn is very dangerous. After 32...Rc3! black hardly risked losing, but he got
greedy and conceded the open file.

32...Rxc1+? 33.Rxc1 Kf8 34.Nb3 Be5 35.Ba3+ Ke8 36.Re1! f6 37.f4! Nxf4 38.Bd6! Rd8

39.Bc7!

The tactical possibilities in this position have shaken up the boy’s thinking, and he has made a
number of strong consecutive moves. Here the tempting tactic 39.Rxe5+ fxe5 40.b7 was rejected due to
the unclear consequences of 40...Ne6 41.Bxe5 Kd7 42.b8=Q Rxb8 43.Bxb8 Kc6 44.Ba7 Kb5!

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45.Nxd4+ Nxd4 46.Bxd4 Kxa5 47.Kf2 Kb4 48.Ke3 Kc4! He spent one minute rejecting it, and that
minute turned out to be decisive.

39...d3?

In terrible time trouble and with a difficult position, black sets a trap that leaves him on the verge of
defeat. A logical continuation would be 39...Ne6 40.Bxd8 Nxd8 41.Nxd4 Kd7 42.Nb3 Nb7, trying to
save the game with stubborn defense.
Well, the final round has its own rules and ways of evaluating when selecting a line. Trying to grab
this unexpected chance, Garry’s opponent, today a strong US GM, starts to try and swindle his way out,
and this brings an unexpected result.
The first trap deals with the naive 40.b7?? Ne2+ 41.Kf1 Bxc7. Garry quickly figures it out and just
as quickly makes another, suicidal move.

40.Kf2??

Only extreme tiredness could explain this absurd choice. Despite having sufficient time, white
continued to play at blitz and found virtually the only other losing continuation. Having touched his
king, he should still have thought what to do with it, and he could have placed it on f1 and won.
However, the short line 40.Rxe5+! fxe5 41.b7 would have forced black to resign immediately, as he
could only liquidate the new white queen at the cost of catastrophic losses: 41...d2 42.Nxd2 Ne2+
43.Kf1 Nd4 44.Bxd8 Nc6 45.Bc7 e4 46.b8=Q+ Nxb8 47.Bxb8 and so on. Yet Garry completely
forgot about the rook sac, the idea of which had been in his head just a minute earlier.
Well, having played nine games against the tournament leaders, it’s not easy when you’re not yet
eleven to retain your strength during four hours of tense battle in the final round.

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 40...d2!

The time scramble has ended, and so has the battle. Unexpectedly and absurdly. He could have
resigned here.

41.Rxe5+ fxe5 42.Nxd2 Nd3+ 43.Ke3 Nc5 44.Bxe5 Kd7

White resigned.

The boy bravely took the blow on the chin and, having signed the score sheet, left the table silently.
But his self-restraint didn’t last for long – only until he left the tournament hall. Then he approached his
mother, grasped hold of her and wept quietly. I was very sorry for the boy. At that age he is meant to be
playing children’s games, yet here for the first time he encountered the harsh laws of sport.
Game 6
Studying the games of GMs brings great benefits to any player wanting to improve. Players who are
particularly curious even study the games from the GMs’ childhood, trying to figure out which qualities
drove the great players to the top and how they fixed the defects in their play. A good teacher can
obtain useful results if he uses such games to test the young player.
Now you will play through the battle of two very young candidate masters, one of whom will become
world champion ten years later and the other will simply become a master, upon which his chess career
will take a pause. It was only when Boris and his family moved to Israel that he took up chess
seriously. Now he’s a grandmaster, but nothing out of the ordinary.
You can create at least two tests from this game for a young player dreaming of becoming a
champion.

G. Weinstein – B. Kantsler
Leningrad. Spartak Junior Championship. 27.07.1975
King’s Indian Attack. [C00]

1.e4 e6 2.d3 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.g3 Nc6 5.Bg2 g6 6.Ngf3 Bg7 7.0-0 Nge7

Just half a year later I added this way of playing the opening for white to the list of opening systems
temporarily banned from use. Garik would have to make do with 2.d4 and go for a more active setup,
which was appropriate to his playing style. He was to learn with surprise that battles after 2.d4 are
much richer and more interesting.

8.Re1 0-0 9.Qe2 b5 10.e5 a5 11.Nf1 Ba6 12.h4 b4 13.N1h2 h6 14.Bf4 Kh7 15.Bh3 c4 16.Kg2

This generally OK system is not of much use for young players, in that thanks to its lack of ideas it
doesn’t require much time to study compared with other, richer opening systems. If you are targeting
big achievements in chess then you need to strive to learn the subtleties of as many standard positions
as possible, in other words, those that frequently come up. Such positions provide support in the middle
of the game, and their knowledge will significantly improve your technique. The best way to build up a

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solid base of such positions is to study opening systems whose content is as rich and varied as possible.
The opening setup deployed by Garik here was one I called a system for idlers, as white can make all
the moves automatically, often while ignoring the location of his opponent’s pieces.

16...Nf5?! 17.Bxf5 gxf5

18.g4!

So, here’s the first test to see if the player can think out of the box. Set up the position after move 17
and ask your pupil the simple question: “What would you play as white?” Give the young player 20
minutes to think. Will he look at 18.g4? How quickly?
Little children introduced to chess strategy don’t like pawn advances that open up their own king’s
bunker. They are afflicted by the usual, childish fear of the unknown, when it’s hard to assess the
approaching danger, as they don’t have life experience or precedents. Deliberately made moves such as
18.g4 are an indicator of a child mature beyond their years. Actually, Garry already had experience – he
remembered the game with Alexei (now Alex) Yermolinsky and the jokey nickname “g4”.

18...fxg4?

He first had to play 18...Ne7, winning a tempo after 19.gxf5 Nxf5 that was desperately needed both
to organize his defense and to go on the counter attack: 20.Ng4 cxd3 21.cxd3 d4! After 19.g5 Ng6
20.Bd2 cxd3 21.cxd3 h5! 22.Kg3 (22.Nf1? f4!) 22...Rc8 23.Rac1 Qb6 the defense of black’s king
remains impregnable. So white should probably have changed the attacking pattern with 19.h5 fxg4
20.Nxg4 Nf5 21.Kh3 though then after 21...d4! black’s chances are no worse.
By the way, a couple of years later, when Borya Kantsler came to study at the Petrosian school,
Tigran and I became convinced that underestimating the importance of chess time was characteristic of

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the thinking of this capable lad.

19.Nxg4 Ne7

The defense of black’s king seems strong. He only has to play 20...Nf5, and white’s attack will run
out of steam without having got off the ground. It’s unclear how to undermine black’s position, as
20.Nd4 is nicely met with 20...Ng6 21.Bg3 cxd3 22.cxd3 Nxh4+, while 20.Ne3 encounters the strong
20...cxd3 21.cxd3 d4! 22.Nc4 Ng6 23.Qe4 f5! 24.exf6 Qxf6
Here’s the second test – to check combinational ability. Set up the position on the diagram and ask
the pupil to show the best continuation, based on concrete variations. Again, give him 20 minutes for
thinking.
Far from every experienced chess player will find the next two killer blows that destroy black. Note
that Garry only spent 18 minutes on finding the attacking scheme and calculating the lines here, and
after that he played the moves quickly. How did your charge cope with this test?

20.Bg5!! hxg5 21.hxg5!

This quiet capture is no less stunning that the previous resonant move. White confidently sets up a
mating web.

21...Rh8 22.Nf6+ Kg6 23.Rh1! Nf5 24.Rxh8 Bxh8 25.Nd4!

A decisive combinational tactic. Now 25...Bxf6 is met with 26.gxf6 Qg8 27.Rh1! Nh6 28.Kf1! Kh7
29.Rg1! cxd3 30.cxd3 Qf8 31.Rg7+ Kh8 32.Qe3! and black can only give up his queen to avoid mate.

25...Nxd4 26.Qh5+ Kf5 27.g6+ Kf4 28.Re1 Bxf6 29.f3! Nxf3 30.Qxf3+ Kg5 31.Qg3+ Kh5
32.exf6

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 Black resigned.

Mate is unavoidable.
The tournament of Spartak kids held in summer 1975, to which nobody had paid any attention, turned
out to be the last competition where Garry played under the surname of his father.
Game 7
The number of chess battles between these two great players continues to post new records and is
approaching 200! They played for the first time in the unique Pioneers Palace tournament where the
strongest Soviet GMs played clock simuls against the upcoming generation of strong juniors. The
system for counting points encouraged players to go for a win, both the GMs and their young
opponents. Almost all young Soviet grandmasters who are today part of the global elite were involved
in these simuls, first as young team members and then as invited simul-givers.
The game here became a dress-rehearsal for the long and fierce war between the two Ks. You would
have expected a huge gap between the newly-crowned world champion with his powers blossoming
and his “opponent”, a little candidate master who had only recently debuted at the national junior
championships. But you should have seen just how seriously the champion took this game! His ability
to quickly figure people out and precisely evaluate their strengths was legendary. Did he really sense
the threat to his throne by then and the name of his successor?

A. Karpov – G. Kasparov
Leningrad. Pioneers Palace tournament. 08.11.1975
7-board simul with clocks
Sicilian Defense. [В92]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.Bg5 Be6 9.f4 exf4
10.Bxf4 Nc6 11.0-0 0-0 12.Kh1 b5!?

White plays out the opening moves without striving to gain an advantage, and the easiest way for
black to obtain equality was by replying 12...d5 here. Garik plays a move that could have been marked
a novelty, as it wasn’t to be found in opening encyclopedias. The boy’s idea turned out to be interesting
and perfectly sound.

13.Bf3 Ne5 14.Nd4 Bc4 15.Rf2

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 15...b4!

Black makes this advance at the right time, and his chances in the upcoming battle are pretty
reasonable, as his pieces have taken up active positions.

16.Nd5 Nxd5 17.exd5 Bf6 18.Rd2 Qb6 19.Be3 Qc7 20.Be4 Rfe8 21.Bg1

During his best years Karpov was a master of waiting and maneuvering strategy. However, his
expectation that his young opponent would err in this non-concrete maneuvering play had so far proved
unjustified. Moving the bishop along the route f4-e3-g1 has merely strengthened the defense of the
white king.

21...g6 22.a3 a5 23.axb4 axb4 24.Rxa8 Rxa8 25.b3 Ba6 26.Nc6

White has to undertake at least some activity, otherwise his second bishop will also be chased back to
base.

26...Nxc6

A truly master-level decision. It appeared that Garry was significantly helping his opponent. He
exchanged his strong knight and at the same time allowed white to create a strong passed pawn, while
the rook on d2 has suddenly got into the game. But nevertheless, black’s chances are no worse, as the
threat of the rook’s invasion on a1 is quite unpleasant.
Taking account of the previous circumstance, it would have been more accurate to give way to the
black rook immediately: 26...Bb5! It’s dangerous for white to take the pawn: 27.Nxb4?! Qc3 28.Nd3
Bg5! 29.Rf2 Ra1 30.Qe2 Bxd3 31.cxd3 Re1 32.Qa2 Be3! while after 27.Nxe5 Bxe5 28.Qf3 f5 29.Bd3
Qc3 black’s position is more pleasant. Maybe the best alternative for the champion would have been

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27.Nd4, in order to meet 27...Bd7 by finding a new way to continue the battle, or else draw via move
repetition.

27.dxc6

27...Re8?

Up to now, black has battled admirably, however, the boy proved that he was not yet ready to bear
the tension of playing against the world champion. After three hours of battle he commits a blunder that
immediately gives white the advantage. It’s hard to explain why he rejected the logical maneuver
27...Bb5! after which it’s hard for white to save the pawn on c6 while simultaneously parrying the
threat of the rook invasion. For example: 28.Bd4 Bxd4 29.Rxd4 Bxc6 30.Rc4 (nothing changes with
30.Rxb4 d5!) 30...d5 31.Bxd5 Qe5! Only 28.Qf3 Bc3 29.Rd1 Ra6! 30.Bd4! would maintain equality:
30...Bxc6 31.Bxc3 Bxe4 32.Qxe4 Qxc3 33.Qe8+ Kg7 34.Rf1 Qf6! 35.Qe2 Ra1

28.Bd5?

Well, there are spots even on the Sun... After 28.Rxd6 Rxe4 29.Rxf6 black would simply be a pawn
down. Now, the battle acquires new impetus.

28...Bc3 29.Rf2 Re1 30.Qf3

Evidently, Karpov had missed that after 30.Rxf7 white even loses: 30...Rxd1 31.Rxc7+ Kh8 32.Bf3
Ra1 and the threat of 33...Bd4 cannot be prevented. Attacking the f7 pawn was white’s only chance, but
the pitiful position of his dark-squared bishop means that he cannot count on much.

30...Bd4?

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 Mistakes, like misfortune, rarely happen in ones. Clearly, 30...Re7 created the threats 31...Be1 and
31...Bd4 and more or less maintained equality, as the best continuation 31.Qf4 Bb5 32.Qh4! would
have led to a sharp but still equal position after 32...Kg7 33.Rf4 f6! 34.Re4 Re5 35.Rxe5 dxe5

31.Bxf7+ Kg7

32.Bc4!

Garry hadn’t anticipated this cunning retreat and now lost his way...

32...Rxg1+?

Actually, there was no need to panic. The unexpected mate threat on f8 is repelled by the obvious
capture 32...Bxf2 and after 33.Qxf2 you only need to guess which white bishop you should liquidate
first. After 33...Rxg1+ 34.Kxg1 Qxc6 35.Qd4+ Kh6 36.Bxa6 Qxa6 37.Qxb4 Qe2 38.Qc3 the queen
ending looks lost for black. But it was harder for white to demonstrate an advantage after 33...Bxc4!
34.Qxe1 Bd5 35.Bd4+ Kf7 36.Qh4 Ke8 37.Qf6 Qf7
Garry missed this possible chance to save the game, and Caissa, disappointed, turned her back on
him. The rest isn’t interesting. The c6 pawn remains alive and this decides the outcome of the battle.

33.Kxg1 Bxf2+ 34.Kxf2 Bxc4 35.bxc4 Qa7+ 36.Ke2 Qd4 37.Qd5! Qf6 38.Qe4! b3 39.cxb3 Qb2+
40.Kf1 Qc1+ 41.Qe1 Qf4+ 42.Kg1 Qd4+ 43.Kh1 Qb6 44.Qe7+ Kh6 45.Qf8+

Black resigned.

At the end of the game Garry reminded me of a pupil caught after being naughty. The world
champion had taught him a very useful lesson. Two months later the 13-year old Baku schoolboy won

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the national junior championship.

(3)
According to Kasparov’s book Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov: Part I this game took place
in March 1973 in a match between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan (publisher’s note)
(4)In Kasparov’s book Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov: Part I he shows moves up to move 54
and then “1/2-1/2” (publisher’s note)
(5)
According to Kasparov’s book Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov: Part I this was a training
match (publisher’s note)
(6)
According to Kasparov’s book Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov: Part I this game was dated
11.12.1974 (publisher’s note)
(7)According to Kasparov’s book Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov: Part I black lost on time
(publisher’s note)
(8) A typical Russian expression (publisher’s note)

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 Game 8
The result of this game was of significance for... Viktor Korchnoi. The famous grandmasters playing
at the Pioneers Palace tournament were fighting to score the best result among the simul-givers. The
battle for first place was between world champion Karpov and the powerful trio Korchnoi, Smyslov
and Polugaevsky. The winner would be presented with only a symbolic prize, but none of these giants
was used to giving ground. Korchnoi’s simul against the Baku team was in the final round, and only a
100% score would allow him to come first. After about three hours, with the score at 6:0, the GM
grabbed a chair, lit a cigarette and sat at the table opposite his last remaining opponent. That was Garry.

V. Korchnoi – G. Kasparov
Leningrad. 7-board simul with clocks. 12.11.1975
King’s Indian Defense. [E80]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 Nc6 6.Be3 a6 7.Nge2 Rb8 8.Nc1 e5 9.d5 Nd4!? 10.Bxd4
exd4 11.Qxd4 0-0

Black has applied a rare opening setup, “forgetting” to carry out the usual earlier castling in order to
use the extra tempo to begin active play before his opponent. To this end he soon even sacrificed a
pawn. That was a particularly daring choice. Korchnoi was known for his ability to hold on to his gains
over the board, and even grandmasters were unwilling to sacrifice pawns to him.

12.Qd2

Essential prophylaxis. He will have to retreat anyway, as 12.Nb3 is met by 12...Nxe4! while after
12.Be2 black has the nice 12...Re8 with the same threat.

12...c5! 13.a4

For as long as his king is in the center white must prevent a new pawn sac.

13...Nh5

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 14.g4!

Not an attack at all, but simple prophylaxis to avoid a new break, this time via the f7 pawn.

14...Qh4+!

So far, Garry had only spent 11 minutes on his moves – he had analyzed similar positions at home.
Messy King’s Indian setups entertained him at the time no less than adventure stories.

15.Kd1

After 15.Qf2 Qxf2+ 16.Kxf2 Nf4! 17.Nd3 g5! or 17...Bd4+ 18.Ke1 Nxd3+ 19.Bxd3 f5 black has
excellent piece play for the pawn. Korchnoi forces the knight to retreat to a less active position and only
then offers the exchange of queens.

15...Nf6 16.Qe1 Qxe1+!

There’s no point in retaining the queens with 16...Qg5 as after 17.Nd3 Nd7 18.h4 Qe7 19.Kc2! the
white king finds a safe port on the queenside.

17.Kxe1 Nd7 18.Be2 Ne5 19.Rg1 f5!

I preferred 19...g5 20.h4 h6 21.Nd3 Ng6, gaining decent counterplay thanks to the dark-squared
blockade. Garry chooses a more committal and complicated path – he also wants to gain an advantage.

20.exf5 gxf5 21.g5! Bd7 22.Kd2

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 Up to now white has made huge efforts to prevent the position from opening up, and the lack of
coordination of his pieces hasn’t been notable. Now he just needs to hurry up with f3-f4, and then he
can think about how to convert his material advantage. Korchnoi noticed in time that the immediate
22.f4 Ng4 23.h3 is met by the very strong reply 23...Bd4! forcing white on the defensive: 24.Rh1 Ne3
25.Kd2 Ng2!
Now black has a rich choice of moves, including both 22...Rfe8 and 22...f4 23.Ne4 Bh3! but he finds
a quite unexpected alternative.

22...b5! 23.axb5 axb5 24.cxb5 Bxb5!!

He gets one exclam for bravery and a second for his long and accurate calculation.

25.Nxb5 Rxb5 26.Bxb5 Nxf3+ 27.Kc2 Nxg1 28.Nd3 Nf3 29.Bd7

White finds it difficult to maintain even a semblance of equality. His pieces remain uncoordinated,
and his pawns are weak. Moreover, the f5 pawn looks very threatening.

29...Nd4+

Both 29...Nxg5 and 29...Nxh2 30.Kd1 f4 were sufficiently strong.

30.Kd1 f4 31.Be6+ Nxe6?

The black knight was very powerful, and so black simply had to play 31...Kh8, after which there was
nothing to withstand the coordinated aggression of the black pieces and the passed pawn.

32.dxe6 f3 33.Ra7 Re8

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 Black successfully avoids the reef: 33...f2 34.Nxf2 Rxf2 35.e7 Kf7 36.e8=Q+! Kxe8 37.Rxg7 Rxh2
38.b3, giving white real drawing chances, but it was even more precise to play 33...c4 34.e7 Re8
35.Nf4 Bxb2 36.Nd5 Be5 retaining a serious advantage.
The technique of converting an advantage at the time wasn’t one of Garry’s strengths, as he had to
tackle too many other, more pressing problems. Before learning to multiply your riches you first have
to learn to create them.

34.Rf7 c4 35.Nf4 Bxb2 36.Nd5 Rxe6 37.Rxf3

37...Kg7?

The final black mark. Now white manages to draw. Black could have maintained an advantage with
37...Re5! and if 38.Ne3 then the simple 38...d5

38.Ne3 c3 39.h4 Re5 40.Nf5+ Kg6 41.Ng3 Re6 42.Rd3 h6

Draw agreed.

As a result, Korchnoi ended up half a point behind Smyslov in the competition among the simul-
givers, though he was half a point ahead of Karpov.
Game 9
Garry’s first attempt to gain a master’s norm in an adult tournament didn’t succeed. I advised the lad
not to play in this competition, believing that the fruit had not yet ripened. However, the local sports
leadership insisted, and the boy’s resistance was weak – he really wanted to take on the masters. His
50% score, far from the master’s requirement, demonstrated that my advice was logical. But there was
a silver lining. Several of Garry’s games brought pleasure, where we could see a new strong aspect of

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his playing signature – the ability to grow his positional advantage move by move. That was the first
sign that a rapid rise of the new star would occur soon, and that our training sessions were very
effective.
The pattern of this battle reminded me of the famous masterpiece created by Alekhine in 1930 against
Nimzowitsch at a tournament in Sanremo. In that game, methodically depriving his opponent’s pieces
of mobility, the great maestro picked up a pawn in passing. Garry, however, in this game sacrificed,
rather than gained a pawn, and the pin of the black pieces wasn’t as strong. Therefore, his play was
most impressive, and the final attack effective and delivered like lightning.

G. Kasparov – A. Kayumov
Baku. Master norm tournament. 22.05.1976
Caro-Kann Defense. [В10]

1.e4 c6 2.Ne2 d5 3.e5 c5 4.d4 Nc6 5.c3 e6?!

The master doesn’t react in the best way to white’s somewhat artificial opening. After the natural
5...Bf5 6.Ng3 Bxb1 7.Rxb1 e6 black has no difficulties in developing his pieces.

6.Nd2 cxd4 7.cxd4 Nh6 8.Nf3 Nf5 9.a3 Qb6?

A mistaken decision with a purely psychological subtext. My lad had started the tournament badly
and thought long and hard in the opening, which had the effect of dulling the vigilance of the
experienced master. He should have secured his knight outpost with 9...h5.

10.g4! Nfe7 11.Nf4 Na5

The following, large part of the game Garry played like a good positional player, squeezing his

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opponent ever more with each move.

12.Rb1! Nb3 13.Be3 Bd7 14.Bd3 Rc8 15.Bc2 Na5 16.Kf1! Nc4 17.Bc1 Bb5 18.Kg2 Qc7

19.Bd3! Bd7 20.b3 Na5 21.Bd2! Qb6 22.Nh5! Bb5 23.Bb4 Bxd3 24.Qxd3 Nac6 25.Bc5 Qa6
26.Qe3! b6 27.Bd6 Ng6 28.Bxf8 Kxf8 29.Rhc1! Qxa3 30.Rc3 Qe7 31.Rbc1 Qd7 32.b4! Nge7

His subtle positional work is followed by a combinational finale.

33.Nf6!

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 Had the master known our lad’s trickery he would have captured this knight, although after 33...gxf6
34.exf6 Ng6 35.b5 white executes a dangerous attack with equal material on the board, for example
35...e5 36.Qh6+ Ke8 37.h3 e4 38.Ne5 Ngxe5 39.dxe5 d4 40.Qg7

33...Qd8? 34.b5 Na5 35.Rxc8 Nxc8 36.Rxc8!

A spectacular blow ending the battle. After 36...Qxc8 black gets mated by 37.Qa3+!

Black resigned.

Game 10
The fine Armenian grandmaster Smbat Lputian played with Garry as far back as in junior
tournaments in 1973. They never competed in adult tournaments, maybe because they were too friendly
with each other.(9) They managed to play this wonderful game towards the end of 1976.

S. Lputian – G. Kasparov
Tbilisi. Junior team competition. 17.10.1976(10)
King’s Indian Defense. [E83]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 Nc6 6.Be3 a6 7.Qd2 Rb8

Garry has played a cunning opening line. Like against Korchnoi, he has saved on castling while
disturbing white’s quiet life: 8.Nge2 b5! However, Smbat decides not to play second fiddle in
originality.

8.Rb1

White plans to steal a march on his opponent in creating play on the queenside. However, his plan
has a weakness.

8...0-0 9.b4 e5

Having encountered an opening surprise, Garry spends 25 minutes thinking and finds a way to
exploit white’s lack of kingside development. Interestingly, he spends only another 15 minutes on the
following 15 moves, which contain complicated ideas and unexpected combinational tactics with a
transposition to a better endgame!
This is explained not so much by his fantastically quick calculation ability, but by the fact that the
ideas that he implements at this most complicated part of the game were not new for him. They had
become a weapon of technique after tenacious independent work on the most valuable games played by
the biggest experts of KID structures.
Black reacts to the flank attack in full compliance with the laws of chess strategy, replying with a
counter attack in the center. Moreover, the subsequent sacrificial operations certainly didn’t break these
laws.

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 10.d5 Nd4! 11.Nge2

Obviously, not 11.Bxd4? exd4 12.Qxd4? Nxe4 13.Qxe4 Re8 winning the queen.

11...c5! 12.dxc6 bxc6! 13.Nxd4 exd4 14.Bxd4

For the sacrificed pawn black has great opportunities to develop an attack against the king, which is
stuck in the center.

14...Re8!

It only took Garry five minutes of thought to decide that opening up the game should wait a little:
14...c5 15.bxc5 Nxe4 16.fxe4 Qh4+ 17.Kd1! Rxb1+ 18.Nxb1 Qxe4 19.Bxg7 Qxb1+ 20.Qc1 Bg4+
21.Kd2 Qxc1+ 22.Kxc1 Kxg7 23.cxd6 Rd8 24.c5 Rc8 25.Bxa6 Rxc5+ 26.Kb2 and should only happen
once he had brought another piece into place – his king’s rook.

15.Be2

In the maneuver 14...Re8 white only sees preparation to advance the d6 pawn after 15.Bd3 d5
16.cxd5 cxd5. He decides to prevent this, but exposes himself to a hail of tactics.

15...c5! 16.bxc5

White may well have managed to maintain equality after 16.Bxf6 Bxf6 17.Nd5 but Lputian misses
the combination envisaged by his opponent.

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 16...Nxe4!

Evidently, this combination places a question-mark against the value of the opening idea with 8.Rb1
and 9.b4 that white employs to fight for the initiative.

17.fxe4 Qh4+ 18.g3?

Of course, he cannot play 18.Kd1 due to 18...Rxb1+ 19.Nxb1 Qxe4 20.Bxg7 Qxb1+ 21.Qc1 Qxc1+
22.Kxc1 Kxg7 23.Bd3 dxc5. He had a small chance of drawing after 18.Bf2 Bxc3 19.Bxh4 Rxb1+
20.Kf2 Bxd2 21.Rxb1 dxc5 22.Rb8! Bc3 23.Bg3 Bd4+ 24.Kf1. The flash of activity of the black pieces
has caught Lputian unawares and he misses another tactic.

18...Rxb1+ 19.Kf2

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 19...Rb2!!

I’m sure that Garik had this nasty nail in his pocket when he made the move 14...Re8!

20.gxh4 Rxd2 21.Bxg7 Kxg7 22.Ke3 Rc2 23.Kd3 Rxc3+!

Black would likely have retained the advantage with 23...Rb2 24.cxd6 Bb7 25.Bf3 f5 but transposing
to the endgame is also justified.

24.Kxc3 dxc5 25.Bd3 Bb7 26.Re1 Re5!

Accuracy is still needed. The natural 26...f5 only draws after 27.e5 Be4 28.Bxe4 Rxe5 29.Kd3 Kf6
30.Re2 fxe4+ 31.Rxe4 Kf5 32.Rxe5+ Kxe5 33.Ke3 h6 34.h5

27.a4

27.Re2 Rh5! 28.Rb2 (or 28.e5 Bc8! and white is left a pawn down) 28...Bc8 29.Rb8 Be6 30.Ra8 Rxh4
31.Rxa6 h5! is no better – white cannot stop the pawn.

27...f5

The remaining events are forced, and the path to victory found by Kasparov (and after just five
minutes of thought), is clear and doesn’t require further commentary.

28.Rb1 Bxe4 29.Rb6 f4! 30.Rxa6 f3 31.Bf1 Bf5! 32.Ra7+ Kh6 33.Kd2 f2 34.Be2 Bg4! 35.Bd3 Re1
36.Rf7 Bf5! 37.a5 Bxd3! 38.Rxf2 Rf1!

White resigned.

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 The wide range of technical ploys used by the 13-year-old player to achieve a successful outcome,
the intricacies of his plans and the precision of their execution are ever so impressive.
Game 11
Garry learnt an awful lot by studying the three-volume collection of Botvinnik’s games that migrated
from my library to his. Mikhail Moiseevich advised all kids coming to his sessions to analyze his
games, but I think it was only the young Baku lad who knew how to imbibe everything of value from
the great master’s legacy.
At the national junior championships in Riga Garry set a number of impressive records. He was the
only player to win the competition twice, even more impressive given his young age. Eight wins and
one draw equalled another record! Along the way he defeated the future GM Evgeny Pigusov. Their
game brought back sweet memories for Botvinnik. That was just how he won in his prime.
For a long time Garry was unable to find vulnerable chinks in black’s strong defense. However, he
was rewarded for his persistence and inventiveness by black’s sole error, after which white’s final
attack occurred like lightning and shot across the board like a whirlwind. I was impressed at Garry’s
decisiveness when taking decisions. He spent just five minutes on thinking over his sudden attack
beginning with a spectacular rook invasion into black’s camp!

G. Kasparov – E. Pigusov
Riga. USSR Junior Championship. 11.01.1977
Queen’s Gambit. [D36]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nbd7 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 Be7 7.e3 c6 8.Bd3 0-0 9.Qc2 Re8 10.0-
0 Nf8 11.Rae1

Instead of a pawn minority attack with 11.Rab1 and b2-b4-b5 Garry prefers to advance in the center,
which leads to a sharper battle.

11...Ng6

The line 11...Ne4 12.Bxe7 Qxe7 13.Bxe4 dxe4 14.Nd2 f5 15.f3 exf3 is just as interesting.

12.Ne5 Nd7 13.Bxe7 Qxe7 14.f4(15) 14...Ngf8

So far, play had followed theory that was nearly a hundred years old: Pigusov had also studied the
classics diligently. Black plans to chase the knight from e5 with a pawn and calmly complete his
queenside development.

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 15.e4!(09)

By bringing his queen’s rook to e1, white has demonstrated his intent to advance the e-pawn. In the
event of prophylaxis such as 15.Kh1 black retains control over the d5 square after 15...f6 16.Nf3 Nb6
17.e4 dxe4 18.Nxe4 Be6 19.Nc5 Qf7 and this gives him decent counter chances.

