THE WEEK IN CHESS 313 6th November 2000 by Mark Crowther

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Contact The Week in Chess Mark Crowther E-Mail mdcrowth@netcomuk.co.uk Tel or fax 01274 882143 [Bradford England] Mobile 07957381719 http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic.html Contents 1) Introduction 2) Kramnik takes Kasparov's World Title 3) BOY FROM THE BLACK SEA Vladimir Kramnik in interview with John Henderson 4) 34th Chess Olympiad 5) Forthcoming Events and Links

Contact the London Chess Center Order from the online shop at http://www.chesscenter.com email: chesscentre@easynet.co.uk Call toll free 1-888-chess06 in the USA or Canada Call +44 (0) 171 388 2404 or Fax +44 (0) 171 388 2407 in the UK and ROW STOP PRESS! ChessBase out early October- to see the latest info/screenshots and to order visit http://www.chesscenter.com/cb8.html For the latest chess book releases check out http://www.chesscenter.com/book.html For the latest new software check out http://www.chesscenter.com/newsoftware2.html For the latest new products check out http://www.chesscenter.com/newproducts.html KASPAROV v KRAMNIK http://www.chesscenter.com/wcc2000 The long awaited 2 million dollar title match between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik will start on Sunday 8th October at 3pm GMT / 10am EST and will conclude with the sixteenth game on Saturday 4th November. As always, the London Chess Centre will be bringing you the best coverage via TWIC with all the moves from all the games plus Grandmaster analysis at http://www.chesscenter.com/wcc2000. You can also enter our Fantasy Chess competition which has thousands of pounds worth of prizes. Everybody gets a prize and its just $5 to enter. Check out our World Championship site with biographies, photos and free downloads of games as well as ticket and travel information. Mark Crowther gives his views on the match. In Europe you can follow the match on your mobile phone using our revolutionary WAP chess service. If you live in London come to the Chess Center at 369 Euston Rd where we will have late night opening for every game and commentary. Games are every Sunday, Tuesday Thursday and Sunday. Only 7 days to go ! If you would like further information about the world chess championships please email us at wcc2000@chess.co.uk New Products at the London Chess Center New book: Informator 78 New book: Understanding Pawn Play in Chess - Marovic New book: The Art of the King's Indian - Gufeld New book: Just The Facts - Alburt New book: Startling Correspondence Chess Miniatures - Harding New book: Batsford's Modern Chess Openings 14th ed- De Firmian New CD: The ABC of Endgames - Bartashnikov New CD: Opposite Coloured Bishops - Solozhenkin New CD: New In Chess 55 - NIC New CD: ChessBase Magazine 77 - ChessBase New CD: ChessBase Magazine 76 Extra - ChessBase For more information: go to http://www.chesscenter.com/newsoftware2.html or http://www.chesscenter.com/book.html

Games section

Braingames World Chess Championships    2 games
34th Chess Olympiad                  1994 games
1996 games

1) Introduction

My thanks to John Henderson, Vladimir Kramnik, Davor Golek, Jozef Sith and all those who helped with this issue.

On Thursday 2nd November Vladimir Kramnik won the Braingames World Chess Championships taking the crown that Garry Kasparov has held since 1985. Kramnik's victory by the score of +2=13 was not overwhelming but he dominated the match dictating its direction throughout and in doing so reduced Kasparov almost to a spectator in his own demise. Only time will tell whether Kasparov can recover from this, he retains much of his ability but this kind of tame surrender can be difficult if not impossible to recover from.

