BRAINDEAD@BRAINGAMES
by John Henderson

OH, chess correspondents can be such wags in the pressroom when we put our collective little minds to it! Guess what? We finally rebelled against the system by sabotaging a computer belonging to the match sponsors.

Instead of the screensaver proudly flashing across the screen “www.braingames.net”, some bright computer geek - I can barely turn on a computer (in the biblical sense), so that rules me out! - changed it to “www.braindeadgames.net”, which has proudly been flashing across the screen for the past two days without them realising!

Cruel? Well, yes – they have put a lot of money into the project. But, hey, it’s kind of catchy, and not to mention on the spot for the people who put the dot in braingames.net! “The slogan is: We ain’t got the brains, but we got the dot!”

One other nasty rumour that’s spreading round the pressroom now is that Braingames (Remember: We got the dot!) are now, allegedly, threatening to take legal action against the challenger, Vladimir Kramnik – As if he’s not got enough on his plate just now coping with Gazza! It seems they’ve taken offence to the fact that he’s done a deal with www.kasparov.com to contribute his notes to the games – and a pretty darned impressive piece of work they are, too!

It was left to Match Director Raymondo Keene to break the bad news to the Editor-in-chief of Kasparov.com, Mig. Keene: “ I gather that Kramnik is publishing his notes on your site?” Mig: “Yes, what of it ?” Keene: “Take them down immediately! We have a contract with Kramnik not to publish notes to the game.” Mig: (putting on one of his famed puzzled expressions) “ So, why are you talking to me instead of Kramnik?”

Kramnik and contract

As you can imagine, this conversation went back and forth several times with the organisers not realising that the gist of the problem was that they had (supposedly) a water-tight contract with Big Bad Vlad (who says there’s no such thing written in his contract about supplying notes to the games), but no contract with KasparovChess.

Jeremy Hanley and Raymond Keene

The penny finally dropped on the arrival of the Braingames Chairman, Sir Jeremy Hanley. Ever since Neville Chamberlain, I have always been wary of Tory politicians waving a piece of paper but in this case it was Kramnik’s contract. Sir Jeremy informed Kasparov Chess UK editor, GM Jon “Scoop” Levitt, that it was clearly stated that Kramnik could not contribute notes to www.kasparov.com.

Jon Levitt

But seriously, folks, all this legal action going around in the chess world is alarming. We have Karpov and Polgar suing Fide for the return of their world titles, Shirov suing Garry and Rentero for his aborted match, and now Braingames allegedly threatening to sue Kramnik. We could end up with the worst possible scenario for chess: A lawyer ending up as world champion!

So what about the games, I hear you ask? Well, game four was one of those classics that will go down in the annals of chess history. After the queens came off early, we thought we were going to be in for an early finish and started making arrangements for a cultural visit to some of the local bars and nightclubs around Soho in central London. This soon changed as Kramnik decided to put in some “overtime” at the office.

It was a hectic day in the pressroom. We knew that things weren’t going good for Garry when Mig and the KasparovChess team, after first of all announcing a sudden delay in the company going public, started handing out black armbands. Staring down the barrel (doubled at that), Kasparov worked “miracles” to produce one of the saves of the 114-year history of world championship chess and avoid going 1-3 down.

As the game had gone into extra-time with Kasparov in a hopeless position, most of the journalists had already written his obituary and filed the copy. Sitting back to be in at the death, you should have seen the stricken horror on the faces of the hacks as they realised that he’d produced a Hail-Mary save. There were screams of panic as they rushed towards the telephones to phone-in the chess equivalent of “Hold the Front-Page…”

Kramnik,V - Kasparov,G [D27]