15...Nxe5 16.fxe5

The attempt to win a pawn with the intermezzo 16.exd5 fails due to the tactic 16...Nf3+! 17.gxf3
Qxe1 18.Rxe1 Rxe1+ 19.Kf2 Re8 creating a quite unclear position.

16...Be6 17.exd5 Bxd5 18.Nxd5(08) 18...cxd5 19.Bf5

At first glance, the rooks and bishop look to be on excellent squares, the pawn on e5 is strongly
supported, while the black pawn on d5 is lonely, leading to a major positional advantage for white.
However, it’s not so simple. The d4 pawn needs to be protected by a piece, and after the knight moves
without hindrance to e6 black will start counterplay along the c-file.

19...Qb4 20.Rd1(06) 20...h6 21.Qf2 Re7 22.Rd3(31) 22...Rc7

Black is playing logically and prudently, as a result of which white’s initiative looks flimsy and will
disappear in the event of the slightest mishap during the preparation for the attack. Here black could
have played even more aggressively: 22...Ne6! 23.Rfd1 Rc8 24.Rg3 Rc4! after which play sharpens up:
25.Rg4 h5! 26.Rh4 g6 or even 26...Rec7. But he prefers to play more carefully.

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 23.Rb3!(07)

A subtle move forcing black into an awkward choice.

23...Qe7

It’s hard over the board to decide to play 23...Qa4, but the aggressive reorganizing of the white
pieces 24.Rg3 Ne6 (not 24...Qxa2? due to 25.Ra3! Qc4 26.Rc3) 25.Rg4! Qxa2 26.Qh4! Kh8 with the
logical continuation 27.Rxg7! leads to a totally unclear situation: 27...Kxg7 28.Qf6+ Kg8 29.Qxh6
Nf8 30.h4 Rc6. However, such continuations are best analyzed at home, and if you go for them over
the board then only when absolutely forced. Moving the most powerful piece back to base camp was
planned earlier, although it signifies a temporary rejection of the battle for the initiative.

24.Rg3 Ne6?

Now this piece transfer, involving the subsequent queen sortie, proves to be a mistaken decision,
destroying all of black’s previous strategy which was characterized by solid and careful play. He should
have retained for now the defense of the h6 pawn, not giving white new opportunities to strengthen his
position. After 24...Rc6! 25.Rg4 Qc7! 26.Qg3 black continuing 26...Ne6 27.Qh4 Kf8! 28.Bg6 Rc1!
could count on counterplay.

25.Qe3!(05) 25...Kh8 26.h3(04) 26...Qb4 27.Rg4! Qxb2 28.Kh2(07) 28...Qb4?

After this move all hopes of saving the game are lost. Black was evidently frightened by the attack
and suddenly changes his strategy, returning the queen to where it came from. So its daring sortie turns
out to be a trivial loss of time in a situation where doing so was totally wrong. The queen’s urgent
return to e7 is too late to support the defense. White has already built up a powerful strike force on the

96
kingside, and the attack in which his entire army takes part becomes irresistible.
Of course, white has achieved a lot in the last five moves, and the panic in his opponent’s army is
understandable, but black should have continued the risky counterattack with the move 28...Rc3! After
29.Qe1! Rc7! 30.Qh4 Rg8 31.Bxe6 fxe6 32.Rg6 Kh7 33.Rff6! Qd2! 34.Rxe6 Rf7! 35.Rg4 Rf1 36.Qe7!
Qc1! 37.Rxh6+! Qxh6 38.Rh4 white’s advantage is still big, but it would require a huge effort to find
these moves.

29.Bd3(05) 29...Qe7

30.Rf6!

The decisive attack begins.

30...Ng5

After 30...Qf8 31.Qf3! Qe7 (32.Rxh6+! was threatened) 32.Qf5! g6 33.Qh5!! Qf8 34.Bxg6 the game
would end even more quickly.

31.Rxg5! hxg5 32.Qxg5 Kg8 33.Qh4! Qa3?

The final mistake, this time in a desperate situation and, probably, with the flag hanging. Only the
cool-headed 33...Qd8 34.Qh7+ Kf8 would have required precision in attack from white, although two
equally spectacular lines would have done the job, either 35.Qh8+ Ke7 36.Qxg7 Qg8! 37.Qh6! or
35.Rf3! Rc6! 36.Bg6 Rxg6 37.Qxg6 Qe7 38.e6 f6 39.Rg3 Kg8 40.h4. Now the game ends before time
control.

34.Rf3 g6 35.Bxg6 Qxf3 36.Qh7+ Kf8 37.gxf3

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 Black resigned.

Game 12
After reviewing this fantastically beautiful game you can appreciate not only Garry’s huge talent but
that of his opponent, too. Leonid lived at first in Kiev, and then in Lvov, cities with chess traditions no
less than in Baku. In those days a great coach, Viktor Emmanuilovich Kart, trained young players
actively. This is a man who raised a swathe of grandmasters, including Beliavsky. But for some reason
little Leonid didn’t catch his eye. I witnessed how the lad attempted without success to make progress
on his own. Leonid struggled bravely but unsuccessfully. Unable to accept the collapse of his hopes he
moved to Israel and attempted to break into the chess elite there. But unsuccessfully – his time had
gone.

G. Kasparov – L. Zaid
Leningrad. Junior qualifying tournament. 10.04.1977
Sicilian Defense. [В97]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6

When he was young Garry loved this line for its maddening complications. Then came the time for
equally complex but less risky opening systems. Nevertheless, his childhood love didn’t disappear, and
already as world champion he developed his queen on b6 in a game with Ivanchuk in Linares in 1990
and won. Who will be next?

8.Qd2 Qxb2 9.Nb3 Qa3 10.Bxf6 gxf6 11.Be2 Nd7?!

The players had only used a few minutes to get to this position on the board. Young players like to
study sharp variations. Long chains of moves are easily memorized in the brain’s spare compartments.
Black’s last move is met very seldom, and arguably its sole merit is the effect of the unexpected. The
best square for the knight remains c6.

12.0-0 h5 13.Qd4(36) 13...b5 14.Nb1(26) 14...Qa4 15.c4 b4

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 16.f5(15)

Black has posed white a complicated task. After spending more than half of his time limit on his last
four moves, Garry nevertheless finds a hole in his opponent’s opening setup – the lack of control over
d4. For a time he manages to constrain black with the need to defend his kingside pawns.

16...Be7 17.fxe6 fxe6 18.N1d2 Qc6 19.a3!(07)

White starts to play across the board. In order to chase the white queen from the center black is
required to accept the challenge.

19...bxa3 20.Kh1 Rb8 21.Rxa3(10) 21...Qb6 22.Qa1!

It turns out that standing in the corner the queen is just as active as in the center. The famous creator
of chess abstractions of the past Reti would have been delighted at the play of the young Kasparov in
this game.

22...Ne5 23.c5!(12) 23...dxc5 24.Nc4 Qc7

It was better to play 24...Nxc4 25.Bxc4 Qc7 diverting the white bishop from the h5 pawn, although
white’s initiative would remain dangerous.

25.Nbd2 Nxc4 26.Nxc4 Rb4

Black wants to curb the activity of the knight on c4 with the threat to transfer the rook to d4, where it
will occupy an impregnable position. However, the king is stuck in the center, and that dooms black to
a long defense.

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 27.e5(05)

White avoids the trap 27.Rxf6? Bxf6 28.Qxf6 Rb1+! 29.Bf1 Rf8 30.Qg6+ Qf7! 31.Nd6+ Kd7!! and
instead increases the tension, sacrificing another pawn to open up files.

27...fxe5

28.Qd1?!

He would have retained a strong initiative with 28.Nxe5 Rd4 29.Nf3 e5 30.Nxd4 exd4 31.Bxa6
Garry from childhood loved beauty in chess. Now he’s tempted by the geometric beauty of the queen
maneuver Qd1-d4-a1-d1 and hence backs off at the decisive moment.
It’s amazing how mistakes sometimes are repeated. In the decisive, 24th game of the match in
Seville, Garry gained a won position with the most subtle of play and then got tempted by a similar
pretty and quite unexpected maneuver 33.Qb1-d1? (instead of winning brutally with 33.Qb1-b5).
Luckily, Karpov was too short of time to think properly and failed to find the refutation that would
have given him his crown back.

28...Bd7 29.Rxa6 h4 30.h3(05) 30...Rg8?

Zaid misses a tactic and white’s initiative once again turns dangerous. He should have played 30...Rf8
31.Bh5+ Kd8 32.Rxf8+ Bxf8 33.Rxe6 Kc8 34.Rf6 Be7. Then it would not have been easy for white to
maintain the attack.

31.Rxe6! Kd8

He mustn’t take the rook due to the deadly check by the bishop.

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 32.Rxe5 Rxc4!

A great chance in a dangerous position. Now the “obvious” 33.Bxc4 Qxe5 34.Bxg8 loses after
34...Bd6!
However, white returns the compliment in this battle of inventiveness and finds a way to strengthen
the attack. The queen’s new sortie seems to be decisive.

33.Qd5! Rxg2!

Wonderful! The modest pawn protecting the white king was stronger than a rook.

34.Bxc4!

The prosaic 34.Kxg2 Rd4 35.Qg8+ Be8 36.Rd5+ Rxd5 37.Qxd5+ Qd7 38.Qa8+ Qc8 would have
deprived white of winning chances. Kasparov’s decision looks risky, as now only pieces protect both
kings.

34...Rg3 35.Qa8+ Qc8 36.Qa5+!

The “obvious” 36.Qxc8+ Kxc8! 37.Rxe7 doesn’t work. After 37...Bc6+ 38.Kh2 Rg2+ 39.Kh1 Rg7+
40.Kh2 Rxe7 it’s white who is struggling to draw.

36...Ke8

Now after 36...Qc7 37.Qxc7+ Kxc7 38.Rxe7 check with the black bishop is impossible.

37.Bf7+ Kf8 38.Be6+ Kg7!

The retreat 38...Ke8 after 39.Bxd7+ loses by force: 39...Qxd7 40.Qa8+ Qd8 41.Qc6+ Qd7 42.Rxe7+
Kxe7 43.Qf6+ Ke8 44.Qf8# or 39...Kxd7 40.Rxe7+ Kxe7 41.Qa7+ Kd6 42.Rd1+ Kc6 43.Qa4+ Kc7
44.Qf4+ Kc6 45.Qf6+ Kb5 46.Rb1+ Kc4 47.Qxh4+.

39.Qa1!

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 39...Kh6?

Having brilliantly defended up to now, black, with his flag about to fall, cannot find the last strong
move that would have maintained equality in an amazing way: 39...Bc6+!! The white rook is locked
out of the game, and this significantly reduces the attacking potential of the other pieces: 40.Rd5+ Kh6!
41.Rf6+! (white loses after 41.Qc1+? Rg5 42.Bxc8 Bxd5+ 43.Kh2 Bd6+! 44.Rf4 Rg2+! 45.Kh1 Rc2+)
41...Bxf6 42.Qxf6+ Rg6 43.Qxh4+ Kg7, and white has to go for perpetual check.

40.Qc1+ Bg5 41.Rxg5 Qc6+ 42.Bd5 Rxh3+ 43.Kg2

Black resigned.

A great battle that both young generals should be proud of.

Game 13
During the years that I worked with Garry I played about ten training games against him with serious
time controls. I can’t recall my victories, although at the time my practical play was up to scratch. At
first I didn’t want to leave the lad feeling upset, and all our battles ended up with a peaceful outcome,
sometimes by the strangest of ways. At the end of 1978 I noticed that it was becoming increasingly
difficult to hold off the attacks by this little trickster. And once Garry began to storm the heights of
chess Olympia it became impossible to fight him off, so I invited strong grandmasters to spar with him
instead. But it wasn’t a walk in the park for them either.
I hope that the reader gains pleasure from this mind-boggling game that we played, when Garry had
been suffering from problems in the KID and he needed to figure out some of its subtleties in practice.

A. Nikitin – G. Kasparov
Baku. Training game. 21.06.1977

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 King’s Indian Defense. [E92]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 0-0 5.Nf3 d6 6.Be2 e5 7.d5 a5 8.Bg5 h6 9.Bh4 Na6 10.Nd2 Qe8
11.0-0 Nh7 12.a3 f5

Modern theory considers 12...Bd7 to be the best move, and only if white plays 13.b3 should black
send the f-pawn into battle.

13.f3

Two years later the Estonian master Aleksander Veingold scored a sensational win against Garry
playing 13.exf5 Bxf5 14.g4! Bd7?! 15.Nde4. However, black’s loss in that game had nothing to do
with his opening strategy. I decided to try a setup where each player would attack on its “own” flank
and a typical battle to be first would arise.

13...Bd7 14.b3 f4 15.Qb1!?

This queen maneuver helps to launch a queenside pawn attack, and also creates conditions for...
white’s 26th move.

15...g5 16.Bf2 h5 17.b4 g4 18.c5

The big maneuvering has ended, and black begins the fight with a rapid and effective attack.

18...g3! 19.hxg3 Qg6! 20.c6 fxg3 21.cxd7 Bh6! 22.Nc4 Bf4! 23.Nxa5 Qg5! 24.Bxa6 Be3! 25.Rd1!
Bxf2+ 26.Kf1

By retreating to b1, my queen, as it turned out, opened a path for my king to evacuate from his

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burning fortress. Now black needs to regroup, and I tried to take advantage of the time spent on that.

26...bxa6 27.Nc6 Bb6 28.Rd3 Nf6 29.d8=Q Raxd8 30.Nxd8 Rxd8 31.Qc1 Qg7 32.Ke2 h4 33.Qh1
Qg5 34.Kd1 Kg7 35.Qh3 Ng8 36.Ne2 Ne7 37.Rc1 Ng6 38.Rdc3 Qe7 39.Qg4 Rf8 40.Kd2 Kh6

41.Nxg3! (the sealed move)

Gaining experience in analyzing adjourned positions was also part of our training program. I gave
him four hours for analysis, during which the opponents would both write down variations, so that we
could then compare the quality of our analytical work. Once the game was over, we unexpectedly
noticed that there was nothing to compare. Garry, considering his position better, hadn’t even
considered my sealed move.
The events on the board after the resumption continued to resemble a wild western film.

41...hxg3 42.Rh1+ Kg7 43.Rh5 Qf6 44.Rf5 Qh4 45.Qxh4 Nxh4 46.Rg5+ Kf6 47.Rxg3 a5 48.Rc1
axb4 49.axb4 Ra8 50.Rg4 Rh8 51.Kd3 Ng6 52.g3 Rh2 53.Rf1 Rh8 54.Kc4 Be3 55.Kd3 Ba7 56.Kc4
Rh2 57.Kb5 Kf7 58.f4 exf4 59.gxf4 Ne7 60.f5 Rh8 61.Ka6 Bd4 62.Kb7 Rh3 63.Kxc7 Rc3+!
64.Kb7! Rb3 65.Rh1 Rxb4+ 66.Kc7 Be5 67.Rh7+ Ke8 68.Rgh4 Bf6

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 69.Kxd6 Bxh4 70.Rxh4 Nxf5+ 71.Kc5 Nxh4 72.Kxb4

Draw agreed.

Even training games with one’s pupils should only be played when the coach can count on success.
Otherwise there is the risk not so much of losing credibility, but losing the distance which should
always remain in the relations between coach and pupils, if he wants them to consider him to be their
teacher.
Game 14
Once again, the sports leadership didn’t let me travel abroad with Garry and I had to make do with
writing instructions that he should follow at the tournament:
There are several players at the tournament who ought to play as strongly as you, if only because
they are a couple of years older and, therefore, more experienced. Moreover, they have greater
physical endurance, which will make itself felt by the end.
Don’t count on your advantage in calculating lines – it’s not reliable, as many people calculate well
when they are young. And don’t rely on an advantage in opening knowledge. Your main rivals almost
certainly have a good memory and know quite a lot, especially about their pet openings.
Your main strengths, which should deliver points at the tournament, are your positional
understanding and endgame technique, which became considerably better after a year of independent
study as well as sessions at the Botvinnik school. Therefore, play solidly, with minimum risk. In a battle
over “understanding” the majority of your opponents will create problems for themselves.
In this key game (with the eventual winner) Garik really did play as instructed.

J. Arnason – G. Kasparov
Cannes. World Cadet Championships. 15.09.1977

105
 Sicilian Defense. [В85]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be2 a6 7.a4 Nc6 8.Be3 Be7 9.0-0 0-0 10.f4
Qc7 11.Kh1 Rd8

Now Garry only plays 11...Re8 here. This line of the Scheveningen became a key Kasparov weapon
and could perfectly well bear his name, given the huge theoretical contribution that the current world
champion has made to it.

12.Qe1 Nxd4 13.Bxd4 e5 14.fxe5 dxe5 15.Be3 Be6 16.Qg3 Qa5 17.Rad1 Rxd1 18.Rxd1 Rd8
19.Rxd8+ Bxd8

Garry’s opponent led the table, a point ahead of him, and it was easy to understand why Garry
wanted to liquidate this difference.
The strategy of how to play for a win is misunderstood by the majority of young players, who think
that it means forcing events, even if it means breaking the fundamental laws of chess. Usually, such an
approach leads to the players heading for a loss. From the very beginning of our lessons, Garry was
made to understand that a win could only come from an error-free game with maximum concentration
of attention and desire. As a result, he became a big specialist at bringing games to their logical
conclusion.
In this case, coming upon his opponent’s clear intent of taking the sting out of the game with a quick
draw, he didn’t get nervous, didn’t try to make the game sharper at any price, and instead looked for
ways to accrue small advantages while not being afraid of transposing to the endgame.

20.Bh6 g6 21.h3 Bb6!

Black’s pieces have imperceptibly started to gain an initiative. The b4 square, to which the queen is

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heading, turns out to be a weakness in the white camp. It’s clear that black first needs to protect the
pawn on e5, placing the bishop on d4 for this purpose.

22.Be3 Bd4 23.Qf2! Bxe3 24.Qxe3 Qb4 25.b3

The exchange of the dark-squared bishops hasn’t changed the position’s evaluation, as now the queen
transfers from the flank to the center, and instead of worrying about the pawn on b2 white has to worry
about the more important pawn on e4.

25...Qd4!

Unusual wisdom for a 14-year-old. White suddenly finds himself in zugzwang. I wish to flatter
myself with the hope that during the game Garik recalled my instructions.

26.Qd3 Kg7! 27.Bf1

After 27.Kh2 h5 28.Bf1 h4 29.Be2 g5 white is also short of useful moves.

27...Nh5! 28.Qf3

The queen exchange 28.Qxd4 loses the e4 pawn after 28...Ng3+! 29.Kg1 exd4 30.Ne2 Nxe2+
31.Bxe2 Kf6 32.Kf2 Ke5 33.Bd3 f6 34.Kf3 Bd7 (then Bc6 and f5).

28...Qd2! 29.Qd3 Qf2 30.Kh2 Nf4!

After ten fairly innocuous-looking moves white has been totally outplayed.

31.Qf3 Qxc2

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 He could have won a pawn with 31...Nxh3 32.Qxf2 Nxf2 33.Kg3 Ng4, but black correctly decides
to retain an active queen.

32.Nd5 Bxd5 33.exd5 Qd2! 34.Bc4

White could have resisted much better with 34.d6! Qxd6 35.Qxb7 a5! 36.Qa6 Qd2! 37.Qb5,
although after 37...f6 38.Qb7+ Kh6 39.Qf7 Qf2! black should win.

34...f5 35.Qg3 h6

White is in zugzwang. Agony begins with the loss of a second pawn.

36.d6 Qxd6 37.Qc3 Nh5 38.Be2 Nf6 39.Qc8 e4+ 40.Kh1 Qe7!

White resigned.

Impressive positional work by black!

As I feared, Garry didn’t have enough strength to win at the finale. He ended the tournament with
three draws, as a result of which two 16-year-old rivals overtook him.
Game 15
In childhood, Garry and Elmar strode along the same chess path – they studied together at the
Pioneers Palace chess circle, played for the same team, and competed in tournaments. However, at the
start of 1978 Garry’s tournament results shot up like a missile, and their rivalry came to an end,
although their friendship continued. They continued to see each other frequently when Garry returned
to Baku, and they could trust each other in discussions of professional subjects interesting to high-class
players. And when in 1986, during the Leningrad half of the world championship match, Garry
urgently needed to fill the gaps in his team of seconds, he called upon his old friend to help. In 1992 the
handsome and modest Elmar finally became a GM.
This game sort of rounded off 1977, ending our hero’s first stage as a pupil in his chess career.

E. Magerramov – G. Kasparov
Baku. Training game. 10.12.1977
Queen’s Gambit. [D58]

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 e6 3.c4 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 0-0 6.e3 h6 7.Bh4 b6 8.Qb3 Bb7 9.Bxf6 Bxf6 10.cxd5
exd5 11.Rd1

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 Around a week before this game I received another letter from Baku, in which the lad wrote that the
following idea had come to him: “...I’m sending you my creation so that you can give it a more sober
assessment than I can. I really want to test the value of the idea in a game with a master, and I’m
waiting impatiently for a convenient occasion to present itself....” Well, just such a situation
unexpectedly presented itself straight away.

11...c5! 12.dxc5 Nd7!?

The theory of this gambit idea has since become known after the moves 11...Re8 12.Bd3, the addition
of which is definitely good for black, as his rook takes up an active position, and after 12...c5 13.dxc5
Nd7! 14.cxb6 he has the tactic 14...d4! Garry knows the subtleties of this opening system well and can
play it for either color. The practical use gained from his training game with Elmar was something he
experienced a year later in the Higher League of the adult USSR championship, when he played white
against Beliavsky.

13.c6!?

Prior to the game Garry had only looked at the line 13.cxb6 d4! 14.Nxd4 Qxb6. He didn’t pay
attention to other, “less interesting” lines. This analytical sin of his was one that he retained for years
and was cured only with great pain. It’s sufficient to recall his first defeat in his third game against
Karpov in the 1984 match.
Having run up against an unexpected line, Elmar relies not only on his understanding of the position
but also his common sense and refuses the accept the pawn sac, guessing that this is the line that his
crafty opponent looked at above all.

13...Bxc6 14.Nd4?!

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 White underestimates the danger from his king remaining in the center. Instead of playing 14.Be2
and quickly castling and only then thinking about besieging the d5 pawn, he loses time. Another option
that was probably worthwhile trying in a training game was to capture the central pawn with 14.Nxd5!?
and the approximate continuation 14...Nc5 15.Nxf6+ Qxf6 16.Qc3 Qxc3+ 17.bxc3 Na4 18.Rc1.
After the game, Garry analyzed several similar positions with the counter sacrifice c5-c6, and when
during the Higher League Beliavsky after 11.Rd1 Re8 12.Bd3 c5 13.dxc5 played in Kasparov style
13...Nd7 the latter followed the already familiar path of 14.c6! Bxc6 15.0-0! Nc5 16.Qa3 and gradually
converted his opening advantage into a full point.
The richness of ideas behind the pawn sac c7-c5 and counter sac c5-c6 means that this setup is a
decent way to fight for a win in competitions of any level.

14...Bxd4!

Brilliant! In game 4 of the 1985 match the challenger Kasparov was wrong in a similar position to
reject such an exchange and lost to the reigning champion. At 14, Garry’s thoughts were more concrete
and fresher.

15.Rxd4?

White doesn’t notice the danger, otherwise he would have chosen 15.exd4 and after 15...Qg5 16.g3
Rfe8+ 17.Be2 he would have gradually equalled chances with accurate defense. The decision to be
consistent in carrying out this typical strategic ploy is what loses the game.

15...Nc5! 16.Qd1 Ne6! 17.Rd2 d4!

In just three moves black has taken control over the central square and converted his isolated d5

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pawn into a dangerous battering ram.

18.exd4 Re8 19.f3

White looks doomed to disaster given his lagging development and king stuck in the center, and he
tries to get out of the situation at the cost of his pawn. He had a relatively better chance with 19.d5,
although after 19...Nf4+ 20.Be2 Nxg2+ 21.Kf1 Bd7! 22.h4 Nf4 23.Bg4 Bxg4 24.Qxg4 Qf6 white’s
pieces are devoid of coordination.

In giving back the d4 pawn, white wants to maintain an unbroken pawn structure on the kingside and
complete his development, for example: 19...Nxd4+ 20.Kf2 Qh4+ 21.g3 Qf6 22.Rxd4 Bxf3 23.Qxf3
Qxd4+ 24.Kg2 Rad8 25.Bb5. However, he now faces cruel but spectacular disappointment.

19...Bxf3!!

Here is payback for white’s inconsistent opening play. White cannot avoid being crushed by forcing
moves.

20.gxf3 Qh4+ 21.Rf2 Nxd4+ 22.Be2 Nxf3+ 23.Kf1 Qh3+ 24.Rg2 Nh4 25.Rg1 Rad8 26.Qe1

He cannot save the game. After 26.Qa4 (with the idea of 27.Qg4) the outcome is most easily settled
with 26...Nf5! 27.Qf4 Rd4! 28.Qf3 (28.Qf2 Rd2!) 28...Ne3+ 29.Kf2 Qh4+ 30.Qg3 Qf6+ 31.Bf3 Rd2+
32.Ke1 Rxg2! 33.Rxg2 Nf5+. However, white should still have tried this line, as his pieces can still
move and battle. Now he finds himself totally stuck.

26...Rd3! 27.Qf2 Nf3! 28.Rh1

The only move to prevent an immediate collapse, for example: 28.Nd5 Rd1+!! 29.Bxd1 Nh2# or

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28.Qg3 Nd2+! 29.Ke1 Rxg3 30.Rxg3 Nf3+ 31.Kf2 Nxg1! 32.Rxh3 Nxh3+ and so on.

28...Rde3!

Now white is doomed to await his fate without resistance.

29.Rg1 Kh8 30.Rh1

30...b5!!

A devastating blow. After 31.a3 a5 32.Rg1 b4 33.axb4 axb4 34.Nd1 Rxe2 black tears his opponent
apart. There is no point in continuing and so white resigned.

(9) They did play as adults against each other after this book was written (publisher’s note)
(10) According to Kasparov’s book Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov: Part I this game was dated
16.10.1976 (publisher’s note)

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 Game 16
Sergei Yuferov was considered one of the favorites at the tournament in Minsk. His opening
knowledge was widespread. He particularly liked to play white against the KID. After the first ten or so
moves he was probably thinking he had got lucky having gained such a position against his
inexperienced opponent. Naturally, he didn’t suspect that this was the favorite opening of the lad sitting
opposite him. Just as many children could sit for hours without putting a detective story down, Garik
could sit for evenings on end looking at KID positions, unravelling detective chess stories visible only
to him and creating new ones.
He only started to create something new on this occasion after the players had completed 27 moves!

S. Yuferov – G. Kasparov
Minsk. Sokolsky Memorial. 08.01.1978
King’s Indian Defense. [E98]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Nf3 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1 Nd7 10.Nd3
f5 11.Bd2 Nf6 12.f3 f4 13.c5 g5 14.cxd6 cxd6 15.Nf2 Ng6

One of the standard KID brain-teasers, that has forced more than one generation of players to suffer.
The massive tournament practice allowing the label of “theory” to be placed against lines that continue
for 25-30 moves, accompanied by the inevitable assessment “a complex battle with mutual chances”,
promises this tabia a long life.
I can’t avoid telling an amusing story that grew from scratch before my very eyes in 1990 during a
clock simul given by Grandmaster Neverov for pupils of the Petrosian school. Playing black on one of
the ten boards was world U12 champion Boris Avrukh from Karaganda. Here’s how that game
continued: 16.Qc2 h5 17.h3 Rf7 18.Rfc1 Ne8 19.a4 Nh4 20.Qd1 Bd7 21.Be1 Bf6! 22.Nb5 Qb8!
23.Rc3 Bd8! 24.b4 Bb6 25.a5 Be3 26.Ra2 a6 27.Na3 Nf6 28.Nc4 Bd4 29.Nb6 g4! Here white lost on

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time, but even an extra hour wouldn’t have helped him here. The lad was confidently directing a fierce
storm.
By the way, it was noticed a long time ago that the vast majority of leading players were big fans of
the KID in their childhood.

16.a4 Rf7 17.Nb5 h5 18.h3 Bf8 19.Qc2 a6 20.Na3 Rg7 21.Rfc1 Nh4 22.Qd1 Bd7 23.Nc4 g4
24.hxg4 hxg4

It’s only here that known theory ended. Beyond this point the 14-year-old’s notebook contained the
following short line that he had developed...

25.fxg4 Nxg2! 26.Kxg2 Nxg4 27.Bxg4 Bxg4

... with the conclusion that black had a strong attack for the sacrificed material. His home analysis
ended at this point. So it’s no surprise that by the time this position was reached black had used up just
23 minutes.
You might ask: what’s the point of studying an opening so deeply and thereby reducing the field in
which chess abilities can be developed? I confess, it was me who convinced the boy to study opening
setups that encompassed the early middlegame, which is as a rule distinguished by a high degree of
complications and the choice of several equally worthwhile plans. As a result of that work he improved
not only his openings but his ability to play super complicated middlegame positions, sharpening
attacking and defensive ploys that could be applied not only in the setups analyzed.
By the way, the great children’s teacher and coach Vladimir Zak, who trained ten or so Leningrad
lads up to master level (including Spassky, Korchnoi and Lutikov) successfully applied a similar
approach to strengthening his pupils’ calculation ability.
Garik had several opening setups which he would analyze deeply with great pleasure. That way, there

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was no need for “planned” exercises on many middlegame positions that would be boring for a 12-14-
year-old child. In respect of other openings included in his repertoire “in case of need” Garry possessed
perfectly standard knowledge. However, here another of his qualities shone. He had an extremely deep
memory, one which was sharp and naturally well organized, which enabled him to quickly extract the
required line from his storage.

28.Qxg4!

It’s only here that Garry thought deeply for the first time. The attack on the king that he had prepared
earlier (again, at home!) with 28.Nxg4 Qh4! 29.Qh1 Rxg4+ 30.Kf3 Rg3+ 31.Ke2 Qg4+ had not
occurred, and he now had to adjust to the fact that a more complicated battle would ensue.

28...Rxg4+(07) 29.Nxg4 Rc8!(07)

Black prevents the rook on c1 from being transferred to the kingside and at the same time plans to
send his most powerful piece to g7.

30.Nh2

30.Na5 is met by the strong 30...Qh4! 31.Nf2 Qg3+ 32.Kf1 f3! but 30.Be1 loses after 30...Qg5
31.Kh3 Qh5+ 32.Bh4 Be7. White finds a good defensive plan.

30...Qh4(09)

31.Rc3!

