Author: Amir Ban
Date: 22:36:37 01/28/03
[Event "X3D Man-Machine match"]
[Site "New York City"]
[Date "2003.01.28"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Deep Junior 8"]
[Black "Kasparov, Garry"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[Opening "Sicilian: Kan, Polugaievsky variation"]
[ECO "B42"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6
{The Paulsen is a minor surprise. What does Kasparov have in store for us now ?}
3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Bd3 Bc5 6. Nb3 Ba7 7. c4
{But this is a counter surprise for Kasparov, who did not seem happy after this.
He never planned to play the kind of game this leads to}
7... Nc6 8.Nc3
{First move out of book. Junior shows a negligible advantage, but Boris Alterman
is happy}
8... d6 9. O-O Nge7 10. Re1 O-O 11. Be3
{Shay was operating, and I was in the adjoining room with Alterman, Levy and
others. The masters didn't like Deep Junior's last two moves, preferring 10.Kh1
and 11.f4}
11... e5
{I went downstairs at the public hall here, where Ashley & Seirawan dragged me
onstage and asked for questions from the crowd. A kid asked "Can't you play Nd5
now ?". I was non-commital, pleading ignorance of chess. Nd5 is a novelty}
12. Nd5 a5 13. Rc1
{Nice move, drawing one of Kasparov's famous frowns}
13... a4 14. Bxa7 Rxa7 15. Nd2 Nd4 16. Qh5
{As if someone asked "now what?", Deep Junior answers. f4 and c5 are threatened.
Kasparov's next move stops both}
16... Ne6 17. Rc3
{The move 17.g3 appeared in Deep Junior's mainline for a long time. Alterman and
I were watching and immediately liked it, cheering the monitor to move now, but
Junior had to change its mind}
17... Nc5 18. Bc2 Nxd5
{Tough choice now. 19. exd5 f5 black becomes active. 19. cxd5 and draw is the
best result to hope for}
19. exd5 g6
{Isn't f5 better ?}
20. Qh6 f5 21. Ra3 Qf6
{If there is luck in chess (and there is), this move represents it. Deep Junior
was pondering 21... e4 and it was seeing that 22. b4 leads to real trouble (no
draw here, it loses), and switched to 22. Bb1.
Kasparov's much vaunted Qf6 appears to be inferior to an immediate e4. For one
thing, it commits the queen, instead of keeping the options of Qb6 or Qa5. After
Qf6, Junior sees trouble from b4, but not half as after e4, so it sticks to it.
Furthermore, 21... Qf6 allows 22. Nf3 e4 23. Ng5 Qg7 24. Qxg7+ Kxg7 25. b4 axb3
26. Rxa7 bxc2 27. Rc1 h6 28. Ne6+ Bxe6 29. dxe6 and black has to fight for a
draw.
Interesting to take note of the reactions of the two masters in the room while
waiting Junior was working out the fallout of b4: Boris Alterman gloomily said
that b4 is a "must" move, whatever the consequences, while David Levy
immediately said it will be a mistake and suggested Nf3.}
22. b4
{After a long think, no switch. Are we in for it now ?}
22... axb3 23. Rxa7 bxc2 24. Rc1 e4 25. Rxc2 Qa1+
{After the game Kasparov blamed this move, and said f4 wins. He repeated this at
the press conference minutes later. However, half an hour later a member of his
team told Shay that they analyzed f4 and found it is a draw (25... f4 26.h3)}
26. Nf1 f4
{Funny how you can misplace a queen on h6 and a rook on the 7th rank}
27. Ra8 e3 28. fxe3 fxe3 29. Qxf8+ Kxf8 30. Rxc8+ Kf7
{Kasparov offered draw and we accepted. Kasaprov said that in his calculations
before 25... Qa1+ he calculated after here 31. Rc7+ Kf6 32. Re2 Ne4 33. Rxe3 Nd2
but now missed the saving 34.Re6+!
Stunning tactical ability by Kasparov (remember Kramnik dropping a piece?), and
an all-around high-class game}
1/2-1/2
Amir
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