1 d4 d5 2 c4 dxc4!? This is a surprise from Kasparov! He doesn't play the Queen's Gambit Accepted. After Kramnik's comprehensive victory in game two, Kasparov's Gruenfeld looks to be still in the garage under repair. 3 Nf3 e6 4 e3 c5 5 Bxc4 a6 6 0–0 Nf6 7 dxc5 Kramnik wisely opts to avoid his new double-edged line with 11 h4, that he recently uncorked at Dortmund. Instead, he prefers for a quieter line with which he has had success with in the past. 7 Bb3 cxd4 8 exd4 Nc6 9 Nc3 Be7 10 Re1 0–0 11 h4 Na5 12 Bc2 b5 13 Qd3 Bb7 14 h5 Bxf3 15 Qxf3 Qxd4 16 Bf4 b4 17 Rad1 Qc4 18 Bd3 Qc6 19 Ne4 Nd5 20 Be5 f5 21 Qg3 Rf7 22 Nd2 Nb7 23 Nf3 Nc5 24 Nd4 Qb6 25 Nxf5 exf5 26 Bc4 Nf6 27 Bc7 1–0 Kramnik,V-Huebner,R/Dortmund GER 2000/The Week in Chess 297 (27) 7 ..Qxd1 8 Rxd1 Bxc5 9 Nbd2 Nbd7 10 Be2 b6 11 Nb3 Be7 12 Nfd4 Bb7 13 f3 0–0 14 e4 Rfc8 15 Be3 Kf8 16 Nd2!N

Going to c4. Kramnik departs from a game played by one of his seconds, Bareev: 16 Kf2 Ne5 17 Nd2 Rc7 18 N4b3 Rc6 19 Rac1 Rac8 20 Rxc6 Rxc6 21 h3 Ke8 22 Bd4 Nfd7 23 Rc1 Rxc1 24 Nxc1 f6 25 a3 Bd6 26 b4 a5 27 Bc3 axb4 28 axb4 Ke7 29 Ndb3 g5 30 Nd4 Nc6 31 Nc2 h6 32 Nb3 Nce5 33 Nbd4 h5 34 Bb5 h4 35 Ne3 Nf8 36 Bf1 Nfd7 37 Ke1 Bb8 38 Bb5 Nf8 39 Nc4 Nxc4 40 Bxc4 Be5 41 Kd2 Bxd4 42 Bxd4 Nd7 43 Bb5 e5 44 Be3 Kd6 45 Bc4 Kc7 ½–½ Bareev,E-Rublevsky,S/Elista 1996/CBM 56 (45) 16 ..Ne5 17 N4b3 Rc6 18 Rac1 Rac8 19 Rxc6 Rxc6 And that, we thought, was that! With the queens and a set of rooks coming off, the hacks in the pressroom were under the impression that today would be the "unofficial rest-day". Little did we know what was to come... 20 g4! Underestimated by Kasparov. Kramnik now makes the world champion squirm for the next four hours as he patiently exploits his space advantage. 20 ..h6 21 h4 Bc8 22 g5 hxg5 23 hxg5 Nfd7 24 f4 Ng6 25 Nf3

Kramnik's strategy has worked - White's much better. Now, rather than "dig in" to save the half point, Kasparov, as has been the case so far in this match, doesn't like the idea of being on the back-foot and attempts to "make something happen". 25 ..Rc2?! Just 25 ..Ke8 would have kept it all together. 26 Bxa6! Bxa6 27 Rxd7 Rxb2 27 ..Re2? 28 Bxb6 Nxf4 29 Ra7 Bb5 30 Nbd4! Nh3+ 31 Kh1 Nf2+ 32 Kg2 Rxb2 33 Nxb5 Nxe4+ 34 Kf1!, and Black's in a bad way. 28 Ra7 Bb5 29 f5 exf5 30 exf5 Re2 31 Nfd4!

As subtle as a brick over the head - and stronger than the obvious capture on b6. Kramnik doesn't even offer Garry a glimmer of hope. 31 ..Re1+ 32 Kf2 Rf1+ 33 Kg2 Nh4+ 34 Kh3 Rh1+ 35 Kg4 Be8 36 Bf2 Ng2 37 Ra8! Rf1 38 Kf3 Nh4+