This rook has to be moved! After 31.Ra3? b5 32.axb5 axb5 33.Nb6 Rxc1 34.Bxc1 Qe1! 35.Rc3

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Qxe4+ the advance of the e5 pawn destroys white’s defenses.

31...Rc7!(08) 32.Rg1

It’s not that easy for white to defend himself from the mating attack on the g-file. He cannot
strengthen his defense with 32.Kh1 due to 32...Qf2! 33.Rf1 Qd4!! So he has to accept the exchange of
rooks.

32...Rg7+ 33.Kh1 Rxg1+ 34.Kxg1 Qh7

None of the four pieces can defend the e4 pawn, and if it dies then so will the pawn on d5. White
cannot play 35.Ng4 due to 35...Qg6. After long hesitations white takes an extreme measure. He hopes
to save the game by building a fortress.

35.Bxf4 exf4 36.Nd2

Transferring the knight to f3 strengthens white’s position. Alas, he is one chess tempo short of a
happy end and cannot keep up with the pace of his skillful opponent.

36...Qd7!(03)

A surprisingly multi-plan move. The queen prevents the rook from breaking through along the c-file
and prevents the knight from getting into the game via g4, while at the same time threatening to capture
the a4 pawn.

37.Rc4 Bg7(06) 38.b3 Bd4+!(11)

This brilliant bishop transfer prevents white from coordinating his pieces. After 39.Rxd4 Qg7+ the

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mobility of the black queen, carrying out wonders along the mind-boggling route h4-h7-d7-g7, is most
impressive.

39.Kh1 Bc5! 40.Ndf3 b5!(22)

This destroys white’s defenses on the fourth rank.

The rest of the events on the board don’t warrant comments. The young winner’s technique of
converting an advantage into a win was still far from ideal, but he deserved this win: all’s well that ends
well.

41.Rc2?! Qe8?! 42.Rg2+ Kf8 43.Ng5 Qh5 44.Ne6+ Ke7 45.Rg7+ Kf6 46.Rg4 bxa4 47.bxa4 Be3
48.Nxf4 Bxf4 49.Rxf4+ Ke7 50.Kg2 Qd1 51.Ng4 Qxa4 52.Ne3 a5 53.Nf5+ Kd7 54.Rh4 Qc2+
55.Kf3 a4 56.Rh7+ Kd8 57.Ra7 Qd3+ 58.Ne3 a3 59.Kf4 Qb3 60.Nf5 Qb2

White resigned.

Game 17
The depths of Garik’s opening knowledge, already demonstrated by him in the first round, had put
his rivals on alert. The next opponent, also an experienced master, decided to confuse the boy with a
rare opening system and at the same time examine his understanding of the position. The lad withstood
the test brilliantly. He did everything on time and, most importantly, properly, and it was the examiner
who blinked first. The outcome of the game was decided by two daring interventions by white pawns
that had previously been defending their king. If the first of these (which was objectively dubious)
befuddled the master, then the second, which was particularly daring and unexpected, shocked and
broke him.
Botvinnik loved this game.

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 G. Kasparov – A. Roizman
Minsk. Sokolsky Memorial. 09.01.1978
Spanish Opening. [C61]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Nxd4 exd4 5.0-0

He could have prevented the bishop from developing to c5 by playing 5.Bc4, however, after 5...Nf6
6.0-0 (or 6.Qe2 Bc5 7.e5 0-0 8.0-0 d5!) 6...Nxe4 7.Bxf7+ Kxf7 8.Qh5+ g6 9.Qd5+ Kg7 10.Qxe4 it’s
too early to talk of any advantage for white.

5...Bc5 6.d3 c6 7.Bc4(07) 7...d6 8.f4 Nf6 9.e5 dxe5

Black doesn’t want to damage his pawn structure with 9...Nd5 10.Bxd5 cxd5, although the exchange
of this important bishop would have equalized the players’ chances after 11.exd6 0-0. He selects a
different, more committal way of getting rid of the white Spanish bishop, hoping that the problems
ensuing from losing the ability to castle and the worsening of his pawn structure will be compensated
by the activity of his bishops and counterplay along the g-file. However, such a strategy is extremely
risky, as any imprecise move could lead to the dynamic factors disappearing, while his static
weaknesses would remain.

10.Bxf7+ Kxf7 11.fxe5 Qd5! 12.exf6

But not 12.Qh5+?? Kg8! 13.Rxf6 gxf6 14.Qe8+ Bf8 and black emerges a rook to the good.

12...gxf6

White’s prospects in the upcoming battle are determined by the level of safety of the black king’s

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bunker and the unclear fate of the pawn island on f6, which could become a target of attack. However,
to convert these prospects into something real, energetic and coordinated action of the white pieces is
required... and some help from the opponent.

13.Nd2! Rg8 14.Ne4 Be7 15.Bf4(06) 15...Rg6 16.Qe2(13) 16...Bg4 17.Qf2 Rag8

The doubling of his rooks is an important element in black’s strategy. However, if the attack on g2
fails, then black’s maneuvering will turn out to have been a waste of time. Therefore, he should have
considered an alternative setup – retreating the king to g8 and transferring the queen’s rook to f8 or e8.
In this case, all of black’s pieces would have occupied decent positions, his king’s bunker would have
been relatively safe, and chances in the game would have been about equal.

18.Rae1!

White displays absolutely no fear in his moves. Ignoring black’s demonstration of his armed forces,
the Baku schoolboy calmly brings the final piece to the expected battlefield.

18...h5?

This advance turns out to be a mistake. The logic of black’s aggressive plan forces him to push his
pawn forward, with the aim of preventing the white pieces from establishing themselves on g3.
However, black again chose risk over prudence, and this time he’s overdone things. Instead of
removing his king from the burning f-file with 18...Kg7 19.Qh4 Kh8, black destroys his monarch’s
faint hopes of being protected by a pawn bunker. Now black has to worry about protecting his majesty.

19.Bg5!?(09)

White’s first firm tactic is spectacular and aimed at the defense’s weakest spot. Moreover, the bishop

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blocks the g-file for a while.
However, there was another interesting and just as effective way to get to the f6 pawn, the spectacular
19.Bd6!? with an advantageous continuation for white, as can be seen in the following variations:
19...Bh3? 20.Ng5+! Rxg5 21.Rxe7+! or 19...Bxd6 20.Nxf6 Bxh2+! 21.Kh1! Bg3! 22.Re7+!! Kf8
23.Nxd5+! Bxf2 24.Rxf2+ or 19...Bd8 20.c4! dxc3 21.Qxa7! Qb5 22.Bc5! or 19...Be6 20.Bxe7!
Rxg2+ 21.Qxg2 Rxg2+ 22.Kxg2 Kxe7 23.Kg1! Kd8! 24.Rxf6 Kc7 25.Rg6

19...Qd8?!

It’s hard to give black good advice here. He immediately loses after both 19...Rxg5 due to 20.Nxf6!
Qf5 21.Nxg4! Qxf2+ 22.Rxf2+ Ke8 (22...Kg6 23.Re6+) 23.Nf6+ and 19...Bh3 20.Nxf6! Qxg2+ (or
20...Bxf6 21.Qxf6+!! Rxf6 22.Rxf6+ Kg7 23.Re7+ Kh8 24.Rh6#) 21.Qxg2 Bxg2 22.Rxe7+! Kxe7
23.Nxg8#. The lesser evil seems to be 19...Be6 20.h4 Ke8, but here after 21.Bxf6! white’s advantage is
clear, after both 21...Rxg2+ 22.Qxg2 Rxg2+ 23.Kxg2 Bxf6 24.Rxf6 and 21...Bxf6 22.Nxf6+ Rxf6!
23.Rxe6+! Qxe6 24.Qxf6 Qxf6 25.Rxf6 Rg4 26.Rh6 Rxh4 27.Rh7 b5 28.Rxa7
The queen’s retreat from an active position to deep defense signifies acknowledgement that black’s
defensive strategy has collapsed, after which the positional risk from black’s plan starts to make itself
felt.

20.Qf4 Be6 21.h4(37)

In order to opt for such a step, you need either precise calculation or the daring of youth, as now the
bishop has no way back. Moreover, g4 is weakened, and black pieces may appear on this square. White
had a more solid and threatening attacking plan with the regrouping 21.Re2 Kg7 22.Bh4 Bd5 23.Ng3!
and if 23...Rg4 then 24.Rxe7+! Qxe7 25.Qxg4+! hxg4 26.Nf5+ with a clear advantage in the endgame.

21...Bd5?

Black places his bishop on a fantastic position, without suspecting that loss over g4 will prove to be
fatal. Only returning the bishop to its now strengthened outpost on 21...Bg4 would have maintained
fighting tension, as it’s unclear how white can increase pressure on f6 while keeping his bishop alive.
The lines 22.Bh6 Re8! 23.Ng5+ Kg8 24.Ne6 Bxe6 25.Rxe6 Qd5! 26.Re4 f5 27.Re2 Kh7! 28.Bf8
Bxf8! and 22.Nf2 Bd6! 23.Qd2 (23.Qe4 Re8=) 23...fxg5 24.Nxg4+ Kg7 25.Nf6 gxh4 26.Nxg8 h3
27.Re2 Qh4 show that black’s defensive potential was far from exhausted.

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 22.g4!!(05)

This move is shocking in its audacity, and at the same time is logical and quite spectacular. The
daring pawn is not only poisoned due to 22...hxg4 23.h5! Bxe4 24.hxg6+ Bxg6 25.Qe5! but threatens
further damage to the defensive walls with 23.gxh5. Black’s position now collapses like a house of
cards.

22...Kg7

Black is also in dire trouble after 22...Bxe4 23.Qxe4! hxg4 24.Qe6+ Kf8 25.Bf4 g3 26.h5 Rg4
27.Bh6+. He could have drawn out the resistance with 22...Rh8, for which Kasparov had prepared
23.Bxf6! Bxf6! (23...Rxg4+ 24.Qxg4 hxg4 25.Bxe7+ Kxe7 26.Nc5+) 24.g5 Bxe4 25.Rxe4 Kg7
26.Re6 Rf8 27.Kh2 with a big advantage.

23.gxh5 fxg5 24.Qe5+ Kh6 25.hxg6 gxh4 26.Rf5 Kxg6

26...Rxg6+ leaves black crushed by 27.Kf2 Bg5 28.Nxg5 Rxg5 29.Rxg5 Qxg5 30.Qh8+ Kg6
31.Rg1. Black instead chose a quicker death.

27.Kh2

Black resigned. He cannot prevent 28.Rg1+ Kh7 29.Rh5#.

Game 18
This was the third incredible start in a row by Garry. International Master Mikhail Shereshevsky is a
strong player with an original style. When players who value originality in play meet, their battle
promises to be interesting. This game was fantastic, indeed, but the psychological subtext of the clash

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was the most interesting aspect of all.

M. Shereshevsky – G. Kasparov
Minsk. Sokolsky Memorial. 11.01.1978
Queen’s Pawn Opening. [A48]

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Bf4 Bg7 4.e3 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.0-0 c5 7.Nc3 b6 8.h3 Na6(13) 9.Re1 Nc7 10.Bf1
Bb7 11.Bh2 Nd7(13)

With his previous crushing attacks Garry had made his rivals not only respect him, but fear him.
Therefore, white chooses a waiting opening strategy where his tenacious opponent will not find
concrete targets for counterplay.

12.a4?!

Garry spent around 40 minutes on his last few, quite good moves. This provoked the experienced
master into sharply changing the nature of the battle through an unexpected pawn sac, in order to
extend his opponent’s time deficit.

12...Bxf3 13.Qxf3 cxd4 14.exd4 Bxd4

An unpleasant surprise for the sacrificer – his young opponent takes the central pawn without
hesitation. It became clear that he had mastered the fundamentals of positional evaluation (you should
capture central pawns if you don’t see concrete difficulties), and this enabled him to take critical
decisions without calculating complex variations.

15.Rad1 Ne6(07) 16.Bg3 Rc8(13) 17.Nd5!?

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 Continuing to complicate the game, white pours petrol on the fire. After a long hesitation Garry
rejects the prudent 17...Kg7 and takes an apparently risky but ultimately correct decision.

17...Bxb2!(45!)

In Kasparov’s playing career there have probably only been ten or so moves where he has spent so
long thinking. Black needed to evaluate exactly how risky it was to cut off his bishop from his main
forces.

18.c3! Ne5! 19.Bxe5 dxe5

Now the idea of defense is clear. Black is willing to give up his queen for equivalent material,
depriving white as a result of his most active pieces. Often, I would jokingly try to convince Garik that
the queen was the weakest piece, as it has to run away from any attack. During our training sessions I
even managed to play several games with him where I successfully managed to get rid of this “weak”
piece. Here’s one of them, played not long before the departure for Minsk (I was black): 1.c4 Nf6
2.Nf3 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Qb3 Nb6 6.d4 Bg7 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bh4 Be6 9.Qc2 Nc6 10.Rd1 0-0
11.d5 Nb4 12.Qc1 N6xd5 13.Nxd5 Bxd5 14.e4 Bxe4!! 15.Rxd8 Rfxd8 16.Be2 Nd3+ 17.Bxd3 Bxd3
18.Bxe7 Rd7 19.Bc5 Re8+ 20.Be3 f5 21.g3 g5 22.h4 f4 23.hxg5 fxe3 24.fxe3 hxg5 25.Nxg5 Bd4
26.Qd1 Rxe3+ 27.Kd2 Rxg3 28.Qb3+ Kg7 29.Ne6+ Kf6 30.Nxd4 Rxd4 31.Qc3 Rg4 32.Kc1 Kg6
33.b3 Rc4 34.bxc4 Rxc4 35.Kb2 Rxc3 36.Kxc3. Draw agreed.
Such training games helped Garry from childhood to shed his awe in face of the queen’s magical
force, and he began to consider variations involving queen sacs just like any others.

19...dxe5

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 20.Rxe5!

White decides to maintain tension in the battle and to keep his intentions hidden, as his opponent had
just 30 minutes left to make time control. The blunt force 20.Nf6+ exf6 21.Rxd8 Rfxd8 22.Qxf6 Bxc3
or 20.Re2 Ba3 21.Nf6+ exf6 22.Rxd8 Rfxd8 23.Qxf6 Rd1 24.Rxe5 (24.Qxe5 Bd6) 24...Nf8 25.Qf3
Rc1 26.Re3 Bc5 27.Rd3 Re8 28.Rd1 Re1 gave black sufficient compensation for the queen.

20...Kg7

Garry made this move instantly and... offered a draw, which surprised many observers. Everybody
who later attempted to explain the discrepancy between the daring of black’s last moves and the
unexpected proposal to end the game peacefully made an assumption about the unusual practicality of
the lad, who at that point was suffering from insufficient time to think through his moves.
However, the actual reason was deeper and not so obvious. From a young age Garik had striven to
play super complicated chess, and this was always approved of. For as long as he treated chess like a
game, without thinking about points and places, everything went well. He treated the assessment of a
position as “dangerous” to mean an order to charge forward, and he would go in for any fight on the
board. However, with the sporting element increasingly impeding on his child’s game chess, the
subconscious fear of blundering could appear from somewhere deep inside. It appeared very rarely,
usually at the most tense moments of the battle. As a rule, it was Garry who lit the fire of battle, and did
so with gusto. However, nervous tension sometimes got the better of him, after which anxiety would
suddenly take hold of him, though he was unable to identify either its reason or the precise moment that
it appeared. This rush of involuntary fear might just as suddenly disappear or it might unexpectedly and
involuntarily force him to offer a draw, as though protecting the player from an unknown danger.
No, Garry was never a coward. The majority of grandmasters start playing Big Chess gradually,
slowly but surely getting their body used to the huge pressure. However, he didn’t do that – he flew

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into Big Chess, suddenly and too early, when his nervous system hadn’t yet adapted to massive and
almost constant pressure. This led to a distinct form of sporting trauma, to which not only chess players
are exposed – overloaded nerves are characteristic of many types of sport.
There are two ways to address this ailment. The first is to change your focus to some other activity,
for example to take a break from the sport for some time, maybe a year. But usually a sportsman
doesn’t want to do this and cannot. The second way is to sharply increase work on improving playing
style and eliminating errors, including psychological ones. That will enable you to gain confidence in
your abilities and realize that you know how to do everything and are capable of doing so. This will
enable you to chase any doubts and fears deep inside your body, but, alas, not forever. You need
continuous self-improvement to prevent confidence from deserting you.

21.Nf4

Shereshevsky rejected the peace offering, having decided that his opponent was unhappy with both
the approaching time scramble and his position. The master again avoids settling the position that
would have occurred had he captured the black queen: 21.Nf6 exf6 22.Rxd8 Rfxd8 and certainly didn’t
want to allow the gradual equalizing of chances with 21.Rxe6 fxe6 22.Nf4 Rxf4 23.Rxd8 Rxf3 24.Rxc8
Rxc3 25.Rxc3 Bxc3 26.Bc4 Kf7 27.Kf1 Kf6 28.Ke2 Bd4 29.f3. Instead he took a risk and went for a
line requiring precise calculation and bravery from black.
This was a serious psychological mistake. Having got his draw offer rejected the lad lost his excuse
for hesitation and doubt and was again forced into hard calculations, due to which he forget about the
anxiety that had suddenly hit him. His variations soon convinced him that black was fine, and Garry
calmed down just as suddenly. He didn’t even mention the peace proposal after the game.

21...Rxc3!(05)

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 Such a move is found by a process of elimination, as the alternative was the depressing retreat
21...Qe8, which after 22.Rxe6 fxe6 23.Nxe6+ Kg8 24.Nxf8 Qxf8 leads to a position where white faces
no risks.

22.Nxe6+

White could still sharply turn the wheel and attempt to draw with 22.Rxd8 Rxf3 23.Nxe6+ fxe6
24.Rxf8 Rxf8 25.Rxe6 Ba3 26.Bb5 Bc5 27.Re2 e5 28.g4 Bd4 29.Kg2, although with rooks on the
board the path to equality was still a long one.

22...fxe6 23.Qe2 Qc7! 24.Rxe6 Ba3

It’s now clear that white was wrong to reject the exchange of queens. His own threats turned out to be
mirages and the weakness of f2 remains a fatal reality.

25.Qd2 Rf4!(05)

Black’s major pieces have suddenly started to work in a surprisingly coordinated and effective
manner. The rook not only controls d4, but prevents the exchange of queens with 26.Qd7 due to the
loss of the a4 pawn.

26.Rde1 Rc2!

It was perfectly possible to feast on the pawn with 26...Rxa4 27.Qg5 Qf4! but black concentrates his
aim at f2.

27.Qd1!

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 27...Qc5!(05)

A fearsome blow, destroying white’s defenses.

28.Rxe7+ Kh6 29.R7e2 Rxf2 30.Kh1 Rfxe2! 31.Bxe2

Capturing with the rook by 31.Rxe2 leads to a completely hopeless endgame: 31...Rc1 32.Qd2+ Qg5
33.Qxg5+ Kxg5 34.Rf2 Bc5 35.Rf7 Ra1 36.Kh2 h5! White doesn’t want to drop to his knees and is
executed standing up.

31...Qf2! 32.Kh2 Qf4+

White resigned. 33.Kh1 is best met by simply grabbing material 33...Rc1.

A titanic battle!
Game 19
Young, full of ambition, and striving to join the grandmaster elite, Alexander Panchenko posed his
young opponent an unpleasant psychological problem. He followed the same opening line as
Yermolinsky, who had defeated Garik a year earlier. Garry was an exception, and far from everybody
comes home and tries to find a refutation in their opponent’s plan, and hence when repeating an
unfortunate opening line most people instead content themselves with a back-up and most often less
promising continuation. Alexander wanted to check the quality of the lad’s homework and did so
expressly and assertively move by move.

G. Kasparov – A. Panchenko
Daugavpils. All-Union Qualifying Tournament. 28.06.1978
Sicilian Defense. [В67]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.0-0-0 Bd7 9.f4 b5
10.Nxc6(07)

Naturally, Garry had analyzed in detail the game that he lost to Yermolinsky. He figured out that the
opening wasn’t to blame and so didn’t return to it. Now, under the tick-tock of the chess clock, he had
to recall at the very least the ideas from one-year-old analysis and find the variations to match.

10...Bxc6 11.Bd3(06)

It didn’t take him long to pull out the required information from his memory and check the main
variations. That’s a well-trained lad’s memory for you!

11...Be7 12.e5 dxe5 13.fxe5 Nd7 14.Bxe7 Qxe7 15.Be4 Bxe4

Yermolinsky played here 15...Qc5 16.Rhe1 Ra7 and it was only after we returned from the
tournament to Baku that we found that after 17.b4! Qb6 (17...Qc4? 18.Qe3!) 18.Qf4 white had a strong

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initiative. Several years later, black in a game neutralized all the threats by playing 15...Rc8 and the line
started to be considered unpromising for white. However, opening analyses, just like studies, are either
already refuted or not yet refuted. The position arising after 15...Rc8 16.Bxc6 Rxc6 17.Ne4 Nxe5
18.Nd6+ Kf8 according to the latest analysis and practical play is very dangerous for black. Panchenko
was unlikely at the time to have known all the subtleties of this opening system, even though he was
considered an expert. He simply chose to suffer for the eaten central pawns, relying on his agility at
defending.
Evidently, the black knight’s retreat to d7 should be considered dangerous, as counterplay against the
e5 pawn is a highly risky enterprise. Instead, transferring the knight to the center with 13...Nd5
promises much better chances to soon equalize and draw, but nothing more. In modern chess, the cost
of reduced risk of losing is reduced chances of winning.

16.Nxe4 Nxe5 17.Qd4(22)

Garry’s long thought was worrying his mother, who was standing among the few spectators. Having
suddenly noticed her son was short of a pawn she demanded that I explain to her how he would quickly
win it back. I actually had to persuade her to leave the playing room for half an hour so that her worries
about this pawn didn’t take hold of her son.

17...f6 18.Nd6+ Kf8 19.Rhf1(06) 19...Kg8 20.g4!(15) 20...h6 21.h4(04) 21...Nf7

Before this move it wasn’t easy to assess the position, as the black knight occupied an active position
in the center, preventing a pawn storm on the kingside. Panchenko was wrong to remove his knight,
thereby according the white pieces more freedom to regroup. He should have played the immediate
21...Rf8 after which 22.g5 hxg5 23.hxg5 Rh7 24.a4 bxa4 would have led to a messy position that would
have been fine for both street fighters at the board.

22.Qe4!(08) 22...Rf8 23.Nf5(23) 23...Qe8 24.Nd4 e5?

It’s hard to defend positions without counterplay, and black’s nerves gave way. He should have kept
the pawn on e6 at all cost.

25.Nf5 h5?

As I noted earlier, mistakes don’t occur in ones. Now, Garik begins to pick the black position apart.

26.Rg1(05) 26...Rh7 27.Qb7!(12) 27...Kh8 28.gxh5(05) 28...Qe6

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 Although white has a large advantage on the board and is given a free reign to attack, his decisive
blow is sneaky.

29.Nxg7!(06) 29...Qxa2

Black prefers to die quickly but vociferously. The endgame after 29...Rxg7 30.Rxg7 Kxg7 31.Rg1+
Kh7 32.Qg2! Ng5 33.hxg5 fxg5 34.Qxg5 Qf6 35.Qxf6 Rxf6 36.Rg5 is hopeless.

30.Qe7!

The rest was agony:

30...Rg8 31.Qxf6 Qa1+ 32.Kd2 Qa5+ 33.Ke2 Rgxg7 34.Rxg7 Rxg7 35.Rg1

Black resigned.

Game 20
White’s attack in this game came at such speed that I’ve provided fairly little commentary, as the
morass of potential variations would have dulled the sense of how the events developed like a
whirlwind. This small work of chess art was a flash of genius, in which the winner found brilliant
moves quickly and confidently without any apparent effort.

G. Kasparov – S. Palatnik
Daugavpils. All-Union Qualifying Tournament. 05.07.1978
Alekhine Defense. [В04]

1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 g6 5.Bc4 Nb6 6.Bb3 a5 7.a4 Bg7 8.Ng5 e6

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 Palatnik had prepared the development setup beginning with this move specially for this game. Using
half an hour’s thought, Garry found a fiercer plan for his pieces. In those years he gained great pleasure
in figuring out his opponents’ opening plans over the board.

9.f4(20) 9...dxe5 10.fxe5(14) 10...c5 11.0-0

Kasparov criticized himself for this natural but inaccurate move, which allows black after
11...Qxd4+! 12.Qxd4 cxd4 13.Rxf7 (13.Nxf7 0-0!) 13...Bxe5 14.Rf1 Nc6 to solve his problems. There
was a more subtle way for white to retain his advantage: 11.c3 cxd4 12.0-0! Palatnik misses this
benevolent chance, mechanically copying his opponent’s striving to get his king away from the center.

11...0-0 12.c3 Nc6 13.Ne4! Nd7 14.Be3!(17)

With the unstable situation in the center of the board direct play here doesn’t work: 14.Bg5? Qb6!
15.Nf6+ Bxf6! 16.Bxf6 cxd4 17.Qc1 Ncxe5! Therefore, white needs prophylaxis.

14...Ne7?

The experienced GM fails to notice the danger and for just one move removes pressure from the
critical d4 square. He had to play 14...Qb6, remaining in a worse but defensible position after 15.Na3!
cxd4 16.Nc4

15.Bg5!(21)

This isn’t a loss of time. The queen pin paralyzes black for a while.

15...cxd4 16.cxd4 h6 17.Bh4 g5 18.Bf2 Ng6 19.Nbc3 Qe7

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 White has a large positional advantage, but to convert it he needs to correctly select where he will
deliver the deadly blow and send his pieces in that direction as quickly as possible. This advantage in
being able to divert his pieces rapidly to the critical part of the board become one of Garry’s key
weapons.

20.Bc2(09) 20...b6 21.Be3(06) 21...Ba6 22.Rf2 Nh8

Black plans to build new defensive lines by playing f7-f5, but it’s too late...

23.Bxg5!(17)

The decisive tactic, being the start of a brilliant, lengthy and precisely calculated attack. Note that
after this move I don’t show any more time keeping – as Garry took his decisions very quickly, keeping
full faith in the calculations he had already made.

23...hxg5 24.Qh5 f5 25.Nxg5 Rf7

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 Having made this move the grandmaster... offered a draw! Usually, such a psychological ploy is tried
to disturb the thought process of the opponent, who finds himself forced to have a think about the
reason for the offer. Palatnik, though, chose the worst possible moment for such an offer. The king has
been brought to the chopping block already and Garry, instead of pronouncing “Nyet”, delivers another
sacrifice destroying black’s fortress. The rest of the rapid destruction of black’s camp needs no
explanation.

26.Bxf5! Rxf5 27.Rxf5 exf5 28.Nd5! Qe8 29.Qh7+ Kf8 30.Qxf5+ Kg8 31.Qh7+ Kf8 32.Ra3! Rc8
33.Rf3+ Nf6 34.h3! Qg6 35.Rxf6+ Bxf6 36.Ne6+ Ke8 37.Nxf6+

Black resigned.

Game 21
An amazing game. Even though it was 56 moves long and on the face of it the result seemed
uncertain right to the very end, there was barely any real battle in it. In order to win, Garry needed to
recall all his opening analysis and... a pawn ending that he had reviewed in Botvinnik’s school.
Yet such games are very important for a professional player, which by then Garry essentially was.
For a certain period they create his reputation and chess portrait, which his opponents study carefully
before they play him. Therefore, every player makes efforts for his portrait to appear impressive and
fierce, but not very... truthful. After this game, Garry ensured himself the reputation of a player who
knows everything and more in his favorite openings and at the same time has deep knowledge of the
endgame. This opinion about endgames was somewhat distant from the reality, but it continued to
confuse his opponents for a long time to come. Garry’s endgame technique sharply improved only after
his second match with Karpov. Then he began to play endgames not only very skillfully, but in his own
style, too.

L. Alburt – G. Kasparov

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 Daugavpils. All-Union Qualifying Tournament. 06.07.1978
King’s Indian Defense. [E74]

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.d4 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Bg5 c5 7.d5 h6 8.Bf4 e6 9.dxe6 Bxe6 10.Bxd6
Re8 11.Nf3 Nc6 12.0-0 Qa5 13.Nd2!

It took just five minutes for this position to appear on the board – that is how opening theory had
developed. Having sacrificed a pawn, black hopes to create sufficient counterplay in the center while
white is busy extracting his bishop from the d6 square.

13...Red8 14.Nb3

A year later, Grandmaster Uhlmann found a stronger move, 14.Bf4! but in Daugavpils Garry had his
own opinion about the move played as well.

14...Qb6 15.Na4 Qb4 16.Nbxc5! Bxc4!(09) 17.Bxc4 Qxc4 18.Nxb7 Nxe4 19.Rc1 Qb5 20.Nxd8
Rxd8 21.Qc2 Nd4! 22.Qxe4 Ne2+ 23.Kh1 Nxc1 24.Rxc1 Rxd6 25.Qc2 Qg5!(05)

Garry had reached a similar position in his home analytical games against himself, finding as he did
so one subtlety after another. Now 15, he understood the KID on the level of a decent grandmaster. I
still can’t recall any occasion when Garry was outplayed in this opening. And as for the depth of his
knowledge, just take a look at the game.
Grandmaster Alburt is known as a player who made his reputation with just three openings. Outside
them he is certainly not as strong. Garry demonstrated his total domination in this favorite opening of
the soon-to-be American.

26.Rd1?

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 Simple moves are far from always effective. By defending against the rook’s invasion on the second
rank, white begins to suffer due to the weakness of his first rank, which turns out to be his Achilles
heel.

26...Qf5! 27.Qc1 Rxd1+ 28.Qxd1 Qxf2 29.Qg1 Qc2!

Now white is forced into an endgame a pawn down, as the primitive 30.Qxa7 immediately loses:
30...Qd1+ 31.Qg1 Qxa4

30.b3 Qxa2 31.Nc5 Qd2

Maybe it was simpler to win with the active black queen on the board, for example, 31...Qc2. Garry
justified his decision by the fact that he had already seen the final position – indeed, twice. The first
time was at a session of the Botvinnik school, and he managed to recall it in time.