Of immediate interest is going to be how Kramnik will be seen. The split in the World Chess Championships that occurred in 1993 has damaged the reputation of the title. In practical terms it didn't matter. Karpov was FIDE Champion (however galling it was at times) until 1999 and thus was the 12th World Chess Champion (regaining the title doesn't count in the numbering), Kasparov was the 13th World Chess Champion, no problem. Now we have two champions in the post-split worlds that don't fit into a tidy box. Alexander Khalifman won the FIDE Championships in 1999 ahead of almost everyone who matters except Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand. Now Vladimir Kramnik has won the match for Garry's claim to the World Championship title this week after being invited to challenge for the match. Kasparov promptly proclaimed him the 14th World Chess Champion. I think it will take a little time to work this out. The power of the historic title, especially in the FIDE period from the war up until 1993 was that anyone who could win it was in it (with only a couple of exceptions). A player struggled through to be legitimate challenger and if he won there was nobody around that could complain (OK Fischer tried but apart from him) you entered you didn't win, shut up. Defeating Kasparov in a match comes pretty close to being the top achievement available to a player and now Kramnik holds the Braingames World Chess Championship, but should one wait until a unification to proclaim the 14th Champion? I don't believe its up to FIDE, nor indeed to the journalist to decide this. In my opinion its down to the players who have a legitimate interest in the question. If say every single player in the top 20 (or should that be 10, 40, 50 or 100?) in the World was asked who is the World Chess Champion and they all said Vladimir Kramnik would we be on safe ground? What if there were one dissenter? or two? or maybe just a complete split?

Perhaps it doesn't matter and things will continue to muddle along with Kramnik seen as World Chess Champion whether qualified (with Braingames in front) or not and the winner of the FIDE title will also be seen as World Chess Champion whether qualified (with FIDE in front) or not. It is sad though that these are issues that take the gloss off one of the greatest chess achievements in the last 15 years.

I've decided to devote this issue simply to the World Championships and to the Olympiad. I haven't had time to keep up with other events and I will catch up with them next week. I apologise to those who sent material for use this week. The Olympiad games have slightly improved but are still full of errors. I've corrected a few but its pretty soul destroying working on rubbish. Nevertheless in this issue I present eight rounds of the men's games. If a game looks strange, its almost certainly wrong.

Hope you enjoy this issue

Mark

2) Kramnik takes Kasparov's World Title

Vladimir Kramnik defeated Garry Kasparov 8.5-6.5 to take his world title in London this week. Kramnik had dominated the match and was undefeated throughout. Game 14 took place on Tuesday and there were signs of nerves from Kramnik and he had to work very hard to draw with the white pieces after some irresolute play. Game 15 saw Kasparov dig into an old box of tricks as he played 1.d4. He looked confident at the start of the game but round about move 30 the game started to equalise. On move 38 Kasparov offered a draw which of course was accepted. After shaking hands Kramnik punched the air and the players left the stage.

The fifteen games of the "Braingames World Chess Championships" took place Sunday 8th October 2000 and 2nd November 2000. The 16 game match took place on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays the final scheduled 16th game after Kramnik had already won the match was cancelled after a disagreement between the players. Kasparov said he would not play a classical game of chess but would play some exhibition rapid chess. Kramnik said he would only play a classical game as contracted but not any exhibition. In the end Kramnik spent four hours talking about the match to a full house, which incidently went down very well with the audience. The time control used for the match was slightly unusual with 40 moves in 2 hours, 20 moves in 1 hour, followed by 30 minutes + 10 seconds delay per move, that is the ten seconds doesn't act cumulatively but the clock only runs after ten seconds have elapsed.

A round-up of comments

See John Henderson's in depth interview with Vladimir Kramnik below for his view on the match.

Garry Kasparov was this weekend taking in the fact that he was no longer World Champion and was already calling for a re-match. "It's his call but I hope he [Kramnik] will adopt the same moral standards as I did and defend the title against the strongest opponent." He rejected outright suggestions of imminent retirement "It's never occurred to me. I am still very much in business." He also has no intention of relinquishing his world number one position in the rating list without a fight. Kramnik in turn has closed the gap in this race and admits that its probably his next target.

About the match Kasparov admitted "My preparations went wrong and my opponent had better preparations and robbed me of my good positions. In the end I was just very tired." He also added "I've had my best results in the last two years and when you win so many times you begin to believe you're invincible but I will now make changes from what I have learned". He was determined however to demonstrate that he knows how to lose with good grace and said he was well beaten by Kramnik.

Kasparov clarified his earlier statements on why he was out of form in the match. He said his remark that he had off the board problems was badly phrased. He meant by that only that he had technical and psychological problems brought on by Kramnik's strategy. He also stood by his technical team. The fault was entirely his in not realising that he needed a new match strategy to defeat Kramnik.

