WHEN Garry Kasparov visited London in April 2000 to publicise his upcoming world championship match against Vladimir Kramnik, he agreed to play me - I was a writer for The Sun - in his rooms at The Savoy.
I turned up only to find he did not have a chess set - something I could have anticipated as, after all, how many players travel with anything other than a laptop and a pocket set?
A lackey was sent out to quickly get a full-sized set, and we sat down to play.
I was not allowed to keep score. This was not Kasparov's doing - rather it was The Sun photographer who reckoned a scoresheet and pen would clutter the playing table.
Spanton - Kasparov
Savoy Hotel (London) 2000, Game 1
English Botvinnik
1.c4
Kasparov reacted to this by saying "Oh," apparently surprised at the 'sophistication' of my opening choice. This was the only time he spoke during the game, which we played at blitz speed (but without clocks).
1...e5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 g6 4.Nc3 Bg7 5.e4
Aiming for a Botvinnik set-up, as recommended in Tony Kosten's The Dynamic English, which had been published by Gambit the previous year.
5...d6 6.Nge2 h5!?
Kosten: "This move is favoured by some aggressive players." It turns out to be also Stockfish10's choice.
7.h3!?
Dubious, according to Kosten, who recommended the much-more popular 7.h4. But the text is preferred by Stockfish10.
7...Be6
Kosten warned that "White is well on the way to ending up with a bad bishop" after 7...h4 8.g4?! (Kosten's punctuation) Bh6. He added: "White does not want to place too many of his pawns on light squares, at least not unless he can exchange the king's bishop."
However, 8.g4 is the most-popular move in ChessBase's 2020 Mega database after 7...h4, and is the choice of Stockfish10 and Komodo10. Black did not reply 8...Bh6 in any of the 16 games in Mega20.
The engines strongly dislike 8...Bh6, giving 9.d4, reckoning White has the upper hand.
8.Nd5 Qd7 9.d3 Nd8!?
The idea is to expel the white knight by ...c6, without allowing the knight to exchange itself.
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| How should White proceed? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
10.Be3
After the game was over, Kasparov dictated the moves to me, making occasional comments. At this point in the dictation he said: "I played d4 against Nigel Short in Linares in '93, no '90. It is a better move."
In fact that game, which was indeed in 1990, went 1.c4 Nc6 2.Nc3 e5 3.g3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.d3 d6 6.e4 Be6 7.Nge2 Qd7 8.Nd5 Nce7, and now 9.d4.
Here is the position after 8...Nce7:
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| Kasparov - Short, Linares 1990 |
The position in Kasparov - Short is clearly not the same as in Spanton - Kasparov, but the pawn-structure and piece-placements are very similar. The point, I believe, is that, if Black allows it, White should seize the chance to play d4 in such a structure.
10...c6 11.Ndc3 Ne7 12.Qd2 d5 13.cxd5 cxd5 14.exd5?
Giving Black a central space advantage and leaving White with a weak d pawn. The engines reckon White is slightly better after 14.d4.
14...Nxd5 15.Nxd5?!
Kasparov: "You had to play Ne4." He added, and I cannot recall his exact words, that capturing on d5 is too weakening. I presume I wanted to avoid giving up the bishop-pair to ...Nxe3.
For what it is worth, Stockfish10 for quite some time prefers the text, but eventually agrees with Komodo10 (and Kasparov) that 15.Ne4 is better.
15...Bxd5 16.Bxd5 Qxd5 17.0-0 Nc6 18.Nc3 Qd7 19.Kg2 f5 20.Rad1?
Kasparov: "Bad. You should play Bg5, when White has chances to resist."
20...h4 21.f4?
The engines suggest giving up a pawn by 21.g4!? fxg4 22.Rg1, but clearly Black is much better.
21...hxg3 22.Kxg3 g5 0-1
Kasparov: "That was a good game."
It was also a quickly-played game - so much so that he offered me a chance (however hypothetical) for revenge, insisting I again take the white pieces.
**********
Spanton - Kasparov
Savoy Hotel (London) 2000, Game 2
Morra Gambit
1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Nxc3 Nc6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Bc4 d6 7.0-0 Nf6 8.Qe2 Be7 9.Rd1 e5
This is one of the main lines of the Morra, with more than 1,000 examples in ChessBase's 2020 Mega database.
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| How should White proceed? |
*****
*****
*****
*****
*****
10.Bg5?!
Most popular is 10.h3, which Graham Burgess treated as the main line in Winning With The Smith-Morra Gambit (Batsford 1994). However, he expressed sympathy for 10.Be3, which is recommended by Marc Esserman in Mayhem In The Morra! (Quality Chess, 2012).
Kasparov criticised my choice, saying I should have played 10.b4!?, one point being that 10...Nxb4? runs into 11.Nxe5. A game between two future grandmasters, Pavel Šimáček (2481) - Milan Pacher (2255), Česká Třebová (Czech Rep) 2007, saw 10.b4!? Bg4 11.Be3 0-0 (11...Nxb4?! 12.Rab1 and Rxb7) 12.Rab1 Rc8 13.h3 Bxf3!? 14.Qxf3, when the engines reckon White has full compensation for the pawn (1-0, 25 moves).
10...0-0!?
Burgess reckoned the problem with White's 10th move is 10...Bg4, but ...Bg4 and castling are almost equally popular in Mega20.
11.Bxf6!?
"Too early," Kasparov said after the game, but it is Stockfish10's choice.
11...Bxf6 12.Nd5?
The engines give 12.h3 (Stockfish10) or 12.Qd3 (Komodo10), in each case reckoning Black has, at best, a slight edge.
12...Bg4 13.h3 Nd4 0-1
Kasparov reckoned White has "reasonable drawing chances" after 14.Rxd4! Bxf3 15.Qxf3 exd4 16.Nxf6+ Qxf6 17.Rd1.
LESSONS FROM THESE GAMES
In both games I had decent positions out of the opening (assuming you do not regard the Morra as simply bad), but my understanding of what to do in the positions was well below my ability to memorise the moves needed to get to those positions. Both the English Botvinnik and the Sicilian Morra are quite sophisticated opening choices in that they lead to unbalanced positions in which positional understanding is very important. It therefore makes sense to either learn the openings more thoroughly, or, if time or inclinations do not permit, to play something simpler.