32.Qb1 Bd4(05) 33.Nd3(05) 33...Qe3 34.Nb4 h5 35.Qd1 h4 36.Nc2 Qxb3 37.Qxd4 Qb1+!
38.Qg1 Qxc2 39.Qxa7 Qd1+ 40.Qg1 Qxg1+ 41.Kxg1 Kg7 42.Kf2 Kf6 43.Ke3 Ke5 44.Kf3 f5
45.Ke3 g5 46.h3

The masters who had now surrounded the table in a thick circle managed to calculate the line 46...g4
47.hxg4 fxg4 48.Kf2 Ke4 49.Ke2 g3 50.Kf1 Ke3 51.Kg1 Ke2 52.Kh1 h3 53.Kg1! with a draw, but
Garry interrupted their search by banging out a series of moves.

46...Kd5! 47.Kd3 Kc5 48.Kc3 g4! 49.Kd3 gxh3 50.gxh3 Kd5 51.Ke3 Ke5 52.Kf3 f4 53.Kf2 Ke4
54.Ke2 f3+ 55.Kf1

This is the position that Garry had targeted over 20 odd moves earlier! He knew the banana skin it
contained on the path to victory: 55...Ke3 56.Ke1 f2+ 57.Kf1 Kf3 and how to avoid it.

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 55...Kf5! 56.Kg1 Ke5

The move is now white’s, and this destroys him: 57.Kf1 Ke4 58.Ke1 Ke3 59.Kf1 f2

White resigned.

The banana skin has been successfully negotiated and there is no more stalemate available.
Game 22
Not that long before this game Garik had been playing with the chess elder Lev Polugaevsky in a
simul exhibition that the later gave to Baku schoolkids. Three years later, here they were facing each
other in the main tournament of the country to fight for the champion’s gold medal. The young
debutant in the Soviet championship had begun the tournament without a shade of timidity, and the
maestros immediately granted him due recognition.
All morning before the game Garry was buzzing with alarm and excitement. He couldn’t make up his
mind which opening to use. Everything that he had prepared for the tournament suddenly seemed
unpromising to him. Eventually, he went out to play for the first time ever without having decided
which opening he would use to test his opponent. The vastly experienced Lev seemed a monster to him
who had no weaknesses and never got into difficulties in the opening.
Garry’s unusual lack of enthusiasm for the opening began to bear fruit almost straight away.
Indecision and hesitation started at move five. I watched with alarm as the hands of the clock
relentlessly passed minute after minute, biting into his allotted time. How could I have been able to tell
at the time that the lad was turning into a chess psychologist before my very eyes. This is a game that a
coach would not forget in a hurry.

G. Kasparov – L. Polugaevsky
Tbilisi. USSR Championship Higher League. 06.12.1978
Sicilian Defense. [В43]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3(05) 5...Qc7 6.Be2 b5 7.Bf3(14) 7...Bb7 8.0-0 Nc6
9.Nxc6(05) 9...dxc6

The overture was most painful for Garry. He sat down, nervously fidgeting on the chair, his head
grasped tightly in his hands, and he thought intensely, as though trying to find a refutation for the
Sicilian. The minute hand had made an almost full cycle, yet it seemed that no refutation had entered
the lad’s head.
Somewhere in the middle of his thinking, I was sitting in the playing hall and thinking intensely
together with him. By a process of elimination I reached the conclusion that he wasn’t seriously
considering the usual move 10.a4 and that he had already made his choice, and that Garry was now
hesitating, unable to force himself to reproduce his daring idea on the board. My worries grew, as I
essentially intuitively sensed his intention to sacrifice a pawn, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure
out the idea behind the sac. I decided to disappear into the foyer, but I couldn’t calm down there either:
the position was firmly stuck in my head.

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 10.e5?!(35) 10...Qxe5 11.Re1 Qc7 12.Bh5!(11)

As soon as I saw this spectacular move on the demonstration board I began to fathom the boy’s plan.
It had a subtle psychological context. Clearly his opponent, a huge expert in the Sicilian, was
convinced, and maybe justifiably so, that he had come out on top in the opening stage and had forced
the lad into a little-known structure, while taking away an hour of his time in the process.
The fearsome Lev had also been in an agitated state before the game, but he had by this time
managed to calm his nerves and even to relax. When you’re in this state, an unexpected plan of your
opponent that sharply changes the character of the game is particularly unpleasant. It’s capable of
throwing the player back into a state of discomfort and depriving him of his confidence. Garry sought
and found just the opportunity, although he realized that its chess value was questionable.

12...Be7

White’s plans are clear, but the blunt defense 12...g6? doesn’t work due to 13.Qd4! Capturing on e6
looks wrong, but white had spent a very long time thinking... Maybe he had prepared something?... The
sudden complication of the situation, its lack of certainty and his opponent’s unclear intentions – all of
this really gets to you during a game.
From this move on, Polugaevsky also thought long over his moves. Two players were now hunched
over the board who were extremely anxious and couldn’t hear anything around them.

13.Rxe6(06) 13...g6

A careful or practical, modern player would play here 13...Nf6 and after 14.Ne4 Nxh5 15.Qxh5 0-0
16.Qe5 Qxe5 17.Rxe5 Rfe8 18.Be3 f6 19.Re6 Kf7 he would force a transition to an equal ending.
Polugaevsky is a fighter who won’t run away from a principled fight, even if he is nervous. And who
wouldn’t be nervous in such a situation in a prestigious tournament?
Actually, Garry wrote later that in this line he planned to play not 16.Qe5 but 16.Bf4 “retaining the
advantage”. Well, it’s unclear who would have “retained” the advantage had the game continued
16...Qd7 17.Re5 f6 18.Nc5 Qe8! 19.Qxe8 Rfxe8

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 I wasn’t my usual self in these minutes. I felt the torture that Garry was going through to raise the
tension in the game, but I couldn’t see clearly where this was heading. He was used to playing correct,
logical chess, but here psychology was key. Prudence suggested the continuation 14.Qd4 fxe6 15.Bf4
Rd8 16.Qxh8 Qxf4 17.Qxg8+ Qf8 18.Qxf8+ Kxf8 19.Bf3 and white would be out of danger. It was
only after the tournament was over that we discovered that it wasn’t so easy to extract himself from
such mayhem. The stronger reply 15...e5! 16.Bxe5 Qd8! allowed black to grab the initiative, for
example, 17.Qe4 gxh5 18.Bxh8 Qd7 19.Qxh7 0-0-0!

14.Re1(34)

Now everything depended on Polugaevsky’s willingness to commit. He was thinking over that
eternal question in chess: to eat or not to eat. Waiting was tortuous.

14...Rd8(?)

The decision not to accept the gift was a big psychological mistake, one which essentially marked a
turning point in the battle. For the first time in this game, white gains concrete play, and Garry
continued strongly from here. I never got to find out (and alas, now I never will) what black was
worried about. Garry planned to meet 14...gxh5 with 15.Qd4 f6 16.Qd1, but this trick wouldn’t have
given him sufficient counterplay to compensate for losing a piece: 16...Kf8 17.Qxh5 Bd6! A year later,
English IM Bellin saved Garry’s face by finding a stronger way to continue the attack: 16.Bf4! (instead
of 16.Qd1) 16...Qd7 (16...Rd8 17.Qe3 Qc8 18.Qc5! Kf8 19.Qxh5 is worse) 17.Qc5! Kf8 18.Qxh5
Qe8 19.Bh6+ Nxh6 20.Qxh6+ Kf7 21.Re3! which maintained the tension in an unclear situation.

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 15.Qf3! c5

Now it’s dangerous to capture the bishop: 15...gxh5 16.Bf4!, for example: 16...Qd7 17.Qxh5 h6
18.Rad1 Qc8 19.Bd6 Rd7 20.Ne4! Kf8 21.Bxe7+ Rxe7 22.Nd6 Qd7 23.Qc5. White has a strong
initiative while black’s pieces are uncoordinated and his king is stuck in the center.

16.Bf4! Qb6!

White’s activity is growing move by move, and black needs to be extremely vigilant. Here he choses
the safest of several lines. The others were significantly worse: 16...Bxf3 17.Bxc7 Bxh5 18.Bxd8 Kxd8
19.f3 f5 20.Rad1+ Ke8 21.Nd5 Kf7 22.Nxe7 Nxe7 23.Rd7 or 16...Qc6 17.Ne4 f5 18.Nd6+ Rxd6
19.Bxd6 Qxd6 20.Qxb7 gxh5 21.Rad1 Qf6 22.Rd5! and white has an advantage each time.

17.Qg3 gxh5 18.Bc7!(05)

The shootout after 18.Qg7 Qg6! (18...Qf6? 19.Rxe7+! Kxe7 20.Bg5) 19.Rxe7+! Nxe7! (19...Kxe7
20.Bg5+ Kd7 21.Qxg6 hxg6 22.Rd1+) 20.Qxh8+ Kd7 21.Rd1+ Bd5! 22.Qxd8+! Kxd8 23.Nxd5
Nxd5 24.Rxd5+ Ke7 25.Re5+! leads to a position where black can choose between a draw with
25...Kd7 26.Rd5+ and an equal endgame after 25...Kf6 26.Rxc5 Qe4
Black’s refusal to commit on move 14 has led to the roles reversing, and white has a very promising
choice in the game for the first time. He choses the most ambitious and strongest continuation.

18...Qg6 19.Bxd8 Qxg3 20.hxg3 Kxd8 21.Rad1+ Kc7 22.Nd5+ Bxd5 23.Rxd5 h6! 24.Rxh5 Rh7!

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 The fierce battle has ended. White has come out of it with his honor intact, gaining the maximum
from the chaos that he created. Black has also performed credibly, having repelled the mating threats.
His last moves have solved the challenge of bringing his rook into the game in an original and effective
manner. It would now be logical for the game to end in a draw. However, time trouble now rears its
ugly head and messes things up. The GM was particularly short of time.

25.Rhe5 Kd7 26.R5e3 Rg7 27.Rd3+ Kc7 28.Ra3 Rg6 29.Rf3 Bf6?

Having made a huge effort to get his rook going, Polugaevsky in serious time trouble now makes a
natural move, but one that lets white invade his camp. Only the rook retreat 29...Rg7! would have
maintained equal chances.

30.c3 Kd7 31.Rd3+ Kc7 32.Re8! Ne7?

Black’s new mistake, with his flag hanging, ruins his position. He had to retreat his bishop to e7,
making it harder for white to connect his rooks.

33.Red8! Nc6 34.R8d7+ Kb6 35.Rxf7 Be7 36.Re3 Bd6 37.f4 c4 38.Kh2 Bc5 39.Re2 b4 40.Re4
bxc3 41.bxc3 Bf2 42.Rxc4

The adjourned position was so obviously hopeless for black that we could find a clear win.

42...Bxg3+ 43.Kh3 Be1 44.a4!

Now black has no chance to save the game. Upon seeing this move he didn’t even bother with the
only possible resistance 44...Rg3+ and preferred a quick death. That evening he had some other second
sessions to play, too.

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44...Na5? 45.Rb4+ Kc5 46.Rf5+

Black resigned.

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 Game 23
Leaving the stage after their last round game of the 1978 Soviet championship, Garry and Mikhail
Tal quickly took up residence in the cozy press-center and sat at the chess table normally used to
analyze completed games from the championship. The newly-baked champion asked for a chess clock,
which was promptly placed in front of him, and he ordered in a soft voice: “let’s go,” pressing the
button as he did so. Thus began the blitz match between these two champions, held behind “semi-
closed” doors.
I call it “semi-closed” because nobody announced the match but nobody was actually prevented from
attending and watching. But few chess experts there knew what was going on. Anyway, how did the
idea of a match arise?
Had Tal not won this star-studded championship, and had Garry not achieved great recognition for
his play, this match in beautiful Tbilisi would have been unlikely to occur. After the month-long, 19-
round championship, the fighters were tired. They would probably have chosen to postpone the match
to some indefinite time in the future, which they could then have conveniently forgotten about among
the million and one other things going on. But I felt we had to seize the moment.
So the previous evening, after congratulating my old friend with his brilliant first place (he was
leading the championship by half a point before the final round, so a draw with Kasparov guaranteed
him at least first equal position, which is what actually happened), I asked him: “Misha, wouldn’t you
like to test the strength of my charge, not in the final round game, which decides nothing, but in a blitz
match, say 14 five-minute games?”
“With pleasure,” Misha exclaimed. “And thank you for the information. Now I know I don’t have to
prepare for tomorrow’s game. As you can appreciate, prep is the last thing I want to be doing right
now.”
It was a friendly match only to some extent. For the young Garry (and for me, too) Mikhail Tal was a
true idol, while Misha had taken kindly to the lad and followed his chess progress closely. However,
once play began the fact that they liked each other faded into the background, pushed aside by healthy
rivalry.
The match saw an exciting battle and the games were pretty decent, with some interesting ideas. The
players took breaks after games 3, 7 and 11. No “prize” was at stake. We simply wanted to see who
would come out on top, how and why.
“So have the games survived?” you may ask. Did you record them, or somebody else? No, there were
few spectators and none of them recorded the games, even though I watched intently and barely turned
away from the board... But the next day all the games were to be found in Garry’s notebook! When the
match ended and after we had eaten dinner, I asked the lad if he could try and write down at the very
least some fragments from the games, for the historical record if nothing else. After a couple of
minutes’ thought, Garry asked for a pen and paper. So I brought him his notebook and he sat at the
table. Without looking at the chess board, he unhurriedly, one after the other, wrote out all the moves in
a couple of hours, in chronological order. All 14 games of the match. In doing so, Garry would stop
writing from time to time and gaze into the distance. And in that minute the game would appear before

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his eyes a second time, and he recalled everything! I witnessed this spectacle, and although I had
already convinced myself after working with him for years that he had a phenomenal and tenacious
memory, I must admit to still being taken aback!
By the way, the other closest observers of this match were Alexander Roshal (who was tasked with
managing the press center at the tournament) and Alexander Bakh, both loyal Karpov fans and aides.
By this time, the reigning champion perhaps already knew who would be his next challenger.

M. Tal – G. Kasparov
Tbilisi Blitz Match (1st game). 26.12.1978
Sicilian Defense. [B96]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 b5 8.e5

From the very first moves, the players demonstrated that they were up for a fight. Of course, the less
experienced boy might have chosen a calmer opening in the first game in order to get into the swing of
things more gradually, rather than charge into a vortex. However, he undertook no special pre-match
preparation and this was the outcome...

8...dxe5 9.fxe5 Qc7 10.Qe2 Nfd7 11.0-0-0 Bb7

The well-known but not fully “solved” Polugaevsky Variation of the Sicilian Najdorf. It appealed to
many Sicilian fans for its wild play from the very outset. However, many others avoid it because play is
based on concrete calculation in extremely sharp and messy positions, where dynamic factors are more
valuable than the material balance. There are a lot of subtleties and sharp variations that you have to
memorize, preferably refreshing your memory before the game begins. And no matter how ready and
willing you are to fight, you have to bear in mind that this is a risky venture.
Is it worth playing this variation in blitz?

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 It’s worth playing for black if you have prepared it, have experience playing it and remember that
your opponent doesn’t like sharp play that’s hard to control and can lose himself in unexpected opening
systems.
It’s worth playing for white if you have decent experience playing it and are familiar with the many
subtleties of the system, and if you are confident of your abilities and intuition.

12.Qg4

Apart from this aggressive move that demonstrates that the fate of the e5 pawn is nothing compared
with increasing activity of the white pieces, there is an even wilder way to sharpen the situation by
sacrificing a knight to boot: 12.Nxe6 fxe6 13.Qg4 Qxe5 14.Bxb5?! axb5 (14...h5? Here a human
master erred straight away and got caught by a cunning intermezzo after which he couldn’t save
himself: 15.Bd3! Kf7 16.Rhf1+ Nf6 17.Bxf6 gxf6 18.Bg6+ Kg7 19.Bxh5+ Qg5+ 20.Qxg5+ fxg5
21.Rf7+ Kh6 22.Rxb7 Kxh5 23.Rd8 g4 24.Kd1 Kg6 (E. Jimenez – G. Garcia, Cuba 1965) 25.Na4!+–).
Such generous sacrifices are, however, not to be recommended, as after the logical 15.Rhe1 black then
plays 15...h5! at the right time and white’s attack falls apart: 16.Qh4 Qc5 17.Rxe6+ Kf7–+

12...Qb6 13.Be2 Nxe5 14.Qh3 Nbd7 15.Rhe1 h6 16.Bf4

Everything that had taken place up to now on the board was already analyzed in detail in
Polugaevsky’s wonderful book Birth of a Variation which has been published (in Russian) two years
before this game was played. After the bishop retreated to f4 or h4 (16.Bh4 Be7 17.Bxe7 Kxe7 18.Qg3
g6 19.Bf3 Nxf3 20.Nxf3 Rad8 21.Nd4) the position remained very complicated and double-edged, but
with equal chances, which guaranteed a real headache in a blitz game. However, the lad, failing to
sense the danger hanging over his king, decided to attack the white knight with his bishop and gain just
one tempo from this that would enable him to spirit his king away to its usual bunker on g8. This was
his sole wrong decision in the game, but its consequences couldn’t be repaired.

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 16...Bc5?

Garry was still nervous – after all, it was a match, even if an unofficial one, with a legendary world
champion. And he hadn’t yet fully set his mind on the game. After 16...0-0-0! the bishop sac 17.Bxb5
axb5 18.Ncxb5 looks extremely dangerous for black, as all the other white pieces are aiming at his
king, which is devoid of a pawn wall. However, the computer demonstrates that black remains in the
game by not abandoning the e5 square, thereby reducing the number of attackers: 18...f6! My Stockfish
9 demonstrates that black is now well capable of fighting, even though it’s frightening to look at his
king’s vacillations: 19.Nxe6 Qxb5 20.Bxe5 fxe5 21.Nxd8 Kxd8 22.Rxe5 Qc6= or 19.Qc3+ Kb8
20.Nxe6 Rc8 21.Rxe5! Nxe5 22.Bxe5+ fxe5 23.Qxe5+ Ka8 24.Rd4 Ba6=

17.Nxe6!

Tal obviously knew this typical Sicilian sacrifice, which immediately renders black’s position
hopeless. He needed just ten seconds or so to convince himself of its correctness in this position.
That’s the danger of blitz for you. With any normal time control, a diligent tactician who spends a
couple of minutes on reviewing a position will easily see the threat to the e6 pawn, but in the chaos of a
five-minute game it’s very hard to identify when you need to spend this amount of time.

17...fxe6

The other capture 17...Qxe6 falls to 18.Bg4!

18.Bh5+ Ke7 19.Bxe5 Nxe5 20.Rxe5

All of white’s pieces are actively participating in the attack. With such weak protection for his king
black cannot survive.

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 20...Rhf8 21.Qg3 g5 22.Qd3 Kf6 23.Rde1 Rg8 24.Qh7!

The less than obvious long queen move immediately ends the game.

Black resigned as mate is inevitable.

I didn’t need to comfort Garry. He immediately digested the nature of what was happening and that
there were another 13 games ahead...
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Score
Tal 1 1
Kasparov 0 0

Game 24

G. Kasparov – M. Tal
Tbilisi Blitz Match (2nd game). 26.12.1978
Sicilian Defense. [B67]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.0-0-0 Bd7 9.f4 b5

Another fighting variation from the Sicilian. Tal deliberately allows the weakening of his pawn
structure in order to strengthen the position of his king and gain the advantage of the bishop pair.

10.Bxf6 gxf6 11.Nxc6 Bxc6 12.Qe1 Be7 13.Bd3 Qb6 14.Kb1

14...0-0-0?

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 The first mistake by the Soviet champion. Black would have solved all his opening problems through
active pawn play 14...b4 15.Ne2 a5 16.f5 e5 17.Ng3 h5 18.Qe2 h4, chasing the white knight further
from the center: 19.Nh5 a4 20.Bc4 Qc5=

15.Rf1

White decides not to send his knight into the cauldron, although this could have significantly
strengthened his position. This move was eventually seen in a serious game 30 years later, by a
Hungarian master who won with it: 15.Nd5! Qb7?! (15...exd5!? 16.exd5 Bxd5 17.Qxe7 Bxg2 18.Rhe1
d5 19.Qxf7 Be4 20.Bxe4 dxe4 21.Rxd8+ Rxd8 22.a3±) 16.Qc3 Bf8 17.Nb4 Kd7 18.Nxc6 Qxc6
19.Qxf6+– (N. Lorand – A. Turzo, Budapest 2009).

15...Bb7 16.f5 Kb8 17.Qg3 Qc5 18.fxe6 fxe6 19.Ne2 Qe5 20.Nf4 Rde8 21.Rde1 Reg8 22.Qh3 Bc8
23.Qe3 Qc5 24.Qe2 Rg5 25.c3 Re5 26.Bc2 Qc4?!

Typical carelessness in a blitz game, allowing white to further pressurize the e6 pawn.

27.Nd3 Rg5 28.Bb3± Qc6?

Black errs in selecting the square for his queen retreat, and this gives his opponent extra tempi to
strengthen. Choosing a move in a five-minute game is a painful process, so if you see a good move you
should play it immediately and not waste time on seeking a better one.

29.Nf4 Re5

White’s position is close to winning, but at this point neither of the players were in a position to take
a deep think. First David Bronstein and then Bobby Fischer had campaigned to have such chaos on the
board dealt with by the addition of some minimal extra time for the players to think about each move.

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Bronstein was listened to but nobody acted on his ideas, whereas the Fischer-Spassky return match of
1992 was held under the time control proposed by the American, which caught on straight away.

30.Qc2?

A chain of moves with question-marks attached to them is hard to discuss in relation to blitz. They
reflect a mixture of minor miscalculations, hesitations and unnecessary prevarications – there are no
ideal games in blitz. The winner is often the player who makes the second-to-last mistake. At the same
time, the computer’s evaluation is also imperfect, so I only highlight it at key moments.

30...Qc7 31.g3= Bb7+– 32.Ka1 f5 33.exf5 exf5 34.Nd3 Be4 35.Rxe4 Rxe4 36.Bd5 Re3 37.Nb4
Ka7 38.a4?

After 38.Nc6+ Kb6 39.Qd2! black is in big trouble: 39...Re4 40.Qf2+ Kb7 41.Nxe7+ Kb8 42.Nc6+
Kc8 43.Qxf5+ and so on.

38...Qc5 39.axb5 Bf6 40.Rxf5 Rf8? (+13)

After a new series of question-marks the position remained playable (for blitz), for example after
40...Rxc3 41.bxc3 Bxc3+ 42.Ka2 Qxb4 43.Qb3 Qa5+ 44.Qa3, given that both flags were about to fall,
and back in 1978 the idea of adding time per move was not going to be implemented any time soon.

41.Nc6+?= Kb6 42.Bb3

Here it’s really recommended to look at the computer lines while I describe events on the board. I’m
sure you’ll enjoy them.

42...Re1+

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 42...Ra8 43.Rxc5 axb5+ 44.Ba4 Re1+ 45.Ka2 dxc5 46.Qd2 Rxa4+ 47.Kb3 Raa1 48.Nb4 c4+ 49.Kc2
Ka5 50.h4 Ka4 51.Nd5 Bd8µ

43.Ka2 axb5 44.Rxc5 Ra8+ 45.Ba4 Rxa4+

Shaky equality would have held after 45...dxc5! 46.Qd2 Rxa4+ 47.Kb3 Raa1 48.Nb4 c4+ 49.Kc2
Ka5 50.Nd5 Bg5 51.Nf4 Ka4 52.h3 Rh1 53.h4 Bh6 54.Qg2 Rac1+ 55.Kd2

46.Kb3?

White failed to notice the opportunity to win that had occurred quite by chance: 46.Qxa4! bxa4
47.Rc4 d5 48.Rxa4 Bxc3 49.bxc3 Kxc6 50.Rh4

46...dxc5=

My Stockfish again ends the whirlwind of assessments that change after every move with the = sign,
as though suggesting to end this chaos with a peace treaty. However, the players could now see nothing
but the buttons on the clock.

47.Qf5?

White misses the chance to maintain equality: 47.Qd2 c4+ 48.Kc2 Raa1 49.Nd4 b4 50.Qf4 Kb7
51.Qf5= b3+ 52.Nxb3 cxb3+ 53.Kxb3 Ra6 54.Qxh7+ Re7 55.Qd3=

47...Re2

Black had a pretty win with 47...Rc1! 48.Qf2 (48.c4 bxc4+! 49.Kxa4 Ra1#) 48...Bd4!

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 48.Na5 Rb4+!

Tal is a genius here. His instantaneous tactical vision turned out to be sharper than the young Garry’s.
The lad had not yet committed sufficient mating constructions to memory.

49.cxb4??

White could have held on with 49.Ka3 Ra4+ (49...Kxa5? 50.Qxc5 Ra4+ 51.Kb3 Bd4 52.Qc7+ Bb6
53.Qb7 Bc5 54.Qc7²) 50.Kb3 Be7 51.Qc8 c4+ 52.Nxc4+ Rxc4 53.Qb8+ Kc6 54.Qc8+ Kd6 55.Qb8+
Ke6 56.Qg8+ Kd7 57.Qd5+ Kc7 58.Qxb5 Rce4. I wonder how you would have assessed this position
in the pre-computer era had the game been adjourned at this point until the next day.

49...Rxb2+ 50.Ka3 cxb4#

The end of this blitz tragicomedy.

I see a pretty mating position. The defenseless black bishop, which had played the role of passive
observer of the white king’s adventures for a good ten moves, suddenly turns out to be the organizer of
the latter’s death by unexpectedly protecting its rook.
And so, 2:0 to the USSR champion.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Score
Tal 1 1 2
Kasparov 0 0 0

Game 25

M. Tal – G. Kasparov

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 Tbilisi Blitz Match (3rd game). 26.12.1978
Caro-Kann Defense. [B18]

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.Nf3 Nd7 7.Bd3

The main line of this popular Caro-Kann system is considered to be 7.h4 h6 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3
10.Qxd3, with over 13 thousand examples in the database. Mikhail Tal, however, preferred to take a
sideline which is much rarer and quite a winding road. Such a choice in blitz is intended to pose the
opponent problems, given that the latter is expecting a battle along the main line, forcing him to stop
and think and waste around a valuable minute of his allotted five to figure out the new situation and
adjust his focus.

7...Qc7 8.0-0

Now, a return to the main line with 8.h4 would mean that white had gifted his opponent a tempo,
which is valuable in any opening, given that black would immediately exchange bishops without
wasting time on first retreating his: 8...Bxd3 9.Qxd3 h6 10.Bd2 e6.

8...e6 9.Re1 Ngf6 10.c4 Be7 11.b3 0-0 12.Bb2

In this position white has retained his standard slight advantage, which arises from his first-move
advantage, all the more so in such a solid opening. On the other hand, black so far has no weaknesses
and possesses a rich choice of moves, the best appreciated here being 12...Rad8 and 12...Rfe8. Instead,
though, black tries a new move not seen before in practice, and again we have to think about the
unwritten playing strategy for super-fast chess.

12...a5 (+0.50)

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 This was not the best choice chess-wise, and unexpected given the rooks are due to enter the fray.
Still, the idea is clear – the effect of surprise. Perfectly reasonable for a five-minute game.

13.Rc1

And this move is not among the first six computer candidates. Stockfish 9 recommends stopping the
further advance of black’s pawn with 13.a4 Bb4 14.Re2 b5 15.Bxg6 hxg6 16.c5 bxa4 17.Rxa4 Rfd8
18.Qc2 Nd5 19.Ne4 Nf4 20.Re3 Nd5 21.Rd3, though I prefer the less committal 13.a3 Bd6 14.b4, but
Tal makes a cunning rook move forcing Kasparov to spend time thinking on whether white wants to
break through the center and to take a rapid and critical decision.

13...Qf4 (+0.50)

With its evaluation ² this move is the black sheep of the six candidate moves, whose rating varies
from -0.08 to 0.00.

14.d5 (-1.10)

Sensing that his opponent is a bit lost, Tal goes for a typical blitz ploy with the aim of disturbing
Garry’s thought process by making a completely unexpected move. He throws forward the central
pawn to open a diagonal for his dark-squared bishop and to give his rook on c1 realistic prospects of
attacking the black king.

14...cxd5 15.cxd5 Nxd5 16.Rc4 Qb8 17.Bxg6 hxg6

Prospects are one thing, but black is a pawn up and has no vulnerable spots.

18.h4

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 Forward and only forward! He has already burnt his bridges.

18...Bf6

It would have been fine to first chase the rook away by advancing the b7 pawn.

19.Bxf6 N7xf6 20.Ne5 Qd6

Not a bad move either, but again, why not chase the rook away? 20...b5! 21.Rd4 Qb6 22.h5 g5!
23.Qd2 Rfd8! 24.Rd1 Qc7! (25.Qxg5? Nh7!–+)

21.h5

After making this move, Tal notably perked up and looked very confident. His rook on c4 perked up,
too, having seen the great square h4 readied for it.

21...gxh5 22.Nxh5 Rad8

The situation has become more complicated, as the value of the attacking forces has grown, though
it’s still not enough to break down the defense. However, this equality is unstable, and Tal again
chooses to take a risk. His next move is, again, a blitz-style risk, intended to provoke his opponent into
making a mistake given the lack of time to think.

23.Nxg7

White has equality, but Tal risks further – it’s not a world title match, after all. He wants to test the
Russian proverb “he who doesn’t risk doesn’t get to drink Champagne”. An alternative was 23.Rh4 g6
24.Qd2 Nxh5 25.Rxh5 Nf6 26.Qxd6 Rxd6 27.Nc4 gxh5 28.Nxd6 b6 29.Nc4 Rb8 30.Re5 Rd8 31.Rb5

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Ng4 32.g3 Rd1+ 33.Kg2 Ra1 34.a4 Ra2 35.Rxh5 f5³

23...Kxg7+–

OMG! Koblencs was right when he cried to his pupil: “Misha, you are a genius!” After the mere
knight retreat 23...Ne7!–+ it transpires that black is simply a piece up, as the knight won’t get out of g7
alive. White would then surely try to muddle the game with 24.Qc1 Kxg7 25.Rc7 Ng6 26.Rxf7+ Rxf7
27.Qg5, but black would have two possible ways to win – a solid one, calculated by Stockfish 9:
27...Rdd7 28.Qxg6+ Kf8 29.Nxd7+ Qxd7 30.Qg5 Qd5–+ or the one I found, also approved by my
computer: 27...Qxe5 28.Rxe5 Rd5 29.Rxd5 Nxd5–+

24.Rg4+!

The black king has been left without defenders and will soon be finished off.

24...Kh8 25.Rh4+ Kg7 26.Qd2!

The rest is simple.

26...Rh8 27.Qg5+ Kf8 28.Rxh8+ Ke7 29.Rh7 Rg8 30.Rxf7+ Ke8 31.Rg7 Rxg7 32.Qxg7 Qe7 Black
lost on time.