In particular he admitted to ignoring warnings from his second Yuri Dokhoian that one of the strategies Kramnik might employ would be to steer the games to "anodyne positions, with few pieces in the board". Even though space was made in his time-table for specific preparation for this in the end Kasparov decided to work almost exclusively on his opening repertoire. He started the match very confident both in his preparation and the way he was seeing variations.

Kasparov talked of panic setting in as early as game two that his preparation might be completely useless and after his loss in game ten he admitted to almost throwing the towel in, something in retrospect he admits was a terrible mistake. He said that he must work hard and learn lessons from Kramnik but defiantly added that the world needed his creative chess as an antidote to Kramnik's pragmatic but effective style as shown in this match. He agreed with the assessment that he should have abandoned the "laboratory wars" and settled down to just playing chess. During the match he found this terribly hard to do as it implied throwing away years of work.

Kramnik was helped by Boris Gelfand, Alexander Morozevich, Peter Svidler and Sergei Dolmatov. He worked with them prior to the match and also sent them material to analyse during the match by E-Mail. Kramnik admitted that his victory in game ten was almost completely analysis by Boris Gelfand. Kasparov said that he feared that this might happen. He said it was another example of the pragmatism of Kramnik, "He pays, and they work."

He also said he would not shake hands with Shirov in Wijk aan Zee unless Shirov withdrew statements made prior to the match in which he implied the Kramnik-Kasparov match was fixed. Kramnik said he had nothing personal against Shirov but that he was upset by his implications too. "That is very serious, not only because it insults me but, mainly, because of the horrible image that it gives to chess. I have won, and now there is no doubt that there was no such fix." He added that the match he lost to Shirov was two years ago and that since then he had worked very hard on his chess. Kasparov admitted that Braingames always wanted Kramnik but had to offer the match at first to Anand.

Kramnik said he was responsible for the match strategy employed inspired by the Czech Republic's play in the ice hockey in the Olympics. He added that it was not the only strategy he had prepared but in the end it was working so well he did not need to change.

[A digest of comments made this weekend in various newspapers. Particularly excellent were reports over the weekend by the brilliant chess journalist Leontxo García in the El Pais Deportes section: http://www.elpais.es/. Leontxo García has an incredible schedule, he was in Sydney for the FIDE exhibition, London for the match except for a few days when he flew to Spain for the final rounds of the World Youth Championships, back to London for the conclusion of the match, he now goes to Turkey for the Olympiad, New Dehli for the FIDE Championships and to Tehran for Christmas and the FIDE finals. His reports are in Spanish but do respond reasonably well to electronic translation by machines such as the Babel Fish http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/]

Detailed coverage on TWIC's main pages and on our mini-site at: http://www.chesscenter.com/wcc2000

Sponsors site: http://www.braingames.com/, for Wap phone coverage point your phone at: http://mobile.sports.com or directly at: http://www.wapdrive.com/ardcroney/nk/nk.wml, coverage in French: http://www.sports.com/fr/echecs/, Notes by IM Ilias Kourkounakis at: http://www.chess.gr/tourn/2000/kasparov-kramnik/

Kasparov, Gary     -  Kramnik, Vladimir  1/2   25  C67  Ruy Lopez (Rio de Janeiro Variation)
Kramnik, Vladimir  -  Kasparov, Gary     1-0   40  D85  Gruenfeld Defence (Main Line)
Kasparov, Gary     -  Kramnik, Vladimir  1/2   53  C67  Ruy Lopez (Rio de Janeiro Variation)
Kramnik, Vladimir  -  Kasparov, Gary     1/2   74  D27  Queen's Gambit Accepted
Kasparov, Gary     -  Kramnik, Vladimir  1/2   24  A34  English Opening (Symmetrical Variation)
Kramnik, Vladimir  -  Kasparov, Gary     1/2   66  D27  Queen's Gambit Accepted
Kasparov, Gary     -  Kramnik, Vladimir  1/2   11  A32  English Opening (Symmetrical Variation)
Kramnik, Vladimir  -  Kasparov, Gary     1/2   38  E32  Nimzo Indian Defence (4.Qc2)
Kasparov, Gary     -  Kramnik, Vladimir  1/2   30  C67  Ruy Lopez (Rio de Janeiro Variation)
Kramnik, Vladimir  -  Kasparov, Gary     1-0   25  E54  Nimzo Indian Defence (Normal Variation)
Kasparov, Gary     -  Kramnik, Vladimir  1/2   41  C78  Ruy Lopez (Moeller Defence)
Kramnik, Vladimir  -  Kasparov, Gary     1/2   33  E55  Nimzo Indian Defence (Normal Variation)
Kasparov, Gary     -  Kramnik, Vladimir  1/2   14  C67  Ruy Lopez (Rio de Janeiro Variation)
Kramnik, Vladimir  -  Kasparov, Gary     1/2   57  A30  English Opening (Symmetrical Variation)
Kasparov, Gary     -  Kramnik, Vladimir  1/2   38  E05  Catalan System


