The New York Times
July 11, 2004 Sunday
Late Edition – Final
Even Loosely Defined, Armenia Can’t Beat the Rest of the World
By Robert Byrne
In bygone days there were some wonderful team matches between the
Soviet Union and the Rest of the World. This was entirely reasonable,
because the Soviet Union so dominated the game. Recently, after a
long layoff, Armenia nominated itself as the Soviet Union’s heir.
But this team was no substitute for its brilliant predecessor. What
to do? Kasparov was dubbed Armenian because his mother is Armenian.
Peter Leko was dubbed Armenian because his wife is of Armenian
heritage. And Boris Gelfand was dubbed Armenian because he was the
most famous pupil of Armenia’s world champion, Tigran Petrosian.
That did indeed make Armenia, Friends and Relatives, a powerful team,
but in a match held in Moscow from June 10 to 15, the Rest of the
World defeated them anyway, 18 1/2-17 1/2. The winning team included
Viswanathan Anand of India, Michael Adams of England, Peter Svidler
of Russia, Loek Van Wely of the Netherlands, Etienne Bacrot of France
and Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain.
It got off to a rollicking start when Kasparov outplayed Van Wely,
winning with a striking mating combination. Unfortunately, it was a
flawed attack that could have been averted, spoiling Kasparov’s
chances for a brilliancy prize. Good thing there weren’t any
dunce-cap awards.
The English Opening, starting with 2 c4, is as much a part of
Kasparov’s arsenal as e4 or d4. In this match, it provided his only
victory, with five draws. What that means is anybody’s guess. The
Symmetrical Variation is introduced by 2 c5, and after 3 Nc3 Nc6 4 d4
cd 5 Nd4 e6 6 a3 Nd4 7 Qd4 b6 8 Qf4 Be7 9 e4 d6, there arises a
transposition to a type of Maroczy bind (white pawns at c4 and e4
confronting a black pawn at d6). This differs from Geza Maroczy’s
original setup, in which the black e6 pawn is at e7 and the black
king bishop is fianchettoed.
In this order of moves, White plays 6 a3 to prevent his opponent from
pinning with Bb4, which would otherwise limit the effectiveness of
White’s minor pieces. It seems well worth it to spend a tempo this
way.
With 15 Bg5, Van Wely sought to exchange the dark-square bishops,
presumably to make the defense of his d6 pawn easier, but this does
not work out. Kasparov played so convincingly that maybe nothing
would have worked out. Van Wely’s 21 h5 was intended to hold up an
avalanche of white pawns on the kingside. That could not work, as
will be seen, but an alternative, 21 … Kf8, keeping the black king
away from the king’s flank, may have been worth a try.
The point of Kasparov’s 26 Nb5 Qc4 27 Nd6 Qc7 28 Qh4 was to mobilize
the white pieces for an attack. After 28 Bc6 29 g4!, the full force
of his onslaught was revealed.
After 29 Ba4 30 g5! Bd1 31 gf! Rd6 32 Rg2! g6 33 fg, Van Wely gave
up. Kasparov had miscalculated, though; two moves earlier, Van Wely
could have forced a perpetual check with 31 gf! 32 Qf6 Bf3 33 Qg5 Kf8
34 Qh6 Ke7 35 Qh4 Kf8.