This game is a great example of how to win in blitz – psychology and intuition, resourcefulness and
decisiveness, which of course have to be added to your strong ability.
It was hard to foresee a score of 3:0.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Score
Tal 1 1 1 3
Kasparov 0 0 0 0

Game 26

G. Kasparov – M. Tal
Tbilisi Blitz Match (4th game). 26.12.1978
Spanish Opening. [C80]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.Nbd2 Be7

Tal didn’t want to tempt fate in the famously sharp and complex line 9...Nc5 10.c3 d4! 11.Ng5!
Qxg5! (11...dxc3 12.Nxe6 fxe6 13.bxc3 Qd3 14.Nf3 (A. Karpov – V. Korchnoi, Baguio m (10) 1978)
14...Qxd1 15.Bxd1²) 12.Qf3 0-0-0 13.Bxe6+ fxe6 14.Qxc6 Qxe5 15.b4 Qd5 16.Qxd5 exd5 17.bxc5
dxc3 18.Nb3 d4 19.Ba3 (J. Timman – V. Smyslov, Bad Lauterberg 1979) 19...c2!=

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 10.Nxe4

The more popular line is 10.c3 0-0 11.Bc2 f5 and then 12.exf6 Nxf6 13.Nb3 Bg4 14.Qd3 Qd7
15.Nbd4= (M. Rohde – V. Korchnoi, Beer-Sheva 1987) or 12.Nb3 Qd7 13.Nbd4 Nxd4 14.Nxd4 c5
15.Nxe6 (15.Ne2 Rad8 16.f3 Ng5 17.Be3 d4) 15...Qxe6 16.f3 Ng5 17.a4 g6 18.Bxg5 Bxg5 19.f4
Be7= (R. Huebner – V. Korchnoi, Cologne 1989).

10...dxe4 11.Bxe6 fxe6 12.Qxd8+

Play gets interesting after 12.Ng5 Qd5 (12...Qxd1!? 13.Rxd1 Bxg5 14.Bxg5 0-0 15.Rd7 Rf7=)
13.Qh5+ g6 14.Qg4 Bxg5 15.Bxg5 Nxe5 (E. Geller – W. Unzicker, Bern 1987) 16.Qh4²

12...Rxd8 13.Ng5 Bxg5 14.Bxg5 Rd5 15.Rfe1 Nxe5= 16.Bf4 Nc4 17.Rxe4 Kd7

17...Kf7 18.Rae1 Re8 19.b3 Nd6 20.Re5 c5 21.Kf1 Nc8=

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 18.b3 Nd6 19.Re2 Rf8 20.Bd2 Ne4 21.Ba5 Nc5 22.f3 Rf4 23.Bc3 g5 24.h3 h5 25.Kf2 g4 26.hxg4
hxg4 27.Kg3 gxf3= 28.Kxf4 fxe2 29.Re1 b4! 30.Bb2?!

White would have an extra tempo after 30.Be5, but this wouldn’t affect the position’s evaluation.

30...Rd2 31.Ke3 Rxc2 32.Rxe2 Rxe2+ 33.Kxe2 Kd6 34.Ke3

34...Kd5

Despite his extra pawn, black needs to tread carefully. The pawn on g2 distracts black’s pieces, and

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due to this the white king is threatening to attack black’s kingside pawns. Still, white has virtually no
chance of winning, given that black can carry out exchanges in time to eliminate white’s pawn pair,
after which it will be difficult for white to queen his remaining pawn: 34...a5 35.g4 a4 36.bxa4 Nxa4
37.Bg7 Ke7 38.Kd3 Kf7 39.Be5 Kg6 40.Bf4 e5 41.Bd2 c5 42.Ke4 Nc3+ 43.Bxc3 bxc3 44.Kd3 e4+
45.Kxc3 Kg5 46.a4 Kxg4 47.a5 e3 48.a6 Kg3 49.a7 e2=

35.g4 Ne4 36.Kf4 Nf2 37.g5 Nd3+

It would be a simple draw after 37...Nh3+ 38.Kg4 Nxg5 39.Kxg5 c5 40.Kf4

38.Ke3 Ne5 39.Kf4 Ng6+ 40.Kg4 Ke4 41.Bf6 c5 42.Bd8 Ne5+ 43.Kh5 Kf5?

Black has lost concentration and again misses an easy draw: 43...Nd3 44.g6 Nf4+ 45.Kg5 e5 46.Kh6
Ne6 47.g7 Nxg7 48.Kxg7 Kd4 49.Bf6

44.Bb6

White could have won with 44.Bc7! Ng6 45.Bd6+– but now the position is again drawn – though not
for long, as the flags are hanging.

44...c4

This pawn advance leaves black with only one way to continue the game with the evaluation =,
whereas after 44...Nd3 he had a wider choice of paths to retain the draw, for example: 45.Bc7 e5
46.Kh6 Nf4 47.Bb6 c4 48.bxc4 e4 49.Ba5 e3 50.Bxb4 e2 51.Bd2 Ke4 52.g6 Kd3 53.Be1 Nxg6=

45.bxc4 Nxc4 46.Bc7 Ne3

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 The critical moment in the battle. Black had only two ways to draw: 46...Ne3 as played, or 46...e5
47.g6 Kf6 48.Kh6 Ne3 49.Bd8+ Ke6

47.g6 Nd5? (+8.46)

Black no longer had any choice. He had to find, or, more exactly, to guess (given he had no time for
even an elementary calculation), which move would save him. Alas, intuition and luck deserted him
this time. The way to draw was 47...Kf6 48.Kh6 (48.Be5+? Kxe5 49.g7 Nd5 50.Kg6 a5–+) 48...Nf5+
49.Kh7 e5=

48.g7!

The hasty 48.Bd6? misses the win after 48...Nf6+ 49.Kh6 Ng8+ 50.Kg7 a5! 51.Kxg8 Kxg6 52.Kf8
Kf5 53.Ke7 Ke4 54.Kxe6 Kd3 55.Kd5 Kc2 56.Kc4 Kb1 57.Kb3 a4+ 58.Kxa4 Kxa2 59.Kxb4=

48...Nf6+ 49.Kh6 Ng8+ 50.Kh7 Nf6+ 51.Kh8!

Black resigned, as white will play 52.Bd8! to chase the knight from f6, and the g7 pawn will queen.

So the lad wins a first game back.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Score
Tal 1 1 1 0 3
Kasparov 0 0 0 1 1

Game 27

M. Tal – G. Kasparov

157
 Tbilisi Blitz Match (5th game). 26.12.1978
King’s Indian Defense. [E92]

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 0-0 5.e4 d6 6.Be2 e5 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bh4

The other continuation 8.Bxf6 also leads to a complicated battle with a minimal positional advantage
for white.

8...Nc6

I prefer the typical KID construction with 8...Nbd7 9.0-0 g5 10.dxe5 Nh5 11.Nd4 Nf4 12.Bg3 dxe5
13.Nf5 Nc5 14.Bg4 Bxf5 15.Bxf5 Qxd1 16.Rfxd1 Rfd8= (W. Uhlmann – S. Gligoric, Lugano 1968).
In a five-minute game it’s also fine to try the immediate 8...g5 9.dxe5 gxh4 10.exf6 Qxf6 11.g3
(11.Qd2 Be6 12.Rd1 Nd7 (V. Korchnoi – L. Kavalek, Buenos Aires 1978) 13.0-0 h3 14.Nd4 hxg2
15.Kxg2 Qg5+ 16.Qxg5 hxg5=) 11...hxg3 12.hxg3 Nd7 13.Qc2 Nb6 14.Rh4²

9.dxe5 dxe5 10.Qxd8 Nxd8 11.Bxf6 Bxf6 12.Nd5 Kg7 13.Nxc7 Rb8 14.Nd5 Ne6

158
 The pawn sac hasn’t delivered black sufficient counterplay, but neither does the following
continuation: 14...Bg4 15.Nxf6 Kxf6 16.Nxe5! (Stockfish 9) 16...Bxe2 17.Nd7+ Ke7 18.Nxb8 Bxc4
19.Rc1 Bb5 20.a4 Bxa4 21.Ra1 Bb5 22.Rxa7 Kd6 23.Ra5 Bc4 24.e5+ Ke7 25.Rc5 Be6 26.0-0+–

15.0-0-0

It would be tougher for black after 15.Rd1! Rd8 16.Nxf6 Rxd1+ 17.Kxd1 Kxf6 18.Kd2 b6 19.g3
Bb7 20.Ke3 Nc5 21.Nd2 Ke7 22.b4 Ne6 23.Rd1 Nd4 24.Bd3±

15...Nc5 (+1.36)

Active defense would have been safer, with the KID bishop getting back into the game at the cost of
a pawn: 15...Nf4 16.Nxf4 exf4 17.Nd4 Re8 18.f3 Be5. However, Garry decided to head for a minor
piece ending a pawn down but with an active king. Evidently, this was some home prep that he had
done independently. The computers assessed this interesting idea as a waste of material, but for some
reason at this point in the game Tal completely changed and adopted a dejected demeanor. His
endgame play was surprising. First he exchanged one rook pair, and then, completely pointlessly, he
exchanged the other pair, ending with passive pieces against an active knight and even more active king
that fully offset his extra pawn.

16.Nxf6 Kxf6 17.Nxe5 Nxe4 18.Nd7+ Bxd7 19.Rxd7 Rfd8 20.Rxd8 Rxd8 21.f3 Nc5 22.Rd1
Rxd1+ 23.Kxd1 Ke5 24.Kd2 Kd4

159
 25.b4 Na4 26.Bd1= Nb2 27.c5 Nc4+ 28.Ke2 a6

Computer analysis gives interesting lines: 28...a5 29.bxa5 Nxa5 30.Ba4 f5 31.f4 Kxc5 32.Be8 g5
33.fxg5 (33.Bd7 Nc6!=) 33...hxg5 34.g3 Kd4 35.h4 gxh4 36.gxh4 Nc4 37.h5 Ke5 38.h6 Kf6 39.h7
Kg7 40.Bg6 f4 41.Be4 Nd6 42.Bd3 Ne8 43.Kf3 Nf6 44.h8=Q+ Kxh8 45.Kxf4 Nd5+ 46.Ke5 Nb4
47.Bc4 Nxa2=

29.Bb3 Kc3 30.Bxc4 Kxc4=

31.Ke3??

160
 White’s final blunder, in a standard pawn ending, immediately ruins his position. Given that this
endgame setup was flickering on the horizon as early as the beginning of the middlegame, it would
have been best analyzed with a computer in advance (albeit, not in 1978), after which white would have
seen how to continue with his pawn pushed to a3. After such analysis, white would know what to do
over the board straight away no matter what the time control was.
Here the computer shows a subtle way to gain a draw (alas, no more than that) via a precise series of
moves leading to an equal number of pawns, starting with 31.a3! The black king is invited to gobble up
the a-pawn instead, and it’s the furthest pawn from the kingside: 31...Kb3 32.Kd3 g5 33.g4 Kxa3
34.Kc3 Ka4 35.Kc4 Ka3= 36.b5 (or he can maintain opposition of the kings) 36...axb5 37.Kxb5 Kb3
38.c6 bxc6+ 39.Kxc6 Kc4 40.Kd6 Kd4, and the kings manage to eliminate all the infantrymen from
the game.

31...Kxb4 32.Kd4 Ka3 33.c6 bxc6 34.Kc5 Kxa2 35.Kxc6 Kb3

36.Kb6

This is why the move 31.a3! was so subtle. Instead of rushing to the kingside pawns the white king is
forced to run in the other direction to eat the a-pawn. The black king’s work from here requires no
explanation.

36...Kc4 37.Kxa6 Kd3 38.Kb6 Ke3 39.Kc6 Kf2 40.Kd6 Kxg2 41.Ke7 f5 42.Kf6 Kxf3 43.Kxg6
Ke4 44.Kxh6 f4

White resigned.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Score

161
 Tal 1 1 1 0 0 3
Kasparov 0 0 0 1 1 2

Game 28

G. Kasparov – M. Tal
Tbilisi Blitz Match (6th game). 26.12.1978
French Defense. [C08]

1.e4 e6!?

The fact that Tal chose the French here, which was quite inconsistent with his style, suggests to me
that he wanted to experiment a little, and now we could expect unusual decisions from him in the
match.

2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.exd5 exd5

Garry admitted after the game that here he expected something like 4...Qxd5 5.Ngf3 cxd4 6.Bc4 Qd6
7.0-0 Nf6, as he remembered that Petrosian had played like that in several games against grandmasters,
all of which had ended in draws. However, Tal decided to test himself in a game with an isolated d5
pawn.

5.Bb5+ Bd7

Botvinnik played something similar against Euwe in the 1948 match tournament: 5...Nc6 6.Qe2+
Qe7 7.dxc5 Qxe2+ 8.Nxe2 Bxc5 9.Nb3 Bb6=

6.Qe2+ Be7 7.dxc5 Nf6 8.Nb3

Tal showed me a different setup the next day: 8.Ngf3 0-0 9.0-0 Re8 10.Qd3 Bxc5 11.Bxd7 Nbxd7
12.Nb3 Bb6 13.Bf4 Re4! (M. Tal – P. Gaidukov, Leningrad 1951).

8...0-0 9.Be3 Re8 10.Nf3 a6 11.Bd3 Ba4 12.Nfd4 Nbd7 13.0-0 Nxc5 14.Nxc5 Bxc5=

162
 15.Qf3 Ne4 16.Rad1 Bxd4 17.Bxd4 Qg5 18.Rfe1 Rac8 (+0.62) 19.b3 Bc6 20.Qe3

He didn’t need to rush with the exchange of queens, as he still had the opportunity to cause new
weaknesses in black’s pawn position. A more promising continuation was 20.Qh3! h5 21.f3 Nd6 22.a4
g6 and only now 23.Qg3!

20...Qxe3 21.Rxe3 f6 22.f3 Nd6 23.Rxe8+ Rxe8 24.Kf2 Kf7 25.a4 g6 26.g4± Re6 27.h4 Ne8?
28.h5+– Ng7 29.hxg6+ hxg6 30.Rh1 b5 31.axb5 Bxb5

Now white demonstrates a way to convert his positional advantage, which is pretty impressive for
blitz:

163
 32.Bxb5 axb5 33.Ra1 Rc6 34.c3 Ne6 35.Ke3 f5 36.gxf5 gxf5 37.Ra5 Nc7? (+2.20) 38.Kf4 Ke6
39.b4 Rc4 40.Kg5 Rc6 41.Ra1 Ne8 42.Re1+ Kf7 43.Re5! Ng7 44.Rxd5 Rg6+ 45.Kf4 Ne6+ 46.Kxf5
Rg5+ 47.Ke4 Rg2 48.Rxb5

Black resigned.

This game was fairly boring. Strange as it may sound, neither player was fond of drawn-out
positional maneuvering, and by move 30 they were in a time scramble. However, by that time Tal
already had a quite unpleasant position and I felt that he had lost interest in this game, allowing Garry
to prove himself as a decent positional player who carefully exploited the advantage of his active
bishop pair and then activated his rook in time, which picked up low-hanging fruit in the enemy camp.
So another “mini-sensation” of this match – Garry had now won three games in a row off the national
champion and had equalized the score without too much effort.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Score
Tal 1 1 1 0 0 0 3
Kasparov 0 0 0 1 1 1 3
Game 29

M. Tal – G. Kasparov
Tbilisi Blitz Match (7th game). 26.12.1978
Sicilian Defense. [B40]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.b3?!

These days you can find sidelines or old, half-forgotten variations that theory had earlier rejected,
guided by the fundamental laws of chess strategy, to force your opponent away from charted territory.

3...Nc6 4.Bb2 d5 5.exd5 exd5 6.Bb5 Nf6 7.0-0 Be7 8.d4 cxd4 9.Nxd4 Bd7 10.Re1 0-0 11.Nc3 Rc8

164
 So what has the move 3.b3 added here? Evidently, nothing. We find a typical position with an isolani
on d5, whose method for handling can be found in a standard middlegame manual.

12.Nce2?!

This is not the way to handle an isolani, though. Evidently, Tal planned to transfer his knight from c3
to f5, but it was better to continue 12.Nf3 and then bring his c3 knight via e2 to d4, retaining control
over the central squares.

12...Bb4!

A strong reply that turned out to be underestimated by... both players.

13.c3

White could also have maintained equality with 13.Bxc6 bxc6 14.c3 Bd6 15.Ng3 Bxg3 16.hxg3 c5
17.Ne2 Re8 18.Nf4 Rxe1+ 19.Qxe1 Qb6

165
 13...Ba5

Black had a nice choice here, including 13...Nxd4 14.Bxd7 (14.Qxd4 Bc5 15.Qa4 Bxb5 16.Qxb5
Ng4 17.Nd4 Qh4–+) 14...Qxd7 15.Qxd4 Bc5 16.Qd3 Qc7 17.g3 Rfe8³; and 13...Bc5 14.Bxc6 bxc6
15.Ng3 Qb6 16.Qd2 Rfe8=

14.Bxc6 bxc6 15.b4?

Some of white’s pieces have not yet entered play, so making this pseudo-active pawn move in such a
context, all the more so as it weakens c4 and restricts movement of the b2 bishop, was an unjustified
and risky decision.

15...Bb6 16.Ng3 c5

Play would have been interesting had black not committed to a set pawn structure, for example,
16...Re8!? 17.Rxe8+ Qxe8 18.Qd2 Qf8 19.a4 h5 20.a5 Bc7 21.Ndf5 Bxg3 22.Nxg3 h4 23.Nf1 h3
24.g3 Re8 25.f3 c5³. However, black impatiently wanted to fix the weakness of the c4 square and c3
pawn.

17.bxc5?

166
 With this exchange white only strengthens the enemy dark-squared bishop and creates more
problems for himself. He should have bravely pushed a knight to f5, but to do so he had to calculate its
continuation: 17.Ndf5= Be6 18.c4! d4 19.bxc5 Rxc5! For a five-minute game, and for a player who,
let’s be brutally honest, had demonstrated a less than ideal way of thinking in this game, it was not
realistic to expect such calculation, and here we can only note that, had those moves happened, chances
would have been equal: 20.Nxd4 Rxc4 (20...Bxc4 21.Ngf5! Re8 22.Qf3² was weaker) 21.Nxe6 Qxd1
22.Raxd1 fxe6 23.Bxf6 Rxf6 24.Re2 e5 25.h3 Bd4=

17...Bxc5 18.Qd3?! (-0.70)

It was better for white to give his dark-squared bishop a different and free diagonal to operate on with
18.Bc1!? even if this was tardy: 18...Bd6 19.Bd2³.

18...Qb6 19.Rab1 Bxd4

Now it was time for Kasparov to go wrong. In exchanging off his strong bishop he also liquidates
both white’s weakness on c3 and pressure along the a7-g1 diagonal. White no longer has to worry
about how to equalize.

20.cxd4 Qa5

167
 21.Ba3??

The perfectly normal move 21.Qa3 would have retained equality.

Tal’s play was well below par in this game and blundering the bishop was over the top...

21...Rc3–+

White could have stopped the clocks here, but instead he created an illusion of activity by sacrificing
his queen, though not for long.

22.Qxc3 Qxc3 23.Bxf8 Kxf8 24.Nf5 g6 25.Rec1 Qa5 26.Rb8+ Be8 27.Ne3 Kg7

White resigned.

So in this Tal game didn’t look his usual self either, and played even worse than in game 6. His
blunder on move 21 practically ended the game, and Kasparov had unexpectedly gained leadership in
the match without much of an effort. Maybe Tal shouldn’t have agreed to the match so readily? There
seemed to be too much of an age gap – and, hence, a gap in stamina.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Score
Tal 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 3
Kasparov 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 4
Game 30

G. Kasparov – M. Tal
Tbilisi Blitz Match (8th game). 26.12.1978

168
 Sicilian Defense. [B85]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be2 Nf6 7.0-0 Be7 8.Be3 0-0 9.f4 a6 10.Qe1
Qc7 11.Qg3 Nxd4 12.Bxd4 b5 13.a3 Bb7

14.Bd3?!

Garry had got overexcited at his sudden leadership in the match and his thought process
malfunctioned to the extent that he mixed up the move order. The correct move order was demonstrated
to the wider public later, by two super-experts in the Scheveningen: 14.Rae1 Bc6 15.Kh1 Qb7 16.Bd3
b4 17.axb4 Qxb4 18.Ne2 Qb7 19.Ng1 g6 20.Qe3 a5 21.Nf3 a4 22.Nd2= (Y. Balashov – L.
Polugaevsky, Moscow 1981).

14...e5! 15.fxe5 Nh5 16.Qh3 dxe5 17.Qxh5 exd4 18.Nd5 Bxd5 19.exd5

White wanted to open the diagonal for his bishop, but underestimated the effect of opening the e-file.
He would definitely have stood no worse after the natural capture 19.Qxd5 and the continuation
19...Rad8 20.Qh5 g6 21.Qe2 Bg5 22.g3 Be3+ 23.Kg2 Qc6 24.Rf3 Rd6 25.Raf1

19...g6 20.Qg4 Bd6=

169
 21.h4?

Garry demonstrates his attacking intent at quite the wrong place. After 21.g3 his position was
perfectly defensible.

21...Rae8 22.Rf3?!

He insists on continuing with aggressive play, although there is no obvious way to attack other than
to push his h4 pawn further. After 22.h5 Bh2+ 23.Kh1 Be5 24.Rae1 Bg7 25.Rxe8 Rxe8 26.Qf3 white
just about hangs on (not 26...Re3? 27.d6!).

22...Re5 23.a4

And now diverting his attention to active play on the queenside when he needed to make major
repairs on the kingside was simply weak.

23...Rxd5 24.axb5 axb5 25.Raf1 Qe7 26.Qe4

A relatively better continuation was 26.g3 h5 27.Qe4 Re5 28.Qc6 f5 29.Kg2 Rc5 30.Qa6 Kg7
31.Ra1 Qe5 promising black only µ

26...Re5

170
 27.Qc6?

White has totally lost his way. At this tragic time for the white king his queen runs away to the
queenside. What’s it doing there?

27...Re6 28.Qxb5 Qxh4

Now only black can attack, as the white king’s bunker is destroyed.

29.Rh3 Qe7 30.Qd5 Re3 31.Rhf3 Re5 32.Qb3 Rh5 33.Rxf7

White’s position is a disaster, and the only question is how long until he gets mated. He ceased
resisting.

33...Bh2+ 34.Kh1 Bg3+ 35.Kg1 Rh1+ 36.Kxh1 Qh4+ 37.Kg1 Qh2#

So the score was again level. Well done, the champion! However, Garry wasn’t at all himself in this
game. Still, we know that in long competitions, as in life itself, all participants enjoy streaks of good
and bad luck, which in blitz can change remarkably quickly if the players are of approximately equal
strength.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Score
Tal 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 4
Kasparov 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 4

Game 31

M. Tal – G. Kasparov

171
 Tbilisi Blitz Match (9th game). 26.12.1978
Modern Defense. [A42]

1.c4 g6 2.e4 e5 3.d4 Nc6

A typical opening for blitz, intended to reduce the opponent’s remaining time by 1-2 minutes at the
start of the opening. The obvious-looking 4.d5 Nd4 5.Nf3 Bg7 leads to positions somewhat resembling
Indian ones. And that’s when players start to try and identify associations – on which they may waste
valuable minutes.

4.Nf3

Oddly enough, the simple exchange 4.dxe5! leaving black without support in the center is something
that you would rarely think of, yet in my view it poses a rather serious problem for black: 4...Nxe5
5.Nc3 Bc5 6.Be2 Nf6 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Bg3 Qe7 10.Bxe5 (10.Nf3 d6 11.0-0 Bd7 12.a3 a5 13.b4±
(W. Uhlmann – Z. Klaric, Sarajevo 1981)) 10...Qxe5 11.Nf3 Qe6 12.0-0 Nxe4 13.Nd5 Kd8 14.b4 Bf8
15.Qd4 Rg8 16.Bd3 f5 17.Bxe4 fxe4 18.Rae1 Bg7 19.Qc5 c6 20.Qa5+ b6 21.Nxb6 axb6 22.Qxa8
Qxc4 23.Qb8 Qxb4 24.a3 Qb5 25.Rxe4+–

4...exd4 5.Nxd4 Bg7 6.Be3 Nge7 7.Be2 0-0 8.Nc3 d6 9.0-0

172
 9...f5! 10.exf5 Bxd4! 11.Bxd4 Nxf5 12.Be3 Nxe3 13.fxe3

Black has carried out a well-known technical maneuver and solved his opening problems.

13...Be6 14.Rxf8+ Qxf8=

The next eight moves were blitzed out below GM level. They included some strange decisions, due to
which, in particular, the e3 pawn suffered.

15.Ne4 Qg7 16.Ng5 Qe5! 17.Nxe6 Qxe3+ 18.Kh1 Qxe6 19.Bf3 Kg7 20.Bd5 Qf6 21.Qb3 Rf8!
22.h3 Na5=

173
 23.Qa4?

A player in fighting mood would here have placed his queen on b5.

But black did not want to create complications. So after 23...c6 the game was soon wrapped up.

Yet it was worth black taking a risk and exploiting white’s carelessness by capturing the pawn:
23...Qxb2! 24.Rd1 Qe2 25.Rg1 c6 26.Qxa5 cxd5 27.cxd5 Qc4 28.Qxa7 Qxd5, giving black the chance
to play for a win. But if you’re really not in the mood then it’s best to leave things as they are.

24.Qxa5 cxd5 25.Qxd5 Qxb2 26.Re1 Rf7 27.Qxd6 Qf2 28.Qe5+ Qf6

It’s a shame that a game which had begun with such originality quickly ended in a boring fashion.

Draw agreed.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Score
Tal 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 ½ 4½
Kasparov 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 ½ 4½

174
 Game 32

G. Kasparov – M. Tal
Tbilisi Blitz Match (10th game). 26.12.1978
Spanish Opening. [C89]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d5

The Marshall Attack is a perfectly natural choice, as it is intended in blitz to take advantage of your
opponent’s forgetfulness, especially at the business end of a competition.

9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6 12.Bxd5 cxd5 13.d4 Bd6 14.Re3 Qh4 15.h3 Qf4 16.Re5
Qf6 17.Re1 Qg6

18.Kh1

18.Qf3 Bf5 19.Be3 Be4 20.Qg4 h5 21.Qxg6 Bxg6 22.Nd2 f6 23.Nb3 Bf5 24.Nc5 Bxc5 25.dxc5
Bd7 26.Rad1 Bc6 27.h4 Rfe8 28.f3 Kf7 29.Kf2 Rh8 30.Rd2 Rae8 31.Rde2 Re6 32.Bf4 Rxe2+ 33.Rxe2
Re8 34.Rxe8 Bxe8 35.g4 g6 36.b4 Bc6 37.Ke3 Ke6 38.Kd4 Kf7 39.Bc7 Ke7 40.Bd6+ Ke6 41.Bf4
Draw agreed (M. Tal – B. Spassky, candidates final, Tbilisi 1965).

18...Bf5 19.Nd2

This unnecessarily allows the black pieces to become active, which white could have avoided by
playing 19.Be3 Bc2 20.Qg4 Qxg4 21.hxg4 f5 22.gxf5 Rxf5 23.Kg1 Rh5 24.Nd2 Bh2+ 25.Kh1 Bd3
26.Nf1 Bd6+ 27.Kg1 Re8 28.Bd2

175
 19...Bc2

The rook could have helped the bishop: 19...Rfe8 20.Nf3 Bc2 21.Rxe8+ Rxe8 22.Qf1 Bd3 23.Qg1
Re2 24.Ne5 Bxe5 25.dxe5 h6 26.Be3 Rxb2³

20.Qg4 Rae8 21.Rxe8 Rxe8 22.Nf3 Qxg4 23.hxg4 Re2 24.Be3 Bd3 25.Nd2 b4 26.Kg1 f6 27.Rc1
bxc3 28.bxc3 Ba3 29.Rd1 Bb2= 30.Nf1 Bc4 31.a4?µ Rc2 32.Ng3 Rxc3 33.Nf5 Be2?= 34.Ne7+ Kf7

35.Nxd5??

White blunders a piece in an equal position: 35.Rb1 Kxe7 36.Rxb2 Bxg4 37.Rb7+ Kf8 38.Bf4 Rc4
39.Bd6+ Kg8 40.f3 Be6 41.Re7 Bf7 42.Ra7 Be8 43.Rxa6 Rxd4=

35...Rc2?

Tal fails to notice he can win the game after 35...Bxd1 36.Nxc3 Bxc3 37.f3 Bxa4. That’s the
downside to playing blitz.

36.Rb1= Bxg4 37.Nb4 Re2 38.Nxa6 Bf5 39.Rd1 Bc2 40.Rd2 Rxd2 41.Bxd2 Bxd4 42.a5 Ke6
43.Nb4 Be4 44.Kf1 h5 45.f3 Ba8 46.Ke2 h4 47.Be3 Bc3 48.Bd2 h3 49.gxh3 Bxf3+ 50.Kd3 Bxd2
51.Kxd2 g5 52.Ke3 Bg2 53.a6

Draw agreed.

After 53...Kd6 54.Kf2 Be4 there are several paths to a draw, one of the shortest being 55.Na2 Kc5
56.Nc3 Bc6 57.Kg3 Kb6 58.h4 gxh4+ 59.Kxh4 Kxa6
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Score

176
 Tal 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 ½ ½ 5
Kasparov 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 ½ ½ 5

Game 33

M. Tal – G. Kasparov
Tbilisi Blitz Match (11th game). 26.12.1978
Sicilian Defense. [B50]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.Nc3 d6 4.g3 Nc6 5.Bg2 Nf6 6.0-0 Be7 7.d3 0-0

This opening position is rarely found in tournament practice, but it’s far from a simple one, and is
tricky given that theoreticians don’t write articles about it, while practicing chess players who have
studied its subtleties don’t hurry to share their novelties.

8.Ng5

This isn’t a self-contained sortie, but intended to free the path for the f2 pawn as well as to support
the advance of the g3 pawn.