Braingames WCC London ENG (ENG), 8 x-4 xi 2000
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kramnik, Vladimir g  RUS 2770   = 1 = = = = = = = 1 = = = = = .  8.5  2899
Kasparov, Gary    g  RUS 2849   = 0 = = = = = = = 0 = = = = = .  6.5  2720
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

3) BOY FROM THE BLACK SEA: Vladimir Kramnik in interview with John Henderson

Born in the quiet, sleepy town of Tuapse, one of the most southerly towns in the Black Sea coast of the former Soviet Union, Vladimir Kramnik, from the early age of four, showed great promise at chess despite no one in his house able to teach him.

At the early age of five, he was already attending the town’s House of Pioneers. By the age of seven, he had already won the adult championship of his town and had become something of a local celebrity. By the age of eleven, he had made it to the famous school of Mikhail Botvinnik, where he stood by the demonstration board his head already reached the eighth rank; his height, like his play was becoming extraordinary…

He first burst onto the world stage at Manila in 1992 – at the behest of the then world champion Garry Kasparov – when he displayed maturity of play far beyond his early years, as he became the youngest player to represent Russia in the Chess Olympiad. After winning the gold medal for the overall board prize with a phenomenal score of 8.5/9 on the day of his 17th birthday, Kramnik was tipped to be the natural heir to Kasparov’s world crown. Now, as we fast-forward some eight years, that early promise has been fulfilled: he’s just beaten Kasparov to become the fourteenth world chess champion.

I arrive at his plush rented Thames side retreat in Chiswick some 24 hours after he won the title. Warmly greeted by his main second, Miguel Illescas, I’m taken into the kitchen-cum reception area, where I’m equally welcomed, and made to feel at home by his manager, Lord Rennell of Rodd, a 65-year-old peer of the realm who not only once played rugby for Scotland, but also used to be the rugby correspondent for my newspaper, The Scotsman!

It was explained to me that this was the first time since the match started that anyone had been let near the house – not even family, wives, girlfriends or close friends. It was part of their grand plan for victory. The house was strictly off limits to anyone other than “team Kramnik”: Kramnik; his main seconds, Miguel Illescas, Joel Lautier and Evgeny Bareev; manager Lord Rennell; Kramnik’s personal trainer, and his cook, Miguel’s uncle, Antonio. The big joke within the camp was that the house sort of took on the appearance and feel of the cult TV show Big Brother – they were all stuck in it and did everything together. The big question was: Who would Garry Kasparov liked to have voted out first! As I sat enjoying their convivial hospitality (Incidentally, the first time in seven weeks that alcohol had been allowed in the house), in casually walked the man who now followed in a long and illustrious line stretching back to Willhelm Steinitz in 1886 – Vladimir Kramnik!

Vladimir had only managed to get to bed at 9.00am that day after winning the world crown from Kasparov. While some, anticipating this as a night of drunken celebration after a historic victory, in reality, the reason for getting to bed at such an hour couldn’t have been further from the truth: He’d been up all night analysing the final game all night with his seconds!

Still, he looked fresh despite that fact that he’d been doing the “media shift” for most of the afternoon and early evening as the world came to grips with his historic victory over Kasparov. Of course, I couldn’t just arrive for an audience with the fourteenth world champion without a gift, so I decided to offer my congratulations in the traditional Scottish way with the gift of a celebratory bottle of 12-year-old single Scottish Malt Whisky. “But John,” he joked with such a straight face. “Don’t you know that I’ve given up alcohol now that I’m the world champion!”

