chess

Last month's PCA title match clearly took more out of Garry Kasparov than might have been expected from its high quota of brisk draws. Now playing in the powerful Credit Suisse Masters tournament in Horgen, Switzerland, Kasparov managed only six draws and a loss in the first seven rounds. A good win against Viktor Korchnoi in round eight restored his score to the 50 per cent mark, but he remains a long way behind the front-runners, Vassily Ivanchuk and Vladimir Kramnik.

Kasparov's loss to Ivanchuk saw the world champion unable to find an effective plan against his opponent's halloween ploy of hiding under a blanket of pawns and creeping forward with ghostly stealth. All the pieces stayed on the board for 20 moves, after which Kasparov reacted weakly to Black's Q-side push. 22.cxb4 left him with a sickly b-pawn, and when this was eliminated by 24.b3, it resulted in Black's knights so dominating the position that White could not defend his d-pawn after 28...Qa7. At the end, Black's extra c-pawn must win the game. A remarkable game, with Ivan-chuk's late castling a suitable finishing touch.

White: Garry Kasparov

Black: Vasily Ivanchuk

1 e4 e6 17 Bf4 Be7

2 d4 d5 18 Bg3 Rb8

3 Nc3 Bb4 19 Nh2 Qd8

4 e5 b6 20 Ng4 b4

5 a3 Bf8 21 axb4 axb4

6 Nf3 Ne7 22 cxb4 Nxb4

7 h4 h6 23 Bb1 Bd7

8 h5 a5 24 b3 Ra8

9 Bb5+ c6 25 Rxa8 Qxa8

10 Ba4 Nd7 26 bxc4 Nxc4

11 Ne2 b5 27 Nc1 Ba4

12 Bb3 c5 28 Qe2 Qa7

13 c3 Nc6 29 Ne3 Qxd4

14 0-0 Qc7 30 Nxc4 dxc4

15 Re1 c4 31 Qf1 0-0

16 Bc2 Nb6 White resigned.