8...h6

He could have ignored the knight’s charge, as for now it isn’t doing anyone any harm: 8...d5 9.f4 d4
10.Nb1 e5 11.f5 (S. Korolev – M. Yudovich, 1974) 11...Ne8 12.Nh3 Nd6 13.c3 Bd7 14.g4 b5 15.g5
Rc8=; or 8...Ne8 9.Nh3 Rb8 10.Be3 b5 11.Qd2 b4 12.Ne2 a5 13.a3 Nf6

9.Nh3 Rb8

177
 Black is preparing his own operations on the queenside, but a decent alternative was to create tension
in the center with 9...d5 10.Nf4 d4 (10...dxe4 11.dxe4 g5 12.Nfe2 Qxd1 13.Rxd1 Nb4 14.Rd2 Rd8
15.f4 Rxd2 16.Bxd2 Nxc2 17.Rc1 Nb4 18.fxg5 hxg5 19.Bxg5 Nd3 20.Rf1 Nd5=) 11.Nb1 e5 12.Nd5
Bd6 13.Na3 Be6 14.Nxf6+ Qxf6 15.f4 exf4 16.gxf4 Qh4 17.e5 Bg4=

10.f4?! (-0.52)

My Stockfish doesn’t like this and lobbies for 10.a4, although it cannot prove what benefits this
delivers after 10...d5

10...Nd4

This knight charge in the center is hardly better than the already prepared break 10...b5, but to opt for
that alternative black had to calculate the variation 11.e5 Nd5 12.Nxd5 exd5 13.Qh5 Rb6 14.Be3 Nb4
15.Qd1 d4 16.Bd2 dxe5 17.fxe5 Nd5, and assess the resulting position correctly. Whereas in moving
the knight to the center no such calculation was necessary – this saves time in blitz.

11.g4 (-0.56)

Again, the computer advises caution: 11.a4 a6 12.Ne2 Nc6 (12...d5 13.Nxd4 cxd4 14.e5 Nd7 15.b3
Bb4 16.Bb2 Bc5 17.Qe1±) 13.Nf2 e5 14.f5 b5 15.axb5 axb5 16.Nc3 b4 17.Nd5 Nxd5 18.exd5 Nd4
19.g4 Bd7 20.Ne4 f6 21.c4 bxc3 22.bxc3 Nb3 23.Ra7 Nxc1 24.Qxc1=

11...Nh7?!

This is an ugly-looking retreat, and doesn’t look like the best solution in terms of prophylaxis.

Senior Soviet Master Vladimir Andreevich Makogonov, who had given the young Garry several
extremely useful lessons, would say: “If all your pieces stand optimally, find an active pawn move.”

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Indeed, the best move here was the march of the b7 pawn, which, by the way, didn’t end up moving
until the end of the game: 11...b5! Now, the wild attack 12.g5 is beaten back with 12...hxg5 13.Nxg5
(or 13.fxg5 Nh7 14.a4 b4 15.Nb5 Nxg5) 13...e5! 14.f5 d5! 15.exd5 Nxf5! 16.Nge4 Rb6³.
Conservative play by white is also to black’s advantage: 12.a3 a5 13.Bd2 b4! 14.axb4 e5! 15.f5 axb4
16.Ne2 d5 17.Nxd4 cxd4³

12.g5?!N (-1.48)

This idea, to sacrifice the pawn in order to open two files on the flank where white plans to attack,
has not been played in serious games. However, in blitz this is a fairly decent way of testing your
opponent’s understanding of any position. From the strict assessment of the idea by the computers we
can only seriously take account of the minus sign that they show, confirming that this sac is a risky
ploy, given that black doesn’t yet have any weaknesses.

12...hxg5 13.fxg5 Nxg5 14.Nxg5 Bxg5 15.Qh5 (-1.80)

Having calculated the smallish minus (or risk) in the moves, my Stockfish advises playing 15.Ne2,
however, there is no need for its further calculations if, using human thinking, we put together the
following chain of moves: 15...Bxc1 16.Rxc1 Nxe2+ 17.Qxe2 Qg5 18.Kh1 e5 19.Bf3 Be6 20.Rg1
Qh6 21.Bg4 Rbe8 22.Rcf1 Bxg4 23.Qxg4 Re6. Here, black in a quiet position ends up a good pawn
ahead without any obvious compensation for white. That said, this is the thinking of an analyst without
time constraints, and not of a blitzer who lacks time to string together even a short series of moves, and
in such positions he should try to break his opponent with pressure and confidence in the effectiveness
of his decisions.

15...Bxc1 (-1.05)

It’s hard to criticize the exchange of dark-squared bishops, but, in my view, the black bishop looks
more promising and he should have retained it, moving it to a more active position in the center of the
board: 15...Bf6! (-1.38) 16.Qd1 Be5 (16...g6 17.Bh6 Be5! 18.Bxf8 Qh4 19.h3 Kxf8µ) 17.Bf4 b5
18.Bxe5 dxe5µ

16.Raxc1

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 16...e5?

This is an unforced and totally unnecessary weakening of black’s light squares in his own camp. It’s
the key reason why he gradually slips into a vector of serious difficulties. The pawn on e6 should
remain where it is, guarding the squares d5 and f5, and instead a different pawn should have gone on
the attack. One option was 16...f5 17.exf5 Rxf5 18.Rxf5 Nxf5 and equality was maintained here by the
tactic 19.Ne4 Bd7 20.Ng5 Qf6 21.Qh7+ Kf8 22.Qh8+ Ke7 23.Qxb8 Qxg5 24.Rf1 Bc6 25.Qc7+ Ke8
26.Rf2 Bxg2 27.Qc8². Alternatively, black’s f-pawn could have guarded other important squares e5
and g5: 16...f6!? 17.Kh1 Qe8! (-1.00) 18.Qd1 Bd7 19.Rg1 Qg6! 20.Ne2 Kf7 21.Bf3 Qh6! Here, black,
on the defensive, may get a counter attack after 22.Nxd4 cxd4 23.Bh5+ Ke7 24.Rg6 Qh7 25.Rg2 g5
26.Be2 Rh8–+

17.Nd5 (0.00) 17...f6 18.c3 Ne6 19.Rf3 Ng5 20.Rg3 Be6? (+0.70)

Black doesn’t feel the seriousness of the position after the rook moves to g3, which strengthens the
attacking potential of white’s kingside forces. The sacrifice of the white pawn has begun to justify
itself. Black had to chase the queen from h5 with 20...Qe8! 21.Qe2 (21.Rxg5? fxg5 22.Qxg5 Rf7–+)
21...Kh8 22.Rf1 b5! 23.h4 Nh7! 24.d4 Be6 25.dxc5 dxc5. Then the position would be very
complicated and difficult to evaluate.

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 21.h4 Bf7 (+0.80) 22.Qe2 Ne6? (+1.50)

This desire to protect the g7 pawn actually significantly reduces the chances of mounting a successful
defense. Black should have gritted his teeth, attempting to demonstrate the solidity of his defense after
22...Nh7 (+0.69) 23.Qg4 (23.Bh3 Kh8 24.Ne3 g6 25.Rf1 b5 (25...f5? 26.exf5 Qxh4 27.Qg2 Rg8
28.Bg4 Ng5 29.Kf2+–) 26.Qg2 Qe7 27.Kh2 Rg8 28.Rg1 Qf8=) 23...g6 24.h5 g5 25.Ne3 Kh8 26.Bh3
d5 27.exd5 Bxd5 28.a3 Bc6 29.Qc4 (29.Nf5 Qb6³) 29...Qb6 30.Bf5 Rbd8=

23.Rf1 (+1.30) 23...Kh8 24.Bh3 Nf4 25.Nxf4 exf4 26.Rxf4 Qe7 (+2.40)

Black would have been too late in putting together a defense with 26...Rg8 27.Qf3 Qe8 28.h5 Qe5
29.Bf5 d5 30.Bg6 dxe4 31.Rxe4 Qc7 32.h6 gxh6 33.Qxf6+ Rg7 34.Reg4 Qb6 35.Qf4!+–

27.Bf5

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 27...Qe5? (+5.04) 28.Qg4?!

“I see a strong move immediately,” as said by the strong blitzer Valentin Arbakov, who just a quarter
of a century ago achieved decent results against very strong GMs when fighting for the top spots in
prestigious championships, and who would beat masters giving them five minutes to his one minute. I
wonder whether he would have found the best moves in the following variation: 28.Rfg4! Bh5 29.Rg2!
Rbe8 30.Rxg7 Qxf5! 31.Qe3! with a win. Tal had less than one minute left and failed to find this line.

28...Rg8 (+2.30) 29.h5 d5 30.Qh4 dxe4 31.Bg6 exd3 32.h6? (+0.00)

Capturing the bishop with 32.Bxf7 would have retained a very powerful attack, but try and calculate
in the chaos of blitz even the approximate consequences of the black pawn’s charge towards the
queening square with 32...d2. Again, analysis with the computer demonstrates that this pawn move
only postpones black’s capitulation: 33.Bb3 c4 34.Bd1 Rbe8 35.Rf1 Qc5+ 36.Qd4 Qxd4+ 37.cxd4 Re4
38.Rg4 Rxg4+ 39.Bxg4 Rd8 40.Rf4 Re8 41.d5 Re5 42.Bd1 Re1+ 43.Rf1 b5 44.d6 Re6 45.Rf5 Rxd6
46.Rxb5+–

32...Bxg6 33.Rxg6

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 33...Qe3+ (+13.20)

Strictly speaking, black here has not used an unexpected chance to continue the fight to draw
provided to him by his now openly tired opponent: 33...Kh7! (0.00!) 34.Rfg4 Rge8! 35.hxg7+ Kg8
36.Re4 d2! Here the d2 pawn does save black, but look at the saving scenario – can a human really find
it, let alone in blitz? 37.Qh8+ Kf7 38.g8=Q+ Rxg8 39.Qh7+ Ke6 40.Rxe5+ Kxe5 41.Qh5+ Ke6
42.Qe2+ Kf7 43.Rg2 Rxg2+ 44.Kxg2 Rd8=

34.Kg2 Kh7 35.hxg7+ Kxg6 36.Qxf6+

Black resigned given the inevitable mate.

This was a tense and exciting battle between youth and experience. There was an idea behind almost
every move that required the opponent to figure it out and which provoked thought and challenge.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Score
Tal 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 ½ ½ 1 6
Kasparov 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 ½ ½ 0 5

Game 34

G. Kasparov – M. Tal
Tbilisi Blitz Match (12th game). 26.12.1978
Spanish Opening. [C80]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.c3 Nc5
10.Nbd2 d4

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 11.Ng5

This move, invented by Grandmaster Igor Zaitsev, was a big surprise for me in this game. I think that
Tal found the move quite unpleasant, though, as it forced him to address an ethical issue. Maybe he
even thought: “No, if such matters are now coming to the fore this match needs to end.”

11...dxc3 12.Nxe6 fxe6 13.bxc3 Nxe5?

A poor move, after which black’s position quickly unraveled. In 1978 in Baguio the challenger
successfully defended black’s position after 13...Qd3 14.Nf3 Qxd1 15.Bxd1 Be7 16.Be3 Nd3. But
here it wasn’t the right time to demonstrate secrets. Karpov might still play Korchnoi again in 1981, as
of course happened, and Tal remained a member of the then world champion’s team. So instead he
bluffed.

14.Qh5+ Nf7 15.Bc2 g6 16.Qh3 Qd5 17.Nb3 Ne4? (+4.09)

The end. The only possible resistance was to hope for a miracle after exchanging queens: 17...Qh5
18.Qxh5 gxh5 19.Be3 Na4 20.Rae1 Bd6. However, black hadn’t planned on resisting once 11.Ng5 was
played.

18.Rd1 Qe5 19.Re1 Neg5 20.Bxg5 Nxg5 21.Rxe5 Nxh3+ 22.gxh3

Black resigned.

So now the score was again equal, although this last game had given pleasure to nobody.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Score

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 Tal 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 ½ ½ 1 0 6
Kasparov 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 ½ ½ 0 1 6

Game 35

M. Tal – G. Kasparov
Tbilisi Blitz Match (13th game). 26.12.1978
Caro-Kann Defense. [B19]

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3
10.Qxd3 Qc7 11.Bd2 Ngf6 12.0-0-0 e6 13.Ne4 0-0-0 14.g3

A cult had grown around this position in the Baku Pioneers Palace. Makogonov and Bagirov were
fans of the black side here. It was they who had taught the very young Garry the basics and subtleties of
this solid and interesting opening system.

14...Nc5 15.Nxc5 Bxc5 16.Bf4 Bd6 17.Bxd6 Rxd6 18.Ne5 Rhd8

Black gains a more reliable defense with 18...c5 19.Qc4 Rd5 20.f4 Ne4 21.Rhe1 Nd6 22.Qa4 c4=
which was built by a new generation of grandmasters in our computer era (J. Duda – M. Turov, Sibenik
2012).

19.c3 c5 20.Kb1 Rd5 21.f4 cxd4 22.cxd4 Kb8 23.Rc1 Qe7 24.Rc4 Nd7 25.Rhc1 Nxe5 26.fxe5 a6
27.Qc3 R5d7 28.a4 Ka7 29.a5 Qg5

Black was at the very least no worse after 29...Rd5! 30.Rc7 R8d7. But he had planned to transfer his
queen to the long light-squared diagonal – not the best idea.

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 30.Qb4 Qf5+ 31.Ka2 Qf3 32.Qb6+ Kb8 33.R1c3 Qd5 34.b3=

34...Qb5

Now it was time to play the break 34...f6, which would have been a safer way to maintain equality.
35.exf6 gxf6 36.Rc7 Rxc7 37.Rxc7 Rc8 38.Re7 e5 39.dxe5 fxe5=, however, the players’ flags were
close to falling and there was no time to choose any moves.

35.Rc7 Qxb6?

This primitive desire to exchange queens in order to reduce the tension could have led to an
unfortunate result, whereas returning the queen to an active position in the center with 35...Qd5! would
have parried all of white’s aggressive intents: 36.R3c5 Qg2+ 37.Rc2 Qd5 38.R2c5 Qg2+ 39.Ka3
Qh1!=

36.axb6+–

In exchanging queens, black has shut his king in a cage from which he cannot escape.

36...f6 37.exf6?

White would have won with a rook invasion on the seventh rank: 37.Ka3 Rxd4 38.Rxg7 fxe5
39.Rcc7+–. However, at this point white’s eyes only saw the clock buttons and his hand automatically
grabbed the pawn.

37...gxf6 38.Ka3 e5?

The exit of the white pawn from e5 gave black the opportunity to free up his king with 38...Rd6= to

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capture white’s nasty pawn. However, for some reason black’s instinct told him to open the central file
for his rooks, just as his coach had taught him.

39.dxe5?

Again, Tal’s hand let him down and he automatically grabbed another pawn. The rook ending after
39.Rxd7! Rxd7 40.Rf3! exd4 41.Rxf6! Rd8 42.Kb2 Kc8 43.Rxh6 is won for white.

39...fxe5 40.R7c5

Draw agreed.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Score
Tal 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 ½ ½ 1 0 ½ 6½
Kasparov 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 6½
Game 36

G. Kasparov – M. Tal
Tbilisi Blitz Match (14th game). 26.12.1978
Sicilian Defense. [B66]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.0-0-0 h6

An important improvement: black forces white to commit his active bishop. Admittedly, it doesn’t
change the overall evaluation of this opening system, as in the second game of this match Kasparov
decided after 8...Bd7 9.f4 b5 to ruin black’s pawn structure by exchanging his bishop for black’s
knight: 10.Bxf6 gxf6 and he only gained an advantage in the opening due to black’s hurried long

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castling on move 14.

9.Be3

It’s unpleasant when you have to make a decision in blitz, as it uses up time. And it’s no surprise that
of several apparently equal options white selects the quietest and least risky one, leaving aside the most
interesting subline that would really have livened up the game: 9.Bh4 Nxe4!? 10.Qf4 after which black
has to choose between 10...Ng5 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.Qa4 Qb6 13.f4 Nh7 14.f5 Rb8 15.fxe6 Bxe6 16.Bc4
(H. Westerinen – I. Csom, Las Palmas 1978) and 10...g5 11.Qxe4 gxh4 12.Nxc6 bxc6 13.Qxc6+ Bd7
14.Qe4 Rg8 15.f4 (Y. Averbakh – M. Botvinnik, Moscow 1957).

9...Bd7 10.f4 b5 11.Bd3 Be7 12.Kb1

12...Qc7

This time, Tal was more careful – above all, he tried to prevent the break e4-e5, and then he castled
short. As a result, he completed his opening development without facing difficulties in creating
counterplay.

13.Rhe1 0-0! 14.h3 Nxd4

A perfectly acceptable alternative was 14...Na5 15.g4 b4 16.Nce2 d5 17.Ng3 Nc4 18.Bxc4 dxc4
19.g5 c3 with complicated play. However, black’s effective and standard ploy that he chose further
strengthened his position.

15.Bxd4 b4! 16.Ne2 e5!

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 The white knight is chased from the center, and black is ready to take the initiative.

17.Bf2

The black pawns are the first to trigger a mutual storm against the enemy kings: 17...a5 18.g4 a4
19.g5 hxg5 20.fxg5 Nh5 21.h4

They are the first to engage in hand to hand fighting: 21...b3 22.cxb3 axb3 23.Nc3

And they are the first to smash the enemy defenses: 23...bxa2+

24.Ka1!

The resourceful monarch evades death by hiding behind the enemy pawn.

24...Be6 25.Be3 Rfc8?!

He should have moved his rook to the neighboring square: 25...Rfb8! in order to increase pressure on
the b2 pawn, which is the king’s last line of defense. Then it would not have been easy for white to find
the way to survive, as I discovered with the use of Komodo 10 and Stockfish 10: 26.Rc1 (or 26.Be2
Nf4 27.Bxf4 exf4 28.Rc1 Qa5 29.Rf1 Ra7 30.Rc2 Rab7 31.Nd5 Qxd2 32.Rxd2 Bxd5 33.exd5 f6
34.Rg1 Bd8 35.Kxa2 fxg5 36.hxg5 Ba5 37.Rc2 Bc3!µ) 26...Qa5 27.Nd5 Bxd5 28.exd5 Qxd2 29.Bxd2
Rb3 30.Bc4 Rh3 31.Rh1 Rxh1 32.Rxh1 f5 33.gxf6 Bxf6 34.Bxa2 e4³

26.Be2 Nf4 27.Bxf4 exf4

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 28.Qxf4?

White greets his opponent’s inaccuracy with a typical blitz mistake, just like in the previous game
when he instantly, as though instinctively, grabbed a defenseless pawn. It was best not to divert the
queen away from protecting the king. Equality would have been preserved with 28.Rf1 Qa5 29.Rxf4
Rc7 30.Rff1 g6 31.Nd5 Bxd5

28...Qb7 29.Qd2 Rab8 30.Rc1 Bd8 31.Nd5 Rxc1+?

Now it’s time for black to err, hastily exchanging rooks. He should have completed the transfer of his
bishop to the planned position: 31...Ba5! which would have retained an initiative and, hence, an
advantage. The game could have continued 32.Rxc8+ Bxc8 33.Nc3 Be6

32.Rxc1 Ba5 33.Qc2 Rc8?

Tal’s second big mistake in a row, in a position where he could still have drawn but which was now
more complicated and demanded huge concentration: 33...Bxd5 34.exd5 Bb6 35.Qd3 Bc5 36.Rc2 Qb4
37.h5 Qe1+ 38.Qd1 Qg3=

34.Qd1?

A mistake in the same spirit, suggesting that both players were tired and had lost concentration. By
now they were playing out their friendly match with the idea that after such a turn of events nobody
deserved to win. Garry told me that he saw a win with 34.Qxc8+! Bxc8 35.Rxc8+ Kh7 36.Bg4+– f6
37.Bf5+ g6 38.Nxf6+ Kg7 39.Rg8+ Kf7 40.Bxg6+ Ke6 41.Re8+ Qe7 42.Rxe7+ Kxe7 but after
spending a few seconds calculating it he instead smiled and played a different move. The battle was
now over and it was time to lower the curtains. They played another 11 irrelevant moves mechanically

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and then took a well deserved rest. The epic of Tbilisi was over. It was time to prepare for another epic.

34...Rxc1+ 35.Qxc1 Qb3 36.Bc4 Qg3 37.Bxa2 Qxh4 38.g6 fxg6 39.Bb3 Qxe4 40.Nf6+ gxf6
41.Qc8+ Kg7 42.Bxe6 Kh6 43.Bb3 Qe5 44.Qh3+ Kg7 45.Qd7+

Draw agreed.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Score
Tal 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 ½ ½ 1 0 ½ ½ 7
Kasparov 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 7
Judging by how the score changed, the match was a very tense affair: at first it was 3:0 to Tal, then
3:4, 6:5 and, finally, 7:7. However, there was much less tension than the score suggested, for two
reasons.
Firstly, the players were tired after having battled in the Soviet championship over nearly a month, a
tournament in which nearly all the top Soviet players took part, albeit without Karpov.
Secondly, they had none of the usual incentives to win – no regular rivalry, desire to prove they were
stronger at blitz, or financial incentive. This reduced concentration levels on both a game-by-game
basis and overall
No blitz game is free from errors that experienced pros armed with powerful computers would find at
home after the event. Many typical drawbacks of blitz that impact the logical flow of the battle and
prevent its fair outcome affect the fighting mood of the players after each game. However, those
drawbacks were absent here: the prize fund and support from the crowd exhorting them to concentrate
hard and not to relax are echoed by the players’ internal voice demanding that they play with even more
ferocity. On the other hand, in the circumstances of a friendly match when the players’ internal voices
are switched off and they notice the large number of poor decisions that they have taken that aren’t
worthy of their level of play, they begin to recall their accumulated tiredness, their hurried decision to
agree to play the match immediately after the tournament, and so on. As a result, they begin the next
game, which starts just 8-10 minutes after the last one ended, without much enthusiasm or playing
mood. I think that this was the case at certain times in this match, especially in respect of Tal, who
played the match having just won this prestigious tournament.
But was this match with Tal beneficial for the young Garry?
Less in pure chess terms than in psychological terms: the match demonstrated that Garry could
already go toe-to-toe with the greats. The ex-world champion caught the young lad out on missed
tactics, but didn’t outplay him and didn’t turn him into a whipping boy. The match added to the boy’s
conviction in his abilities, which his opponents soon discovered.
But how useful is blitz to chess players, and do they need to play it?
Although I was a pretty decent blitz player, and at the same age, 15, won second prize in the 1950
Moscow blitz championship, ahead of future world champion Vasily Smyslov and grandmasters Suetin
and Antoshin, behind only Salo Flohr, I managed to avoid being drawn into this type of chess – I had

191
more important things to do. Nevertheless, today, as an experienced coach, I consider blitz to be a
useful part of the training process, especially now, when you can play not only blitz with time
extensions, but also with the game scores being recorded automatically. However, playing long blitz
training matches or even friendly matches with a pre-agreed number of games doesn’t make a lot of
sense.
It’s best to play a few games, combining usefulness (such as trying out a new opening idea or setup)
and pleasure from playing with an agreeable opponent. That way, if you notice that your games have
demonstrated a rising number of mistakes, and especially blunders, you should immediately end play,
which has become a waste of time.
Of course, if you just love playing endless blitz, even more so if it’s for money, then my thoughts are
not for you.
Game 37
In Banja Luka Kasparov, after drawing with Petrosian in round one and then defeating Yugoslav
master Sibarevic in round two, kicked off his great results with his game against the American Walter
Browne in round three. This game created the first impression that pros gained of the newbie who was
striving to join their company – an impression of his playing style and its depth, of his confidence in
various situations, and of his behavior at the board and away from it. Naturally, every player hopes that
the first impression they make on their future colleagues will be positive and long-lasting. Well, the lad
was lucky to create a brilliant image immediately, in his first foreign grandmaster tournament. The
impression from his play was wonderful. Everybody acknowledged immediately and without doubt that
the chess grands had been visited not by some green novice, but by a strong grandmaster from whom
they could learn.

G. Kasparov – W. Browne
Banja Luka. International tournament. 14.04.1979
Queen’s Indian Defense. [E13]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3(04) 4...c5 5.d5(14) 5...Ba6 6.Qc2 exd5 7.cxd5 d6 8.Nc3 Nbd7?!

It’s due to such imperceptible inaccuracies that an opponent often gains an advantage in the opening.
Now black will not be able to develop his bishop to the more active g7 square.

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 9.Bf4!(08) 9...Be7 10.g3(07) 10...0-0 11.Bg2 Re8 12.0-0 Nh5 13.Bd2(06) 13...Nhf6

The American grandmaster has played the opening carelessly. It was only the third round, and the
true strength of the boy was still a mystery. Therefore, the continuation 14.Bf4 Nh5 15.Bd2 would have
seemed a natural mark of respect by the newbie to the more senior player, allowing the GM to decide
whether it was worth continuing the fight or generously agreeing to a draw by repeating 15...Nhf6.
However, the maestro never received a silent draw offer.

14.Rfe1(05) 14...Bf8 15.a4!(04) 15...Ng4 16.Nb5(09) 16...Bb7 17.e4(04) 17...a6 18.Na3 Rb8
19.h3(10) 19...Ngf6

White has achieved great success in building up little positional advantages one after another, and has
slowly (judging by the amount of time spent) but surely (judging by the position) cramped his opponent
across the board. Usually in such situations the knight would retreat to e5, but here that doesn’t work
due to 20.Nh2 followed by f2-f4.

20.Bc3!(09) 20...Qc7 21.Nd2(05) 21...Bc8 22.Bf1! g5

Black has to further weaken his position. Actually, fans of Indian-type setups often play this move,
and they aren’t punished for such a positional sin particularly often. Garry, like a well experienced
matador, doesn’t change his way of playing this battle and continues to encircle black’s pieces, causing
further weaknesses.

23.Nf3!(05) 23...h6 24.Nc4!(03)

Far from everybody would decide on such a journey, after which his cramped opponent gets the
opportunity to break out.

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 24...b5 25.axb5 axb5

26.e5!(±)

Now it becomes clear that transferring the knight to c4 was the final touch of a planned regrouping of
forces in order to strike in the center. White had calculated the consequences with great precision and at
the speed of a computer five moves earlier. The lad wasn’t worried about any counterplay, as his
concrete calculation demonstrated that it was too late.

26...Nxd5 27.Nxd6(04) 27...Bxd6 28.exd6 Qd8 29.Ne5!(06)

The player with a positional advantage should play actively, and now white sharply changes the
character of the game. “Forgetting” about his unhurried positional maneuvering he switches to
aggressive play based on concrete calculations.

29...Nb4

The capture 29...Nxc3 leads to a crushing defeat after 30.Nc6! Rxe1 31.Rxe1

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 30.Qd2! Nxe5 31.Rxe5 Rxe5 32.Bxe5 Nc6 33.Qe3! Nxe5 34.Qxe5 c4 35.Bg2

Kasparov demonstrates GM-level understanding. Mass exchanges only deepen black’s trouble, as
now each of white’s three pieces is far more active than its opposite number. The black fortress is full
of holes, and the white passed pawn leaves black with no time to repair them. The outcome of the game
is now certain.

35...Be6

The catastrophic consequences of another exchange are too obvious: 35...Bb7 36.Bxb7 Rxb7 37.Qd5!
Qd7 (37...Rb8 38.d7! Kf8 39.Qd4! Kg8 40.Re1!) 38.Ra8+ Kg7 39.Qd4+ f6 40.Qe4 Kf7 41.Rh8!

36.Ra7(05) 36...b4 37.Be4!

Now a mating attack begins to which there is no defense.

37...c3?

Black could have sat at the board for longer with 37...Qb6 38.Re7 Rf8 although white has two ways
to convert his decisive advantage: 39.Rxe6 fxe6 40.Qxe6+ Rf7 41.Bh7+ Kf8 42.Qc8+ Kg7 43.Qg8+
Kf6 44.Qg6+ Ke5 45.Qxf7 or 39.d7 c3 40.Re8 Bxd7 41.Bh7+! Kxh7 42.Rxf8 Qe6 43.Rh8+ Kg6
44.Rg8+ Kh5 45.g4+. However, in time trouble Browne misses white’s biggest threat and doesn’t even
survive to time control.

38.Bh7+! Kxh7 39.Qxe6

Black resigned.

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 Game 38
It was only by pure chance that his dramatic loss in this game didn’t make any difference to
Kasparov’s overall performance in this championship, which had started so well for him. The rest day
after round nine, as it seemed to me, had calmed the lad down after an exhausting series of draws, and
he headed for this game in fighting mood. For ages after this game I was unable to figure out where I’d
erred in spending the entire rest day trying to distract Garry from his chess worries. After the game was
over his mother said that we shouldn’t have spent those two hours in the cinema watching a war film, at
that had overly excited her son. Obviously, this wasn’t a serious reason for his defeat – you could have
speculated about any reason you liked after such a game. As a coach I was also responsible for this
failure.

G. Kasparov – K. Lerner
Minsk. USSR Championship Higher League. 15.12.1979
Nimzo-Indian Defense. [E46]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Nge2 d5 6.a3 Be7 7.cxd5 exd5 8.g3 a5 9.Bg2 Re8 10.0-0 c6

For three whole years Garry loved to play this opening setup as white. He appreciated its elasticity,
lack of weaknesses in the position and original way to create active play, which he had come up with
himself.

11.h3(10) 11...Bd6 12.g4(05) 12...h6 13.f4 Na6 14.Ng3(06) 14...b5

15.Qf3(27)

Four years had now passed since I gave Garry the nickname “g4” for not pushing his g-pawn
forwards at the critical moment. He had quickly shed this addition to his name by revising his attitude

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to one of the chess dogmas, and well timed g2-g4! attacks were to deliver him success in a number of
games.
So here too, this setup devised by Garry was based on a more refined version of the same idea. For
some time he was a prisoner to illusions caused by the subtle position of the white pieces and fortified
by... mistakes of his opponents. This was until he finally figured out that white’s attack in such a
system is only possible if his opponent is scared by the pawn charge. Rethinking the logic of his
opening setup after this game did much to help him shed a new, young player’s dogma, that any g4
pawn advance was good. It’s true that white has a wide choice here: 15.Qd3, 15.Qc2 and even 15.e4,
but continuing to push pawns on the kingside doesn’t look effective if black doesn’t allow weakening
in his kingside fortress.
Evidently, my mistake in preparing Garry for this game was at a psychological level, although it had
deep chess roots. I failed to find hidden defects in time in his favorite opening setup and approved it for
use. It was only during the game that he finally intuitively realized the organic shortcomings of his
position, and this again made him feel uncomfortable, the feeling that by then he had experienced for
an entire week. I should have recommended another, positionally more reliable opening setup, as the
one chosen wasn’t appropriate to Garry’s state of mind.
The large amount of time spent thinking, especially over the last move, confirmed my suspicions.
The confidence and enthusiasm with which Garry turned up for the game quickly disappeared, and
were replaced by nervousness and irritation. He again got angry at the long list of draws against his
name in the table and started to look for a forced path to a large advantage when he should have been
patiently maneuvering. Having failed to find the desired path, Garry grew even more annoyed. His
logical thought failed him, giving way to a mess in his head.