In the pressroom at the time, this was widely seen as one of the biggest blunders ever played in a world championship match, as Garry had to play 38 ..Nf4. However, it was subsequently shown that this also won for White: 38 ..Nf4 39 Nd2 Rd1 40 Nc4 Nd5 41 Nb5 Bxg5 42 Ke2! (42 Nbd6? Nc7 43 Rc8 b5=) 42 ..Rh1 43 Nbd6 Nc7 44 Rc8 b5 45 Nxe8 Nxe8 46 Bc5+ Be7 47 Nd6 Bxd6 48 Bxd6+ Kg8 49 Rxe8+ with no hope for Black. 39 Ke2 Rh1 40 Nb5 Bxg5 41 Nc7 Ke7 42 Nxe8 Nxf5 43 Bxb6 Kd7 44 a4 And, with the subtle plan of a5-a6-a7 etc., and an earthquake striking central London being Black's only chance of saving the game, Kasparov went into a long, deep thought. This gave all the journalists some time to start going about writing Kasparov's obituary as we waited for him to resign. However, as Mark Twain once famously said: "Rumours of my death have been grossly exaggerated." And sure enough... 44 ..Rh3 45 Nc5+ Kc6 46 a5 Re3+ 47 Kd1 Re7 48 Rc8+ Kb5 49 Ne4! Rxe4

Vladimir - sorry Team – Kramnik, writing in Kasparov.com, thought that Black had better chances with: 49 ..Ne3+ 50 Kc1 (50 Ke2 Nc4 51 Nc7+ Ka4 52 Kf3 Rxe4!) 50 ..Nc4+ 51 Nxg5 Nxb6 52 axb6 Kxb6 and its not to clear how white wins. 50 Rc5+ Ka6 51 Nc7+ Kb7 52 Rxf5 Be3 52 ..f6? 53 Rb5 Kc6 54 a6 Ra4 55 a7 Bf4 56 Ra5! 53 Bxe3 Kramnik "suddenly" makes it all the more difficult for himself. He's still winning - but we've all been in the same position (although admittedly not against Kasparov!): We're waiting for our opponent to resign, and start to relax more and more. Instead, perhaps the best route to victory was: 53 Nb5! Ka6 (53 ..Kc6 54 Na7+ Kb7 55 Rxf7+ Ka6 56 Nc8) 54 Nd6 Re6 55 Nc4 Bxb6 56 axb6 Re4 57 Ra5+! Kb7 58 Ra7+ Kb8 59 Rc7 Re6 (59 ..g5 60 Na5) 60 Rxf7 g5 61 Rg7 Rc6 62 Rg8+ Rc8 63 Rxc8+ Kxc8 64 Na5! and, since Black can't get near the pawn, White marches his king up the board to c6, via gobbling the g-pawn, to win. 53 ..Rxe3 54 Rxf7 Re5 55 a6+?

Kramnik goes brain-dead at the braingames at the crucial moment. He was probably thinking about what he was going to say at the press conference afterwards, having taken a 2–0 lead, and allows Kasparov back with a miracle escape of Houdini proportions. Instead, the win could be found with [55 Nd5+! A) 55 ..Kc6 56 Nb4+ Kb5 57 Rf4 Rg5 (57 ..g5 58 Rg4 Rf5 59 a6) 58 a6; B) 55 ..Kb8 56 Nb4; C) 55 ..Ka8 56 Nb6+ Kb8 57 a6; D) 55 ..Ka6 56 Nb4+! Kb5 57 Rf4 g5 58 Rg4 Rf5 59 a6 55 ..Kb6 56 Rxg7 [56 Rf8 Ra5 57 Rc8 Kc6!=] 56 ..Ra5 57 Kd2 Ra1 58 Kc2 Rh1?? Now its Kasparov's turn to go brain-dead in this epic battle. As in the note above, the correct defensive plan is 58 ..Ra5! ] 59 Kb2 [59 Rg8! Ra1 60 Nd5+! wins. 59 ..Rh8!= 60 Kb3 Rc8 61 a7 Kxa7 Instead of being used as coasters for my mug of tea, I finally found a use for the four-volume, ChessBase Endgame Rom CD's, sent to me by Freddie Friedel. Draw in all lines – so I can safely put my cup back on them! 62 Kb4 Kb6 63 Nd5+ So why play on in a theoretically drawn ending? Well, as Kasparov pointed out afterwards at the press conference, "He [Kramnik] had every right to do so! Remember, I managed to win this ending against Polgar after she put her king in the wrong place." 63 ..Ka6 64 Rg6+ Kb7 65 Kb5 Rc1 66 Rg2 Kc8 67 Rg7 Kd8 68 Nf6 Rc7 69 Rg5 Rf7 70 Nd5 Kd7 71 Rg6 Rf1 72 Kc5 ½–½

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of TWIC, Chess & Bridge Ltd or the London Chess Center.