Escorted into the plush “War Room” where all the critical decisions in the match were taken, he sat down on one of the comfy sofas and casually drank a cup of lemon tea while eating a ham sandwich. Kramnik had by now begun to relax and opened himself up for questioning from your reporter.

First of all, Vladimir, congratulations on a superb match! At what point in your mind did you think you could really become the World Champion?

Believe me, it was always in my mind to be World Champion! But, for sure, it had to be after game 10. That was the moment for certain. Then I knew it must…it must happen. Certainly in the middle of the match I knew there was a chance it may never happen, but in reality [after Kasparov went 2-0 down] I couldn’t see how he could comeback.

At Wijk aan Zee you admitted you were tired and lacked energy. When you came to London it was clear that you had lost a lot of weight and looked much fitter. What did you do to achieve this? Did you have a personal physical trainer?

Yes, I’m much fitter now than I have ever been! I gave up smoking a few months back. For the last six months I’ve also been using the services of a top sports trainer: Valeriy Krylov [who also used to work with Anatoly Karpov], who in the past has been a trainer to the Russian Basketball team. He has worked out an exercise regime for me and has also looked at what and when I eat.

I did a lot of physical training along with Miguel [Illescas] in Majorca in the weeks running up to arriving in London for the match – swimming, weight training and volleyball. Here in London, before the match started [Kramnik and his team have been in London three-weeks before the match started], we played some tennis – but not when the match started! That would have been just too much – even for a super-fit me!

It made a big difference to my match stamina. I couldn’t imagine I would have been so energetic during the match – it really gave me a welcomed extra boost! There were some people around that couldn’t work out how I could have played some of those tough games, yet comeback looking lean and fit and ready for another game with Kasparov. For them, even sitting in the audience looking at the games, it was tiring. So it baffled them how I had so much energy.

Nobody else in the world can handle Kasparov like you – why do you think Kasparov can’t play against you as he does against others?

Don’t get me wrong here – Kasparov is a great player, fantastic player. But most of the players tend to be afraid of him when they shouldn’t. I can see it in their eyes when they come to the board to play him. They just want to make some moves and stop the clock. I tell you, this isn’t the way play against Garry! He can literally sense the fear. He “feels” it and this gives him additional powers at the board.

So basically it’s very simple: to start with, if you want to win the match, you shouldn’t be afraid of him. There are still many, many things to do, but above all this is the most important: Don’t be scared of him!

Many people feel that this was a match that Alexei Shirov should have played rather than you, since he beat you to win through to play Kasparov in 1997. What’s your view on this?

I personally don’t feel any guilt or any responsibility for the situation that Shirov finds himself in. Remember, I was also a victim of it. Also, many people forget that Kasparov was also a sad victim of what happened in this incident with the World Chess Council, Luis Rentero and the Andalusian government.

Now, two years have passed and the situation is completely different: no one wants to organise this match. The moment has gone. We cannot hold everything up for him so it can be organised. Yes, it’s a pity for him what has happened, but it’s life. I don’t think that his complaints are justified - especially after everything he said: they were simply rude. Not rude to me, but rude to chess because he was making all these statements that this match was going to be pre-arranged and I was going to lose.

Okay, this isn’t bad for me but it’s definitely bad for chess – He continues to write these statements in chess magazines across the world and chess amateurs read them and the first thing they think is “there’s trouble in the chess world, this top player say’s so.” He should stop and stop now. He’s doing damage not only to himself by what he says but also to the chess world at large.

You seem so calm at the board – much like the great Boris Spassky. Are you nervous inside, as Spassky later admitted he was?

No – I’m quite calm inside during the game for most of the time - not 100%, but generally very calm. I don’t like to show my emotions at the board, not because they might give something away to an opponent, but because that’s my style: I like to keep it to myself.

In this respect I suppose I’m the total opposite of Garry. With his very emotive body language at the board he shows and displays all his emotions. I don’t.

There’s been a lot of speculation that, now with you as world champion, that behind the scenes Fide have already started work on a possible unification match. Many chess fans would very much like to see this happen. What’s your reaction? And would you talk to Kirsan Iljumzhinov about such a possibility?