15...b4 16.axb4 axb4 17.Nce2 Ne4 18.Nxe4 dxe4 19.Qf2 g6

Lerner goes for a double-edged game. Approximate equality in a quiet game would have been
maintained after 19...Bb7 20.Ng3 c5. One knight, even if it occupies f5, is not particularly dangerous.

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 20.Ng3(06)

Black’s plan could have been challenged by 20.f5!? and then only after 20...gxf5 would white
continue 21.Ng3. Garry hadn’t expected his opponent to go for reciprocal pawn activity.

20...f5 21.b3 Be7 22.gxf5 gxf5 23.Qe2 Rf8 24.Qh5(08) 24...Qe8!

Black defends inventively. Returning a pawn, he liquidates white’s main threats and forces him to
seek new ways to retain the initiative cancelling out the weakness of the b3 pawn.

25.Qxh6 Rf6 26.Qh5 Qxh5 27.Nxh5 Rg6 28.Kh2 Be6 29.Bd2 Kh7 30.Rg1(06) 30...Kh6?

Black blinks first in this tense battle. After 30...Bxb3 he had nothing to worry about. Now, though,
his counterplay is of little effect.

31.Ng3 Rgg8 32.Ra5!(08) 32...c5 33.Rga1! Nc7 34.dxc5 Rad8

Active play is black’s only chance in what is now a desperate position. However, this demonstration
of pseudo activity unexpectedly shook Garry out of his balanced but fragile state of mind that he had
only just acquired from a successful middle-game fragment. He decided that the advantage that he had
worked so hard to obtain was slipping away, and he again worked himself up.

35.Bxb4

The capture of this totally unnecessary third pawn doesn’t in itself ruin anything, but the haste with
which he made this move was to me a worrisome symptom that impulsiveness in taking decisions was
now dominating sensible thought, and anything could happen.

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 35...Rd3 36.Be1?(09)

An inexplicable move that ruins all the fruit of his labor. Garry had nearly 50 minutes left on his
clock, and he could have calmed down by using autogenic training and after that sought a sensible
solution to a sharp position but which was still better for white. It was after the game that Kasparov
suggested 36.Nf1, though I prefer the combination: 36.Ra6! Nxa6 37.Rxa6 Rg6 38.Rxe6! Rxe6
39.Nxf5+ Kh7 (39...Kg6? 40.Ng3!) 40.Nd4, for example: 40...Rxd4 41.exd4 e3 42.d5 Rf6 43.d6 Bf8
44.c6 Bxd6 45.Bxd6 Rxd6 46.c7 e2 47.c8=Q e1=Q 48.Qc7+ and so on.

36...Rxe3

37.Ra6?

His opponent’s deep time trouble and his boyish disappointment that he hadn’t found a forced win in
a winning position made themselves felt. Garry now completely lost control over the situation and
decided to play to win on time with his opponent’s flag hanging.
The rule “better late than never” in this situation doesn’t work. The combination available one move
earlier now fails and white’s position comes undone. Meanwhile, the simple 37.b4 would have
maintained the tension with equal chances.

37...Nxa6 38.Rxa6 Rg6 39.Bf2

After 39.Rxe6 Rexg3! 40.Bxg3 Rxe6 41.b4 Ra6 white definitely has no chance of saving the game.

39...Rxb3 40.Bxe4(05)

He cannot play the other sac on e4: 40.Nxe4 fxe4 41.Bxe4 Bf5!! but his illusions would have lasted

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longer after 40.Rxe6 Rbxg3! 41.Rxg6+ Rxg6 42.h4, for example in the event of 42...Rg4? 43.Bh3 Rxf4?
44.Be3

40...fxe4 41.f5 Rbxg3!

Both players now realized that black’s crazy time trouble was over. Further moves were played only
because it’s not the done thing in chess to ask your opponent to resign.

42.Bxg3 Bxf5 43.c6 Kg5 44.Ra7 Bc5 45.Rc7 Bb6

White resigned.

Game 39
One of my favorite games. It didn’t have any beautiful combinations or subtleties of positional play.
It had just one strong move, which I have remembered my entire life. “So what?” I hear you ask, and
you will be even more surprised to learn that it was a move that Garry’s opponent failed to make!
And my commentary to this game is unusual – it has no variations, just words, through which you
will hear a cry. It’s a coach’s cry from the soul.

G. Kasparov – V. Kupreichik
Minsk. USSR Championship Higher League. 22.12.1979
Slav Defense. [D15]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3(09!) 3...Nf6 4.Nc3(10!) 4...dxc4 5.e4(05) 5...b5 6.e5 Nd5

I entered the playing hall at this moment and was shocked. The demonstration board sported quite a
different position from the one we had planned to play when we had separated an hour earlier. I was

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also startled by the fact that Garry’s clock was showing almost half an hour used up. Well, as though to
compensate for his “slow-wittedness” the lad started to fire off his next moves as though from a
machine gun.

7.a4 e6 8.axb5 Nxc3 9.bxc3 cxb5 10.Ng5 Bb7 11.Qh5 Qd7

Here Garry should have injected the moves that theory considered mandatory: 12.Be2 Bd5, but
clearly the huge space in his memory had some defect in it and the machine gun continued to shoot...

12.Nxh7 Nc6

My brain had laid out the position 13.Nf6+ gxf6 14.Qxh8 and I had just asked myself why Garry
needed this horror story when the demonstrator removed the dark-squared bishop from the
demonstration board...

13.Nxf8?

No sooner had the demonstrator removed the bishop from f8, replacing it with the white knight, when
a cold fear ran down my spine – the position with the black queen on d4 was now ensconced in my
mind.
Chess players are familiar with these sudden bouts of revelation, when, having moved a piece and
pressed the clock, they immediately notice their opponent’s reply, with awful consequences that they
had completely missed. The inevitability of defeat after 13...Qxd4! 14.cxd4 Rxh5 was so stark that I
was quite shaken up, and my hand stretched into my pocket for some validolum. What a run of
misfortune that game with Lerner had brought, I decided. I glanced at the stage and realized that Garry
had also noticed his opponent’s knockout blow.
However, finding his feet Garry quickly regained his composure and took a psychologically correct

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decision. He didn’t jump up from his chair and didn’t go to pace the stage up and down as he often did
up until then. Rather, with a focused and even self-confident look as though nothing special had
happened he sat perched on his chair, demonstrating his readiness to continue his blitz. Indeed, his
opponent, a strong and cunning tactician, sat opposite him with an equally focused look. He sat and
thought...
Five minutes passed, then ten... Although Viktor after a brilliant start had also reached a quiet spot in
the tournament, he was now investing all the strength he had left into this game, and it was hard to
believe that he with his tactical skills would fail to notice the queen sacrifice. Having accepted the
inevitable, I started to imagine what I would say to Garry in about an hour and a half’s time (or maybe
earlier) after he left the hall having finally used up his balance of points (he was now just down to plus
one).
Well, I kind of understood the context of this absurd, sudden blitz instead of the solid opening
variation that we had planned. A week of sleepless nights, a surreal combination of chess analysis and
harsh self-criticism that had stuck in his head – all this had got on the lad’s nerve, who had only
recently found himself at the very epicenter of an exciting chess show thanks to three spectacular yet
for him now ordinary victories at the start, a show which now seemed to him to be exhausting and
drawn out.
Another ten painful minutes passed... The young first-category player Borya Gelfand sitting next to
me, who had only been recommended to me the previous day as somebody to invite to Petrosian’s
school for a test, suddenly asked in a surprised whisper: “What if black captures the pawn with his
queen?” Oh God! I ran out into the foyer.
“No,” I thought to myself, “there’s no way I can combine his sixteen years and southern temperament
with a successful outing in the Higher League. For Garik this was turning into a nasty headache. This
doesn’t make your character, it breaks it. It’s my fault, mine! I should have directed the lad to achieving
a quiet result, plus 1 overall, rather than sending him into the cauldron every evening!” But then I
argued with myself: “He doesn’t like playing quietly, taking the easy way out, and he doesn’t know
how to. If he were to play like that, these monstrous grandmasters would have him for dinner.” “Or
maybe they wouldn’t have – maybe he would have emerged unscathed, and then three or so years later,
once his nerves had strengthened, he would be able to play more forcefully, sacrificing a pawn here and
there, and sometimes even a piece in a less important game.”
Half an hour passed as I tortured myself with these thoughts, but when I returned to the playing hall
Kupreichik still hadn’t moved. He was sitting at the board as still as a sphynx, maintaining the same
pose throughout. Except that his look was less lively, and a lack of confidence seeped through his
posture. Can he really not see it? Can he not see it? No, he doesn’t see it!! Such moves are probably not
normally found. Either they appear in your head immediately, or not at all. Eventually, Viktor took the
queen with his rook without any pleasure on his face, and the other queen then disappeared
immediately, without having become a heroine...
About four hours later Garik, still not having recovered his normal composure after such excitement,
but happy and pleased at his precisely played endgame, and at his badly needed win, came to find us.
We quickly convinced him (and ourselves) that all was well that ended well, and that everybody’s

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nerves gave way at the finishing line. “Well done Garry, you showed real character,” his mother told
him. “You’re maturing, lad,” I said, backing her up in a deliberately gruff fashion.
The tournament no longer seemed so monstrously tiring. We started to make plans for the next day,
when Kupreichik’s friend Yuri Balashov awaited us. We had to plan a particularly tricky battle scenario
for him. But as we did so the recently disappeared nightmares reappeared.
“Will you withstand the pressure, Garik?”
“Only three rounds remain, so I think so.”
“So why did Viktor reject Qxd4?”
“Reject it? He jumped from shock when I showed him that move!”
We went outside. The impressive city was dropping asleep. Slight snow was falling, unrolling a
fluffy carpet along the pavement. Oh, we felt great! Thoughts flowed gently, and we wanted to
philosophize. Each Higher League really cranks up the intrigue. So what is she, this capricious lady? A
comedy? A drama? Or a complicated detective story? Kupreichik even walked past us without noticing
any of us... We said nothing. For a second the queen again captured the pawn on d4. “And a tragedy,
too, I thought.”
Time heals, at the very least when it erases nightmare memories from the brain. Several years later,
people talked of Kasparov’s amazing determination, which had proved itself capable of breaking the
unfavorable string of events at the Higher League final in Minsk. And nobody remembered our
protectress Caissa, who that evening extended her hand of help to her little cavalier.
Oh, I almost forgot to provide the other half of the game, which was also interesting, but in a normal
sort of way, without unwanted adventures. Here it is:

13...Rxh5?? 14.Nxd7 Kxd7 15.Rb1 a6 16.Bxc4 Na5 17.Bf1(08) 17...Be4 18.Rb4(17) 18...Bd5
19.f3(06) 19...Rc8 20.Bd2 Bc4 21.g4 Rh4 22.Bg5 Rhh8 23.Bxc4 Rxc4 24.Rxc4 bxc4 25.Kf2(06)
25...Nc6 26.h4(15) 26...Rb8 27.Ra1 Rb2+ 28.Ke1 a5 29.Ra4 Rb1+ 30.Kf2 Rb2+ 31.Kg3 Rb3
32.Rxc4 Ra3 33.Kf4(08) 33...a4 34.Ke4 Na5 35.Rc5 Nb3 36.Rb5 Kc6 37.Rb4 Ra1 38.Be3 Na5 39.c4
a3 40.d5+ Kd7 41.Ra4 Nb3 42.Ra7+ Ke8 43.d6 a2 44.d7+ Ke7 45.Bg5+

Black resigned.

Sometimes I recall that nightmare evening, I set up the pieces again and start to play through the
game. Placing the white knight on f8, I stop and cannot look any more. I don’t have the strength. I mix
the pieces up...

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 Game 40
Garry’s debut in the country’s adult team was unusually successful – for him and for our squad. The
three aces Karpov, Tal and Petrosian, despite all their efforts, failed to win a single game, and it was the
bottom end of our team that bore the burden of point harvesting. The lad put in the best performance
among our team-members, scoring 5.5 out of 6 points.
The Soviet team’s convincing victory (7.5 points ahead of second place) was far harder than the
points tally suggested. After four rounds our GMs were only half a point above Yugoslavia. I know
how difficult it is to take risks in such situations, all the more so for the debutant in a team where
almost every member has written a glorious page of chess history.
Garry bravely strove to sharpen the following game – barely out of the opening, he sacrificed a pawn
for the initiative and won in a brilliant style.

G. Kasparov – J. Pribyl
Skara. European Team Championship. 24.01.1980
Grunfeld Defense. [D85]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Nf3 b6?!

Black’s tardiness with the break c7-c5 was the main reason for his defeat. If it’s difficult from here on
to criticize black’s other moves then that underlines Garry’s achievement. He played exceptionally
energetically and enterprisingly, not allowing his opponent the time to correct his wayward strategy.

8.Bb5+ c6 9.Bc4(16) 9...0-0 10.0-0 Ba6 11.Bxa6 Nxa6 12.Qa4 Qc8 13.Bg5 Qb7 14.Rfe1(12)
14...e6 15.Rab1(11) 15...c5

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 16.d5!

One option for a Kasparov crest could be the white pawn on d5, charging ahead. In this game it plays
the role of the battering ram, breaking down the gates of the black fortress.

16...Bxc3 17.Red1 exd5 18.exd5 Bg7 19.d6!(07) 19...f6 20.d7!(13)

White could have retained a strong initiative simply by retreating his bishop, but Garry had thought
up an original and pretty attacking setup in which the d7 pawn plays the key role, cutting off half of the
black army from the kingside fortress.

20...fxg5

Or what else? The natural 20...Rad8 leads to a position after 21.Qc4+ Kh8 22.Ne5! fxe5 23.Bxd8
Rxd8 24.Qe6! Nc7 25.Qe7 Qb8 where white has a choice between 26.Rb3! c4 27.Rh3 with an attack
on the king, and 26.Qxc5! Ne6 27.Qe7 Nf8 28.Rbc1 e4 29.h4 with a huge positional advantage.

21.Qc4+ Kh8 22.Nxg5! Bf6!

Black suffers immediate disaster after 22...Bd4? 23.Rxd4! cxd4 24.Qxd4+ Kg8 25.Ne6! Rf7
26.d8=Q+ Rxd8 27.Qxd8+

23.Ne6 Nc7 24.Nxf8 Rxf8 25.Rd6(07)

Evidently, he could have won with 25.Qxc5! but Garry had precisely calculated another, more
spectacular path to victory. The first move in his plan has the appearance of being a waste of time.

25...Be7

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 26.d8=Q!!

A totally unexpected idea of amazing beauty! White sacrifices his pride and joy for just one tempo
(see how Garry values chess time!) and thanks to that totally ruins the coordination of the black pieces.

26...Bxd8

After the exchange of rooks 26...Rxd8 27.Rxd8+ Bxd8 black dies due to the helplessness of his other
pieces: 28.Rd1! Qc8 29.Qf7 Ne6 30.Rd7

27.Qc3+ Kg8 28.Rd7 Bf6 29.Qc4+ Kh8 30.Qf4!

It’s time to pick up material – the logical outcome of white’s storming attack. After the best
continuation 30...Bg7 31.Qxc7 Qxc7 32.Rxc7 Bd4! white gains a technically won ending, for example:
33.Rf1 a6 34.Rc6 Rf6 35.Rxf6 Bxf6 36.Re1! c4 37.a4! and so on.

30...Qa6 31.Qh6!

Mate on h7 is unavoidable. Black resigned.

Game 41
When in January 1976 Garry first became Soviet junior champion Maya Chiburdanidze won the
parallel girls championship. The Kasparov family archive contains a photo where the two happy little
champions stand side-by-side.
Maya’s rise to the top after that success came at a fantastic pace. It was just another three years
before she defeated the legendary Nona Gaprindashvili to take the world crown. Maya’s long-term
coach was Gufeld, a massive authority on the King’s Indian. His love for a bishop on g7 was even the
subject of good-natured jokes. It was hence natural that Maya would also select this opening, but she
was unable to withstand the test against another KID specialist. Her defeat was particularly cruel as
Garry effectively played a handicapped game a piece down, and this extra piece, moreover, was that
same g7 bishop, which didn’t make a single move in the game.

G. Kasparov – M. Chiburdanidze
Baku. International tournament. 12.04.1980
King’s Indian Defense. [E92]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.Be3 Qe7 8.d5 Ng4 9.Bg5 f6 10.Bh4 h5
11.h3 Nh6 12.Nd2 c5 13.Nf1(22) 13...Nf7?!

A poorly-timed maneuver that allows white to carry out a strategically advantageous exchange of
bishops. The typical regrouping 13...Na6 followed by Nc7, Bd7 and b5 was more sensible.

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 14.g4(11) 14...hxg4 15.Bxg4! g5?

The wrong decision, suddenly and unreasonably weakening the light squares. Black evidently
counted on the natural continuation 16.Bg3 f5! 17.exf5 e4! with counterplay, however, her plan is
destroyed by a spectacular tactic.

16.Bxc8 Rxc8

17.Ne3!!(06!!)

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 One is surprised not so much by the unexpected nature of this knight move but by the speed with
which Garry took his decision. Starting from move 13, white’s confident, rapid and elegant play is a
true flash of genius.

17...gxh4 18.Nf5 Qd8 19.Qg4 Ng5 20.Nxh4

It would be hasty to collect the harvest, beginning 20.Nxd6. After the unexpected 20...Qxd6
21.Qxc8+ Kh7 22.Qxb7 Qb6! white’s advantage has disappeared.

20...Rc7 21.Nf5 a6 22.h4 Nh7

The bastions on the g-file have collapsed and white organizes massive pressure, swinging all his
major pieces to it. Black doesn’t have time to organize a defense around her king, as she lacks space
that would enable her to regroup quickly. Black’s KID bishop looks particularly sad, doomed to
immobility and walled in by its own pawns.

23.Rg1(05) 23...Qf8 24.Ke2 Ra7 25.a4 b6 26.Qh5 Kh8 27.Rg6 Rd7 28.Rag1 Rab7 29.Qg4 Rbc7
30.Rg2 Rb7

Black has no alternative but to wait passively for her fate, and white, seeing this, patiently prepares
the decisive blow.

31.Kf1 Ra7 32.Kg1 Rf7 33.Ne2 Qc8

34.f4!(05)

The harvest after 34.Nxd6 Qxg4 35.Nxf7+ Rxf7 36.R6xg4 is too meager for such a powerful attack.

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White is playing to mate and brings another unit into the attack. Not, however, the f-pawn, whose role
is to guard the g5 square.

34...b5 35.axb5 axb5 36.cxb5 Rab7 37.h5!

The threat of h5-h6 is a deadly blow against the black king. The rest is obvious.

37...Nf8 38.Qh3! Nxg6 39.hxg6+ Kg8 40.gxf7+ Kf8

Time trouble has passed, black surveys the ruins of her fortress and resigns without waiting for
the expected 41.Rxg7. A crushing win!
Game 42
Kasparov’s ascension to the Chess Olympia effectively began in autumn 1980, when he became
world junior champion. He won the tournament with ease, a point and a half ahead of second-placed
Nigel Short. Everything worked for Garry in this tournament, and as a result he produced several
brilliant games. To this day he considers his game against the Swede Ralf Akesson to be the best of all.
Both players were unusually inventive in the battle and created a hugely complicated work of chess
art. The beauty and freshness of the ideas of the young masters were so appealing that Kasparov
himself re-analyzed on many occasions the mind-boggling events on the board. Petrosian and young
candidate masters from our school also took part in the analysis. I too spent a good many hours on
figuring out the reasons for cunning twists to the plot of this great chess show. Working on this book, I
again turned on my analytical microscope. My habit of always asking questions such as: “Why do we
have to assign this particular assessment to the position?” or “Why do we have to make this particular
move?” forced me to dig deeper into the key moments in this most complicated of games. As a result, I
produced detailed commentary that will be useful for young players seeking the road to Olympia.

G. Kasparov – R. Akesson
Dortmund. World Junior Championship. 22.08.1980
Queen’s Indian Defense. [E13]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3

This modest continuation, restricting the mobility of the bishop on f8, was one of Garry’s childhood
favorites. Recently he has also played 4.g3 and 4.Nc3. This is understandable – as the years pass
people’s characters change, and with that their tastes, including their choice of chess openings.

4...Bb7 5.Nc3 d5 6.cxd5 Nxd5

Without doubt, there is more strategic risk in this capture, but also more opportunities to complicate
the game. White’s pawn majority in the center forces him to play energetically, but it also gives black
decent hopes of counterplay. In modern chess you cannot achieve success without providing your
opponent with reciprocal chances.

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 7.e3

7.Qc2 is also played here often, with the aim to get the pawn to e4 in one move: 7...Nxc3 8.bxc3 c5
9.e4. This would maintain the bishop’s freedom of movement: 9...Nd7 10.Bf4. However, you then have
to spend time evacuating the queen: 10...Be7 11.Bd3 Rc8 12.Qe2 after which the point of the idea –
gaining a tempo – immediately becomes invalid.

7...Be7 8.Bb5+ c6 9.Bd3 Nxc3(06) 10.bxc3 Nd7 11.e4 c5 12.0-0 cxd4?! 13.cxd4 0-0 14.Qe2
Rc8(08) 15.Bb2

As a result of the somewhat premature exchange of pawns by black a few moves earlier, the bishop
has developed to a most promising square. Were the pawns to have remained on c3 and c5 the bishop
would have been useless on b2. Now, however, all of white’s pieces have positive futures, whereas
black’s need to make do with more modest hopes. Now black needs to find a decent square for his
queen.
It would be fine to assess this position as ², but there’s no reason for black to panic – he has no
weaknesses in his camp. White’s only advantage is in the more promising position of his pieces, which
in the short-term guarantees him a playing initiative, that’s to say, priority in choosing the character of
the next events.

15...Qc7(16) 16.Qe3(06) 16...Nf6(10) 17.Ne5

White places his knight in the center without hesitation. But he should also have considered 17.a4,
interfering with black’s counterplay.

17...b5(10)

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 Black is trying to ensure freedom of movement for his pieces by grabbing space on the queenside.
Garry suggested 17...Nd7 but this was unlikely to promise more. After 18.Rac1 (18.f4 Nxe5 19.fxe5
Qd7! is weaker) 18...Qd6 19.Nc4 Qb8 20.e5! Rfd8 21.Qh3 Nf8 22.f4 g6 23.Ne3 white’s initiative
threatens to become dangerous.

18.f4 Qb6 19.Kh1 b4(14)

Black spent over an hour on his last six moves, while white expended much less. Such a
disproportion usually points to difficulties which the longer thinker has encountered in searching for
counterplay.

20.axb4 Bxb4 21.Rab1 a5(05)

Black has successfully solved his problem with developing his pieces. However, he has not yet
achieved full equality, as he doesn’t yet have counterplay equal to white’s attack, which threatens to
begin with the break f4-f5.

22.Qe2!(09)

The queen’s short pendulum-shaped trip is not at all a waste of time, but a necessary measure to nip
in the bud his opponent’s counterplay, which is capable of throwing a spoke in the wheels of white’s
own plans.

22...Qa7(05)

The “mature” Kasparov rightly considered that black was wrong to reject the attempt to exchange
light-squared bishops via 22...Ra8. After 23.g4 Qd6 (white’s advantage is obvious after 23...Rfd8 24.g5
Nd7 25.Nc4) 24.g5 Nd7 25.Nc4 Qe7 black’s defensive walls are pretty strong.
The intricate maneuver of the black queen, which is heading off to increase pressure on the e4 square,
appears logical in the battle for the initiative. However, it entails an obvious strategic risk for black –
the queen moves to the maximum possible distance from the kingside fortress.

23.f5 Qa8(13)

Black’s hesitation when considering a move that is an important link in his plan is perfectly
understandable. To protect his king he has left behind minimal forces. In order to assess the level of
risk in such a situation it’s extremely important to possess experience, intuition and belief in your own
abilities.

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 24.d5!(05)

A critical point has been reached in this battle. White needs to act very rapidly and decisively if he
wants to exploit the drawbacks of his opponent’s strategy. So he decides at the right time to begin
active play, however, as the chronometry demonstrates, he is guided by his intuition and not by exact
calculation.
The difficulty of choice here is due at the very least to the fact that white has several ways that at first
glance are equal to play actively, and the five minutes spent are insufficient to take a considered view.
This speed is due to a simple reason that will soon become clear.
The knight attack 24.Ng4! looks strong, forcing black to defend carefully: 24...Nxe4! 25.d5! Nc3!
(but not 25...exd5? 26.Bxe4 dxe4 27.Nh6+! Kh8 28.Bxg7+! Kxg7 29.f6+! Kh8 30.Qg4 Rg8
31.Nxf7#) 26.Nf6+ gxf6 27.Qg4+ Kh8 28.Qh4 Bxd5! (but not 28...Rg8 due to 29.fxe6 Rg7 30.Bxh7!
Bxd5 31.Bg6+ Kg8 32.Bxf7+ Rxf7 33.exf7+ Bxf7 34.Qxf6 Qd5 35.Rf3! Rc6 36.Rg3+ Kf8 37.Qh8+
Ke7 38.Bxc3±) 29.Qxf6+ Kg8. Threats to g2 restrict white’s activity (30.Rf2 Qb7 31.Rg1? Qe7µ) and
hence he should here go for a draw with perpetual check.
Several years later, Kasparov admitted that now, instead of the choice of his youth, he would go for
the solid 24.fxe6 fxe6. And after that, too, not the frontal attack 25.d5 exd5 26.Ng4 Nxg4 27.Qxg4
which is met by the smart defense 27...Rc7! 28.Qe6+ Kh8 29.Rxf8 Bxf8 30.e5! d4! 31.Qh3 Be4
32.Bxd4 Bxd3 33.Qxd3 Qd5! 34.Rb8 Kg8 35.Qa3 Rf7 but instead the continuing concentration of his
attacking forces: 25.Rf4. However, it seems that here after 25...Bd6! it’s hard to claim this path should
be accorded priority, although the complications 26.Rxf6! Rxf6 27.Nd7 Rf7 (or 27...Rh6 28.e5 Bc7
29.Qg4!) 28.Nb6 Qa7 29.Nxc8 Bxc8 30.e5 Bb4 are very interesting and hard to assess.
Without doubt, the e4-d4 pawn pair look pretty, but to achieve success white needs to... get rid of
them, thereby clearing the diagonals for his bishops. Kasparov purely by intuition selects an interesting

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and complex path, although even now it’s unclear whether it gives white a real advantage.

24...exd5 25.Ng4 Nxg4 26.Qxg4 f6!

After returning home, Garry said this was the only reply he had properly looked at when thinking
about move 24. At that point he had considered his position won, as the other defenses were
unsatisfactory. Experience that comes with the years protects a player from such overly optimistic
assessments. Black has so far not made any significant errors deserving such a cruel punishment.

27.Bxf6!?(44!)

Garry needed such a long think in order to shed his illusions and soberly assess the new situation. For
now white is risking little. As the more experienced Kasparov noted, after 27.e5 Bc3 28.e6 he had
sufficient compensation for the pawn. Actually, after he returned to this game when already world
champion, he took a skeptical view of his decision to sacrifice the bishop. Whereas the “young”
Kasparov gave this sac an exclam. The truth, as usual, is to be found somewhere in the middle.
Indeed, as the variations show, white began an attack whose outcome can be changed only via precise
and hard to find defense. The bishop sac turned out to be a subtle and virtually no-risk decision. It
changed the character and pace of the struggle, and, above, all, sharply raised the value of each move.
This last point, given that black had only 35 minutes left to control, was particularly unpleasant for
Ralf.

27...Rxf6 28.e5!

Having given up one bishop, white ensures that his other bishop is fantastically active, while he has
tasked his f-pawn with threatening the g7 square. Moreover, the e5 pawn is ready to play an important
role in the game. So white’s attacking potential has actually increased following the loss of the bishop.

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 28...Rh6?(16)

Having spent almost half of his remaining time on this move without finding a way out, Akesson
decides to mount a defense based on common sense. Above all, he protects h7. I think that the majority
of players, who lack a heightened sense of danger, would do that.
Of course, over the board it’s hard to evaluate the consequences of the counter-sac 28...Bc3 29.exf6
Bxf6 after which black, having given up the exchange but repelled the first wave of the attack, has
certain counter chances thanks to his strong passed a-pawn. However, his position isn’t yet so bad that
he needs to look for such desperate resources.
Having overestimated the force of the attack on h7, black allows the pawn pair mobility and gets into
an unpleasant situation. There was probably only one way to hold the defense: 28...Rf7! 29.f6 Rcf8!