At the moment there’s nothing I can tell you about it. It is something that may be considered but at the moment I have a contract with Braingames. If they [Braingames] want to do something with Fide – great! It will be very interesting and I would certainly consider it.

If Braingames don’t, they have fulfilled an obligation to me. I’ll certainly make sure that I fulfil any obligation I have to them. I don’t mind to talk to Kirsan, but I’ll not do anything that would ever endanger my obligations to Braingames.

There’s been much talk in the past – and in particular in the run-up to this match – about Kasparov teaching you at the legendary Kasparov\Botvinnik Chess School in Russia. Did you really receive much personal tuition from Kasparov, or did mostly other trainers do it?

It wasn’t personal. Not really. At the school we were in groups of twelve – Garry would spend maybe three days at a time when he would be giving lectures and doing simuls. This tale about him being “my teacher” was simply a journalist’s story – Botvinnik himself mainly did all of our training.

Garry would simply give what precious time he could to the school as he could. You could say he was my teacher as he was Shirov’s and Akopian’s.

Where he did help me though was in his insisting that I should be included in the Russian squad for the Manila Olympiad in 1992. He put his neck on the line here in this respect. He basically saw the raw talent that I had and helped to nurture it along. He really didn’t need to do this. It must have been obvious at the time to him that he saw me as being a “threat” to his crown. But in all fairness to him, despite this potential threat in the future, this never stopped him from giving help.

Now this brings me neatly to another topic of interest with your past workings with Kasparov. Do you think that it was a sort of world championship suicide on his part to allow you to be his second against Anand in 1995?

You know this is a question that can be looked at in two ways: Not only did I get to know him better, but he also got to know me better! Both of us could have taken an advantage from this from seeing how each other worked.

But it was not basically to someone’s advantage – it was who would make the better use of this information. I know I certainly did! I basically got to know and understand him much, much better – he didn’t with me. So yes, in a way, he contributed to his own downfall. But not such a major contribution as a lot of people have made it out to be.

How is your relationship with Kasparov now? And how did he react to the defeat?

I feel that my relationship with Kasparov now is much the same as it had been before the match – good. As for his reaction, we’ll it can’t be nice to lose your title after so long, but he was very generous. It was a very gentlemanly behaviour on his part. He congratulated me on my victory and admitted that I should have won. He accepted me as the new world champion. No one can have any complaints about what must have been a sad moment for him – he accepted his defeat with good grace.

Preparation appears to have won you this match. It seems that your backroom team of Lautier, Illescas and Bareev were much better than Kasparov’s. Do you think that this was a major reason for your victory? And in comparison, why do you think that Kasparov’s own team here were often criticised?

I don’t know anything about Kasparov’s team, but from what I know they are a very serious and hard working group of players. I believe they were doing their job – I’m sure they didn’t just sit around all day drinking wine! But it’s clear that my team were definitely working better – very clear!

I made a better decision in choosing my team. Sure, I had a bigger choice of players to choose from – but I couldn’t have asked for a harder working group of players who did an incredible job. They had simply one aim: Helping me to become World Champion, which I thank them for.

They are very hard workers in their own right and I’m more than satisfied with what they did. Even if I hadn’t have won the match I couldn’t have thanked them enough for what they did – especially their efforts in the final week. Most of them hardly slept during this period. It was work, work, work and more work. I think the only rest they got was when I actually played the games!

After the match Garry Kasparov said that you had “out-prepared” him and after game two all his opening preparation went right out of the window. Is this true?

No, but this is very subjective…very subjective. We both had some sort of strategy before the match - and mine won through. Of course it was obvious for all to see that Kasparov had worked hard for this match. But, because of my own strategy winning through, he couldn’t realise his own. And, you know, this is crucial in match-play situations.

Okay, we both had openings that we both had advantages from. But take this Archangel ending from game 11. Yes, this ending favoured White – I knew it favoured White. But the point was that I knew he wouldn’t like this sort of position. I wanted to find a way to play against him by finding some positions that he didn’t feel all that confident with – and it was evident he didn’t feel comfortable with this position.

How did you hit upon the idea of the Berlin Defence as a way to neutralise Kasparov – was it your own idea to play it?