Only this way could he have held up the advance of this menacing pawn pair while simultaneously
protecting g7. Of course, such a defensive setup also suffers from defects – h7 is left undefended for a
short while, while his rooks will get in the way of his king, who wants to escape the fort before his
enemies storm it.
There have been many analytical arguments over the position on the diagram. At first, Kasparov
managed to convince readers that black’s position was defensible: 30.Bxh7+ Kxh7 31.Rf5 Bd2! or
30.Rf3 Bc8! (but not 30...Bd2 31.Rh3 or 30...d4 31.Rg3) 31.Qg5! Here the arguments were mostly
about the assessment of the consequences of 31...Kh8 (but not the weak 31...Be6 32.Rg3 g6 33.Qh6
Kh8 34.Bxg6±) 32.Rxb4! gxf6! 33.Qh6 axb4! 34.Bxh7! Bg4! During the game, Garry only saw a
guaranteed draw after 35.Bb1+ Kg8 36.exf6 Bxf3 37.Qg5+, however, it was later found that white won
here too: 35.Rxf6! Rg7 36.Rxf8+ Qxf8 37.Be4+! Kg8 38.Bxd5+ Rf7 39.Qg6+ Qg7 40.Bxf7+ Kf8
41.Qxg7+ Kxg7 42.Bb3
The only defense, found a couple of years later by Petrosian, required the following chain of moves:
30.Rf3 Bc8! 31.Qg5 Qa7! 32.Rbf1 g6! 33.Qh6 Rd8! 34.Bxg6 Bf8! 35.Bxf7+ Qxf7 after which black

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has good chances of grabbing the initiative. However, you cannot really find this over the board.
I then had to begin my analysis from scratch when it was found that alongside Kasparov’s 30.Rf3
there is another, more dangerous way to continue the attack: 30.Rf4! with the idea of transferring the
rook to h4, where the black bishops cannot reach it. In this case, white’s threats look very dangerous,
for example: 30...Bc8? 31.Bxh7+ Kxh7 32.Qh5+ Kg8 33.Rh4 Rxf6 34.Qh7+! Kf7 35.exf6, or
30...Kh8? 31.Bxh7! g5 32.Bf5 gxf4 33.Qh5+ Kg8 34.Qg6+ Kh8 35.Rb3!, or 30...g5? 31.Qxg5+ Kh8
32.Rh4 Rg8 33.Qh5 Qf8 34.Qxh7+! Rxh7 35.Rxh7#. However, black can defend if he immediately
shores up his ranks of defenders of his king by the original transfer of his dark-squared bishop
30...Bd2!
Now, two white lines of attack lead to a dead end: 31.Bxh7+? Kxh7 32.Qh3+ Kg8 33.Rh4 Bh6!µ or
31.Qh5? gxf6! 32.Rg4+ Kh8 33.exf6 d4! (33...h6!?) 34.Rg7 (34.Rg1 Bf3! 35.gxf3 Qxf3+ 36.R1g2
Qxd3 37.Qxf7 Qf1+! 38.Rg1 Qxg1+–+) 34...Be4! 35.Qxf7? Bxg2+!–+. White’s threats look very
powerful after 31.Qh3 upon which black needs to make a difficult and critical decision. Equally
unsatisfactory are the defenses 31...g5? 32.Rf2 Bf4 33.e6!+–; 31...g6?! 32.Rg4 Rxf6 (32...g5 33.e6 Bc8
34.exf7+ Rxf7 35.Qg3!; 32...Bc8 33.Bxg6 Bxg4 34.Bxf7+ Kh8 35.Qxg4 Rxf7 36.Qe6 Qg8 37.Qxd5±)
33.exf6 Rxf6 34.Qg3! (34.Bxg6? hxg6 35.Qd3 Qa6!!µ) 34...Kg7 35.Qc7+ Rf7 36.Qe5+!± and
31...gxf6?! 32.Rg4+ Kh8 33.Rh4 h6 (33...f5 34.Bxf5 Rxf5 35.Rxh7+ Kg8 36.Rh8+ with mate)
34.Rxh6+ Bxh6 35.Qxh6+ Kg8 36.exf6 Ba6 (36...Qd8 37.Qg6+ Kh8 38.Rf1 Qd7 39.Qh6+ Kg8
40.Rf3 Qg4 41.Rg3±) 37.Bf5 Qe8 (or 37...Qc6 38.Rb3 Qxf6 39.Rg3+ Rg7 40.Be6+!+–) 38.Qg5+ Kh8
39.Qh4+! Kg8 40.Rb3! Qe5 41.Qg5+ Kh8 42.Rh3+ Rh7 43.Rxh7#
All that remains is to look at one final possible defense after 30.Rf4! Bd2! 31.Qh3! which is 31...h6!?
and then again white has two lines of attack. If 32.Qg4 Ba6! 33.fxg7 Rxf4! 34.gxf8=Q+ Kxf8 35.Qh3
Bxd3 36.Qxd3 Bb4 37.Qe3! Rf7 38.Qxh6+ black has every reason to count on a successful defense.
However, defense is harder after 32.Qg3! for example: 32...Bxf4? 33.Qg6! Rxf6 34.Qh7+! Kf7
35.exf6 Kxf6 36.Re1! with mate. The only path leading black from the precipice is very tight: 32...Ba6!
(32...g5? 33.Rh4!) 32...Ba6! 33.Rg4! (33.Bc2? Qc8 34.Qg6 Qxc2!–+; 33.Bf5 Bc8 34.Bd3 Ba6=)
33...g5 34.h4! Bxd3! (34...Bc8 35.hxg5! Bxg4 36.g6! h5 37.e6!! Rxf6 38.Qc7!=) 35.Qxd3 Qc8!
36.Rd4 Bf4 37.Rxd5 Qg4 38.Qg6+ Kh8 39.Qxh6+ Kg8 40.Qg6+ and white has to go for perpetual
check. A tough nut to crack.

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 29.f6 Rc7 30.e6!

White immediately highlights the drawbacks of transferring the rook to h6 – his central pawns
threaten to paralyze his opponent’s defenses. Yet, having now expended almost his entire allotted time,
Akesson finds the only way to deflect the threat.

30...Qd8!(13)

Other queen retreats lead to a quick disaster, for example: 30...Qf8 31.f7+ Kh8 32.Rxb4! axb4
33.Qxb4! Rc8 34.Qxf8+ Rxf8 35.e7, or 30...Qb8 31.h3! Bc8! 32.Rxb4! Qxb4 (32...axb4 33.f7+ Kf8
34.Qxg7+!) 33.e7! Bxg4 34.f7+. Nor can black save the day with 30...Kh8 31.Qg3! Qc8 32.Rbc1! Bd6
33.Rxc7 Qxc7 34.f7!
Now black has to give up the rook on worse terms than he could have done five moves earlier.

31.e7 Rxe7 32.fxe7 Qxe7 33.Rbc1!

White allows no respite to his opponent, who is deep in time trouble. White threatens the frightening
34.Rc8+ and the first thing black might think about with his flag hanging is to build a primitive wall
along the c-file. However, such attempts are doomed to failure: 33...Bc6 34.Qc8+ Be8 35.Bb5 Re6
36.Rc7 or 33...Rc6 34.Qf5 g6 35.Qxd5+. He also loses with 33...Rd6 due to 34.Qf5 g6 35.Rc7!!
A win for white is close, but it’s not yet time to celebrate it.

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 33...Qd8?(03)

In his remaining five minutes, Akesson was of course unable to estimate, and even less to calculate,
the consequences of transposing to an ending after 33...Qe6. However, this was his last line of defense.
Kasparov believed that after 34.Qxe6+ (34.Bf5?! Qe5!) 34...Rxe6 35.Rc7 Re7 36.Bxh7+! Kxh7
37.Rxe7 Bxe7 38.Rf7 Bb4 39.Rxb7 d4 40.Rd7 Bc3 41.Kg1 he had an obvious advantage. That was
undoubtedly true, but such an endgame needed to be analyzed at home to the very end. Black only
retained chances of drawing after 41...Bb2. Then, if the pawn manages to reach a3, white will remain
with an active rook but with a king fulfilling the role of guarding another passed pawn, and this leaves
him bereft of chances of winning, for example: 42.Kf2 a4 43.Ke2 a3 44.Ra7 Kg6 45.Ra5 Kf6 46.Kd3
g6 47.Ke4 Kf7 48.g4 Kf6 49.Ra6+ Kf7 50.h4 Kg7. The pawn needs to be halted on a5, and this can
only be done by sending the rook into a passive position: 42.Rb7 Bc3 43.Rc7! (it’s unlikely he can win
with 43.Kf2 d3 44.Rb3 d2 45.Ke2 Bb4 or 43.Rb3 Kg6 44.Kf2 Kf5 45.Kf3 Bb4! 46.Ke2! Bd6! 47.h3
Ke4) 43...Bb2 44.Rc2! After 44...Bc3 the king gets involved: 45.Kf2 Kg6 46.Ke2 Kf5 47.Kd3 Kg4
48.Ke4! It’s only after paralyzing his opponent’s passed pawns that white can transfer his rook from its
resting position, via f2, to the seventh rank, whereupon the ending is technically won for white.
As the chronometry shows, Akesson needed at least 12 minutes to solve a specific, serious problem.
But he had only five, and you can only take a quick decision to transpose to a difficult ending if you
base it on experience and deep knowledge. How would these young players have acquired them?
Moreover, Akesson was tired, having relentlessly fought off his opponent’s onslaught. He was no
longer in a state to deal with the final problem. His second mistake turned out to be the final one and
immediately led to black’s collapse.

34.Qf5 Qb8 35.Qf7+ Kh8 36.Rc7

Black resigned.

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 A real victory of the indomitable spirit over matter. The pressure from the young Kasparov was
something that far from every grandmaster could withstand. And Garry’s opponent was no weakling.
Just half a year later he won the European junior championship with a fantastic score of 11.5 out of 13!
Game 43
The team championship between players of different generations was a true dream for chess fans in
Soviet times. There would be four teams. The “Grandfathers” (veterans), “Fathers” (the country’s first
and second teams), and “Children” (the country’s junior team). The last tournament, held in 1981,
opened the chronicles of the battles between the two powerful “Ks”. The huge sports hall was
overcrowded with spectators on the days when the country’s first team played the young upstarts.
Below we show the second game in the long list of games played between these two champions, who
fought each other fiercely for ten years for the right to be considered the best player on the planet. Their
first official game, played three days earlier, had strengthened the alarm in the Karpov camp. The world
champion needed a great effort to extract himself from a sticky situation, and it was clear that he would
now attempt to “strangle” his young rival with the white pieces. Garry, who was already ahead of
Karpov on points won on top board, didn’t intend to sit and defend.
“Don’t allow weaknesses in your position and be ready to counterattack,” was the basis of the battle
scenario that we had prepared at home. However, when you come up against the best players in the
world, the problem of the gap between your intents and your opportunities is posed particularly starkly.
It wasn’t hard to imagine the boy’s mental state when he entered the stage of the overcrowded hall and
sat at the table with an unperturbed look, in anticipation of the first move.

A. Karpov – G. Kasparov
Moscow. Team competition. 28.02.1981
English Opening. [A30]

1.c4

The world champion pushed his pawn without thinking, although the second hand had already turned
15 times around its axel. Turning up 5-10 minutes late was something that the world champion was
guilty of quite frequently in those years, and, I think, it was no accident. It was part of his plan to
influence his opponent psychologically, especially at important games. The latter would feel
uncomfortable on such occasions and a little humiliated, which would be highlighted by the applause of
Karpov’s fans, marking the world champion’s eventual arrival.
Even then, studying Karpov, and not only his games, I came to the conclusion that he belonged to
that category of people who gained additional powers from any confirmation of their importance
compared with their opponent. Garry already knew about this “weakness” of his opponent, and his
calmness during the short-lasting solitude at the chess board was also the result of our game prep.
Alas, bad examples are infectious, and, after becoming the chess king, Kasparov also began to exhibit
similar deliberate tardiness. Being alongside him during those minutes, I witnessed how the status of
the king required a higher degree of responsibility for the result of each game, and that not only
preparation for each game but even the physical act of turning up for it raised the mental workload.

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 1...Nf6 2.Nc3 c5 3.Nf3 e6 4.g3 b6 5.Bg2 Bb7 6.0-0 Be7 7.d4 cxd4 8.Qxd4 d6 9.Bg5 a6(23)
10.Bxf6 Bxf6 11.Qf4 0-0 12.Rfd1 Be7 13.Ne4 Bxe4 14.Qxe4 Ra7 15.Nd4 Qc8 16.b3 Re8 17.a4
Qc5(16) 18.Ra2 Bf6(19) 19.Rad2 Rc7 20.Qb1 Be7(10) 21.b4 Qh5(5) 22.Rc2 Rec8(5)

Garry executed wonderfully the first part of the game scenario that we had planned at home. Both in
the complicated opening setup and in the half-abstract, typical Karpovian middlegame his position
remained rock solid. Moreover, in attempting to grab the initiative, the world champion weakened his
c4 pawn, and it became a source of worry for him. However, Karpov didn’t think about mounting a
defense and instead began a questionable operation to frighten his opponent.

23.b5?! axb5(5) 24.axb5

After 24.Nxb5 Rd7! followed by ...Qc5 white is destined for a long defense.

24...Rxc4! 25.Rxc4

Perhaps it was the confidence with which the lad had grabbed the pawn that concerned the champion,
or perhaps it was the lack of clarity over whether there was compensation in the line 25.Nc6 Rxc2!
26.Nxe7+ (26.Qxc2 Nxc6 27.bxc6 Qc5) 26...Kh8 27.Bf3 Qc5 but he changed the formation of the
positional attack, sending his strongest piece deep into enemy lines.

25...Rxc4 26.Qa2 Qc5 27.Qa8 Rxd4 28.Qxb8+ Bf8(12) 29.Ra1 d5 30.Bf1

Here he should have considered 30.Bf3. Now there is no capture 30...Qxb5 due to 31.Ra8 Qb4
32.Qe8 Rd1+ 33.Kg2 h6 34.Ra7 or 34.e3 with a win. Only 30...Qd6 held the defense:
a) after 31.Ra8 Qxb8 32.Rxb8 black returns the pawn 32...Rb4 33.Rxb6 but following 33...g6 34.Rb8
Kg7 he rapidly mobilizes his forces: 35.e3 (35.b6? Bd6³) 35...Bc5 36.Be2 Rb2 37.Kf1 (37.Bf1? Bb4!

219
µ) 37...Rb1+ 38.Kg2 Rb2 39.Kf1 (39.Kf3? e5!µ) 39...Rb1+ and draws via move repetition
b) the attempt to attack f7 with 31.Qb7 is also unsuccessful: 31...e5 (the only move) 32.Ra7 Qe6
33.Qb8 e4 34.Bg4 Rd1+ 35.Kg2 f5 36.Bh5 g6 37.Qb7 Be7! 38.Qxe7 Qxe7 39.Rxe7 gxh5 40.Re5 d4!
41.Rxf5 Rd2 42.Rd5 Kf7=

30...Rc4(13) 31.Ra8 Rc1 32.Qe8 d4 33.Ra7 Qf5 34.Ra8 Qc5

35.g4?

The love of risk and the faith in his abilities dissuaded white from drawing with 35.Ra7 Qf5. He
wants more and takes another risk, but this time an excessive one. Of course, Karpov’s striving to win
was perfectly understandable, given that this was the final round and only a win would give the world
champion first place among the top boards.

35...Qd6?(6)

The huge pressure of the fight in this critical game had worn the lad out, and he missed an
opportunity to punish his fierce opponent for his excess risk. Garry saw the very strong move 35...Qb4!
and the line 36.h3! h6! 37.Kg2 Rc7! but in reply to 36.Ra7 he was unable to find over the board the
murderous 36...d3! followed by 37.Qxf7+ Kh8 38.Qf3 d2
That evening, neither of the players had cause to complain. In playing to win, Karpov deserved to
save a draw to the same degree that Kasparov did not deserve victory.

36.Rd8 Qb4 37.Rd7 h6

Now, the push 37...d3 is deprived of its previous force due to 38.Qxf7+ Kh8 39.Rxd3! Qxg4+

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40.Rg3. Now black needs to waste time on creating a luft, thereby waving goodbye to a win.

38.Qxf7+ Kh7 39.g5!

With both flags hanging, white attempts to exploit a final, purely practical chance, at no risk. It would
have been unfair had Garry failed to find the correct reply.

39...Qb1! 40.g6+ Qxg6+ 41.Qxg6+ Kxg6

Draw agreed. Not a bad feeler attack, wouldn’t you agree?

Game 44
The next national team championship failed to mark a new page of glory in the chess biography of
our hero. Other, totally non-chess related distractions had taken hold of the lad, who had for a time
managed to extricate himself from his mother’s protection. His games were marked by recklessness and
lacked a logical thread. Nevertheless, Garry did play one game at his best, against his rival from junior
competitions. We could immediately see the huge difference in their chess understanding that had
grown in the nine years since their first meeting in Vilnius.

G. Kasparov – L. Yurtaev
Moscow. Team championship of the USSR. 17.05.1981
Nimzo-Indian Defense. [E48]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3 d5 6.cxd5 exd5 7.Ne2 Nbd7 8.0-0 c6?!

The difference in level between these players was evident from the opening. At first, black was too
hasty in bringing his queen’s knight out, whereas 7...Bd6 8.a3 a5, 7...Re8 8.0-0 Bf8, and even 7...c5
8.a3 cxd4 9.exd4 Bxc3+ 10.bxc3 b6 11.0-0 Ba6 were perfectly acceptable development plans.
Moreover, his last pawn move is a complete waste of a tempo. Of the two plans above I prefer moving
the rook to e8, now on move 8, freeing up the f8 square for the bishop.

9.f3 c5 10.a3 cxd4?!

Black opens a path for the enemy bishop, gaining nothing in return. After 10...Ba5 followed by Bc7
he could still have fought for equality.

11.exd4 Be7 12.Nf4 Nb8

Black’s attempt to find something for his knight to do is another waste of time. In master’s level
tournaments you might get away with such a careless approach to playing the opening, but against a
strong GM you will go nowhere.

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 13.g4!

Again we encounter Kasparov’s favorite pawn charge, here intended to gain space on the kingside.
The stable position in the center reduces white’s strategic risk to a minimum.

13...Bd6 14.Kh1 Re8?

A superficial and, above all, mistaken decision, after which black’s position is already desperate. He
should have played 14...Nc6 15.g5 Ne8 attempting to catch up with his opponent in terms of number of
active pieces.

15.g5! Bxf4 16.Bxf4 Nh5 17.Bxb8!

Exchanging a bishop with excellent prospects for a knight that is on its starting square can only be
done by a total newbie or by a top class GM who had eyed this operation back when his pawn had only
just left g2.

17...Rxb8 18.f4 g6 19.Qf3! b6?

In exchanging off his fantastic bishop white gained time, two whole tempi, to sharply activate his
other pieces. This immediately brought dividends, including unexpected ones, as black’s sudden
worsening of his position has prompted him to hit the panic button. Black had chances of defense after
19...Ng7 20.Bb5 Be6 (but not the awful 20...Rf8 21.Nxd5 Bg4 22.Qe4!) 21.Bxe8 Nxe8 and then
transferring the knight to f5, although white retains a clear advantage.

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 20.f5! Rb7 21.f6!

Again, an unexpected but effective decision. Now the pawn locks the knight out of the game and,
moreover, deprives black of counterplay, as he cannot double his rooks on the e-file. This condemns
black to passive waiting.

21...Be6 22.Rae1 Qd6 23.Re5 Rd8 24.Qe3 b5 25.Be2 b4 26.axb4 Rxb4 27.Bxh5 gxh5

It appears that black has made significant progress – he has prevented white’s invasion along the
central file and he has even created threats on the queenside. However, his counterplay has come too
late, as agile and skillful enemies now break into black’s king’s fortress.

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 28.g6!

This pawn deserves a statue. It began the attack and has now died to open a path to the king’s bunker
for the decisive storm.

28...hxg6 29.Rxe6!

Not chasing beauty, but the final touch of a great artist on his canvas. After 29.Rxh5 Qf8! black
would still have something to hold onto, whereas now the game is over.

29...fxe6 30.Qh6

Black resigned. After the obvious 30...Rb7 31.Qxg6+ Kh8 32.f7 Qf8 33.Qxh5+ he has no chances
to save the game.
A crushing yet elegant win. The game is instructive not only because of black’s mistakes but also
because of the suddenness and power of the punishment meted out for his sins.
Game 45
Being the chief editor of the weekly publication 64 in the early 1970s, Tigran Vartanovich published
a number of great articles in it on the theory and practice of the middlegame, prefacing one of them
with the following epigraph: “A sure sign of talent is the ability to find non-standard solutions to
problems.”
Here is another game that hinges on a single move. It demonstrates the potential force of such a non-
standard solution. The black king unexpectedly advanced to the front of his entire army in the very
midst of battle and shocked the commander of the white troops, whose attack suddenly ran aground.

G. Kasparov – T. Petrosian

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 Tilburg. International tournament. 10.10.1981
Queen’s Gambit. [D22]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bg4 5.Bxc4 e6 6.h3 Bh5 7.Nc3 a6 8.g4 Bg6 9.Ne5 Nbd7
10.Nxg6 hxg6 11.Bf1 c6 12.Bg2 Qc7 13.0-0 Be7 14.f4 Nb6 15.g5 Nfd7 16.Qg4 0-0-0 17.Rb1 Kb8
18.b4 Nd5 19.Na4 f5 20.Qg3 Nxb4 21.Bd2 Nd5 22.Rfc1 Ka7 23.Qe1 Ba3 24.Rc2 Qd6 25.Rb3 Qe7
26.Qe2 Rb8 27.Qd3 Bd6 28.Nb2 Rhc8 29.Nc4 Bc7

30.a4

White is a pawn down, but for over ten moves he has dictated the pattern and place of the battle. All
of his pieces occupy great positions and have full freedom to maneuver. With his last move, white has
created the positional threat 31.a5, intended to condemn his opponent to a slow but sure death.
However, at this critical point in the game its “logical” flow is suddenly turned back. Petrosian,
standing at the very edge of the cliff, begins to demonstrate wonders of bravery and balance.

30...b5! 31.axb5 cxb5 32.Ra2!

White is still on top of his game. After the brave but essential march of the b7 pawn, the a6 pawn has
becoming black’s biggest weakness, and Garry finds a compelling way to highlight this. The white
knight is untouchable, as after 32...bxc4 33.Rxa6+! Kxa6 34.Qxc4+ the king gets mated.

32...Kb7!

Garry, who already had the taste of an imminent victory in his mouth, had clearly not anticipated this
move. Could it really be that white, instead of the pleasant analysis, soon to be conducted jointly with
his opponent, now needed to find a new target to attack and to regroup his pieces once more? Or maybe

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the king’s move came out of desperation? Ex-world champion Spassky, who was also playing at
Tilburg, reminded the lad after the game was over that the greatest proof of class of any player (or of
whether a grandmaster is up for the game) is the ability to foresee the beginnings and ends of crises in
the game.

33.Bb4?(6)

No, Garry failed to sense that the crisis wasn’t yet over. Had he thought for another ten minutes he
might have found the winning knight maneuver 33.Na3! Bb6 34.Nc2! Ra8 35.Nb4 and then 35...Qd6
36.e4! fxe4 37.Qxe4 which he suddenly realized while thinking about the game on the airplane from
Holland back to Moscow.
Interestingly, 16 years later 12-year old Serbian prodigy Milos Perunovic demonstrated the correct
line to me after 15 minutes of thought. And like Garry, he was quite shocked at seeing the black king’s
itinerary.
Of course, the regrouping now intended by white also seemed to be winning.

33...Qe8 34.Bd6(3) 34...Ra8 35.Qb1(9)

It seems like the game is over – black’s defensive resources are exhausted and he will be crushed any
minute now.

35...Kc6!!

An unexpected move of huge psychological force, whose impact is incredibly hard to withstand at the
end of the fifth hour of tense struggle. In his remaining ten minutes, Garry had to figure out what had
changed in the position and to what extent it was now dangerous for white. A highly experienced GM
would above all have found the line guaranteeing white equality: 36.Bxc7 bxc4 37.Rb7! Rxc7

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38.Rxa6+! Rxa6 39.Qb5+ Kd6 40.Qxa6+ Ke7 41.Bxd5 Rxb7! 42.Bxb7 and would then have sought
more. Garry lost his head with the threads of the game slipping through his fingers and he launched a
desperate attack that, as it turned out, led to disaster.

36.Rba3?(7) 36...bxc4 37.Rxa6+ Rxa6 38.Rxa6+ Bb6 39.Bc5 Qd8 40.Qa1(3)

Bitterly contemplating the ruins of his empire.

40...Nxc5 41.dxc5 Kxc5!

The king is alive! White resigned.(11)

Game 46
This game marks the beginning of Kasparov’s maturity as a player.
Garry arrived at Frunze intending to fight for first place. The lack of certain other top players made
him the clear favorite that year, and he was up for bearing such a burden. However, sport can be
treacherous – the start of the championship demonstrated that the previous year’s champion, Lev
Psakhis, was just as willing to go the distance again, and he played just as inventively and tenaciously
as the lad from Baku. Their fight for first place turned into a mad scramble, leaving the other players to
accept the role of observer and fight over the lower places.
As expected, Psakhis quickly agreed a draw in his final round game and turned into the greatest
stakeholder among the audience, watching how his rival coped with the huge challenge of winning with
black against a strong and highly experienced GM. Only victory would have accorded Kasparov the
gold medal of Soviet champion. Meanwhile, his opponent had to avoid defeat to wrap up the bronze.
Prep for this game wasn’t easy. Garry had to drag his opponent into a dog-fight come what may. This
was where the boy’s huge opening knowledge and ability to play just about any opening came in
handy. We had a day to find a setup that his opponent needed to know sufficiently so as not to avoid it,
but not so much as to be an expert in it. But that was far from everything. This setup needed to appeal
to Tumakov, forcing him during play to vacillate from prudence to a desire to punish his opponent for
excessive risk. The best way to get him to take the bait would be via a pawn sacrifice.
As a result, several hours before the start of play, we found an interesting and quite controversial
game played just a few months earlier and published in the latest issue of a well known chess
publication for professionals. It took us a couple of hours to figure out the subtleties of where the pieces
were standing, after which Garry believed he had mastered the setup, relaxed and went to eat his lunch.
We considered the probability that today’s opponent had analyzed that particular game in great detail to
be insignificant.
The battle scenario was easier to plan: full concentration, paying no attention to any other games and
constantly applying pressure right through to the final, fifth hour of play.
An hour before the game began, we set off unhurriedly, on foot. We walked mostly in silence,
exchanging rare sentences. In thought, Garry was already sitting on the stage of the tournament hall.

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 V. Tukmakov – G. Kasparov
Frunze. USSR Championship Higher League. 21.12.1981
King’s Indian Defense. [E74]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Bg5 c5 7.d5 b5 8.cxb5 a6 9.a4 h6 10.Bd2 e6
11.dxe6 Bxe6 12.Nf3 axb5 13.Bxb5 Na6 14.0-0 Nc7

This was the position from a game printed in the latest, 31st issue of Informant. We had set it up on
the table in Garry’s hotel bedroom before we left for the game. The fact that we had guessed the
opening did little to ease our minds. The pawn sac was quite problematic, but it was pointless to
analyze it in detail. What was far more important was that Garry went for the decisive game being
psychologically ready to begin the battle from this position. One thing he was sure of – it was
incredibly hard to take the sting out of the game from here, while to win, either player would need to
play precisely and, above all, actively. We expected the latter point not to have been part of the battle
scenario planned by Tukmakov.

15.Re1 Nxb5(9) 16.Nxb5

Black’s first, purely psychological achievement – we forced the snail to stick its head out of its shell.
White’s desire not to devalue his extra pawn showed that he was now thinking about more than a draw.
After 16.axb5 Rxa1 17.Qxa1 d5 black had compensation for the pawn, but in a less tense and,
therefore, less useful situation.

16...d5 17.exd5 Nxd5 18.Ne5 Re8(14) 19.Rc1

The original game had continued 19.Qc1 Qh4 while Garry was worried about 19.Nc4! Tukmakov
made a “solid” move, but one that allowed black to further complicate matters.

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 19...Bf5(10) 20.Nc6 Qd7!(32)

The hour that Garry had now thought to reach the current position was not wasted. He managed to
find a vulnerable spot in white’s apparently impregnable position – a weak bottom rank that showed
itself before the rook that had captured the black pawn returned to base.

21.Rxc5 Rxe1+ 22.Qxe1

The first alarm bell for white – a narrowing of choice. He couldn’t capture with the bishop due to the
pretty combination 22.Bxe1? Re8! 23.Ba5 (23.Rxd5 Qxd5!) 23...Nb4! with an advantage.

22...Re8 23.Qc1

Again, he needs to postpone bringing the rook home, as 23.Qf1 is met by the most unpleasant
23...Nb6!

23...Nb6(5) 24.b3 Re2! 25.Ba5

Another alarm bell – major pieces invading the white camp – leaves Tukmakov short of assurance,
and in retreating the bishop from attack he effectively withdraws it from the game. He considered the
best move 25.Bc3 to be too dangerous due to 25...Rc2, although after the game we failed to find a line
giving black an advantage.

25...Be4!(14)

A new surprise, which is very uncomfortable for white. It transpires that his bishop isn’t threatening
anybody, as 26.Bxb6 is met by the immediately crushing 26...Qg4! 27.Qf1 Re1!
With white facing imminent time trouble he didn’t want the position after 26.Qf1 Rb2, as it was hard
to anticipate how his tenacious and inventive opponent would combine the threats of Bxg2 and Rb1 in
concrete variations. Tukmakov again makes a “solid” move in the center, knowing that it won’t worsen
his position.

26.Ne5 Qe7!(8)

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 The culmination of a fierce battle. Black has grabbed the initiative at the cost of two pawns, and now
squeezes as much as he can out of his remaining pieces, seeking new targets to attack. However, he has
not achieved any breakthrough, as his opponent has not made any blunders. Tukmakov should now
decide to transfer his queen to f1, shoring up the defense of his king. The position arising after 27.Qf1!
Ra2 28.Bxb6 Bxe5 29.Nc3 guarantees black a draw via a tactic: 29...Bxh2+ 30.Kxh2 Qh4+ 31.Kg1
Bxg2! 32.Kxg2 Qg4+ but no more. This chain of moves was agreed to be the best one after a long
discussion.
It is possible to find such a set of moves in the fifth hour of play, only not in the final round, when
your brain is prone to switch off. It’s no surprise that the commander of the white pieces, no longer
relying on calculating variations, again based his moves on his positional sense, preferring to bring his
pieces stuck on the queenside to the dangerous part of the board.

27.Nd4? Ra2 28.Bxb6 Bxe5

Only now that all the black pieces are suddenly pointing at the black king does Tukmakov realize the
degree of danger, but he completely loses his head. There is no other way to explain his next blunder,
which occurred after 13 minutes of thought.

29.Qe3?

The extent of the danger now facing white can be seen in the line: 29.Rxe5 Qxe5 30.f3 Qf6! 31.a5
Qh4! 32.Ne6! Rc2 33.Qd1 Bxf3! and so on. He had chances to defend the game after 29.Qe1 Qf6!
30.Ne2!, for example, 30...Ra1 31.Rc1 Qg5 32.g3 Qg4! 33.Nd4! Qh3! 34.f3 Ra2! 35.Nc2 Bxf3 36.Qf2
The constant pressing has exhausted Tukmakov, and he has failed to withstand the battle tension.
Now one more move finishes him off.

29...Qxc5!

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 Ten moves earlier, black had seen a masked vulnerability in his opponent’s king’s fortress and he got
what he wanted from that. So the weakness of his first rank destroyed white. The queen is untouchable.

White resigned.

(11)
According to Kasparov’s book Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov: Part I white played one
more move before resigning: 42.Ra4 (publisher’s note)

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Table of Contents
Title page 3
Index of Games 4
About the Author 6
Foreword 7
Chapter 1. A Hallowed Meeting 10
Chapter 2. First Steps (1973-1975) 14
Chapter 3. First Leaps (1976-1977) 22
Chapter 4. Recognition (1978-1981) 34
Chapter 5. Selected Games (1972-1981) 57
Games 1-7 2
Games 8-15 84
Games 16-22 113
Games 23-31 141
Games 32-39 175
Games 40-46 204

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