No! It was just one of the many candidates I looked at with my team. Don’t think for one minute I arrived in London with this as my only defence! Certainly I prepared it for the match – but it certainly wasn’t the only thing I had prepared! But it simply went well, as I suspiciously thought it would.

The Berlin Defence suited my strategy for the match. I had a defensive strategy – Actually, I had in my pocket some other sharper stuff to fall back on – but first I wanted to try the defensive strategy with Black and it worked so well. This was all new to Kasparov – he probably expected me to fight for equality with Black.

Okay, when you start to fight for equality, like Anand did in 1995, you could end up losing game 10, like he did, without putting up any kind of fight. With the Berlin you get a “feel” for the positions. I accepted that the endgame was better for White, but he has to win over the board, not with his legendary home preparation – that’s crucial!

With the Berlin I was able to set up a fortress that he could come near but not breach. When others play against Kasparov they want to keep him distant. I let him in close but I knew where the limit was. I think this surprised him because normally when you fight, you don’t want your opponent to have some advantage, but I gave some advantage from the beginning. Close enough to touch my wall, closer, closer, but not break it. Someone even compared it to Ali’s “rope-a-dope” trick against George Foreman – this was a very good analogy! Okay, I suffered a little, but with some defences Black commits his forces leaving behind openings into his camp. But with the Berlin, I was able to allow him to get near, but not quite near enough, and I knew where to draw the line with the fortresses I had set up.

At some point he seemed to lose all confidence trying to break down the Berlin Wall. He was still fighting as only Kasparov can, but I could see it in his eyes that he knew he wasn’t going to win one of these games. For him it was always a case of “Better, better, better…draw!” This is what broke him down psychologically. It was all very difficult for him as he’s used to winning ever second tournament game. This was my strategy and it worked very well.

Did it surprise you that Kasparov didn’t attempt a do-or-die comeback towards the end with something like the Scotch, Evans Gambit or even the King’s Gambit?

No. This didn’t cross my mind at all. For a start the match was too short for this sort of policy. If it had been a 24-game match then yes, he could have perhaps experimented earlier on to try and probe for weaknesses – but not in a 16 game match.

He understood that I would be very well prepared for the Scotch and things like the Evans. Once he had selected the path he was going down he really had to stick with it in a 16 game match. He had to try and hit in the one direction but unfortunately for him – though fortunately for me! – he hit in the wrong direction.

After the match, Kasparov appeared to challenge you to a rematch. He said that the new champion should follow his example and defend the title against the strongest candidate. Will you play a rematch with Kasparov?

Please, give me a chance; I’ve only just won the title! I haven’t thought about it.

After such a tough match you need time to recuperate. You can’t play such a match in the same year; you need at least a couple of years. It’s nothing to do with me keeping my title – far from it. It’s because it is so tough both physically and psychologically. A rematch is a possibility, but I would say at the moment it is just an idea of his [Kasparov’s]. It doesn’t mean that this is going to happen.

Now that you’ve taken Kasparov’s crown, will you know also be looking to replace him as the world number one?

Of course! You know, our ratings after this match will be very close – I think I can also become the world number one in the not too distant future. However, I’m sure that Garry will also have something to say about this!

Will you now be taking a rest, or perhaps a holiday following this match? And when will you be next playing?

Yes, for sure! I’ll probably be spending some time holidaying in Europe for a period. No chess, just friends and some books! I think after what I’ve been through in the last six months or so I deserve this break from chess. As for my return, I’ll be playing Peter Leko in early January in a speed chess match in Germany. After that, it is, of course, the delights of Wijk aan Zee.

4) 34th Chess Olympiad

The 34th Chess Olympiad takes place Istanbul, Turkey 28th October - 12th November 2000. This huge event should be one of the highlights of an already busy year. After eight rounds the surprise package that is the German team leads by a point from the favourites Russia. Number two seeds England are in 16th place and number three seeds Hungary in 8th.

Official internet coverage: http://www.istanbulchessolympiad.com/

You can read Sam Sloan's take on the Olympiad.
Alexander Baburin's Istanbul diary
Christopher Lutz´ diary from Istanbul in German.
Reports in Dutch by Ard van Beek
Reports in Dutch for the Dutch Chess Federation.
Austrian reports in German