Bacrot the hero
By Malcolm Pein
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
June 17, 2004, Thursday
THE Armenia v Rest of the World match went down to the wire as
Etienne Bacrot was forced to defend the tricky endgame of rook
against rook and bishop to secure victory for the Rest of the World
team. Bacrot completed his task using the well-known stalemate
defence and forced a draw on move 70 to give his team a win by the
narrowest of margins, 18.5-17.5.
The Armenian team moved to within one point of the Rest of the World
after Michael Adams was outplayed by Rafael Vaganian, but that proved
to be the only decisive game of the round. The Armenian, or
“Petrosian”, team won the final round 3.5-2.5.
World number one Garry Kasparov drew comfortably with black against
the world number two Vishy Anand by employing the sharp Sicilian
Sveshnikov. In a typical game from this opening Kasparov played as
actively as possible and was prepared to sacrifice a pawn or two if
necessary to open lines for his rooks and bishop pair.
Round six: Rest of the World 2.5-3.5 Armenia. Anand draw Kasparov
(Armenia), Sicilian Sveshnikov, 26; Van Wely draw Lputian (Armenia),
QGD Tartakower, 31; Vallejo Pons draw Leko (Armenia), Queen’s Indian
18; Gelfand (Armenia) draw Bacrot, Slav Defence 4 a6, 70; Akopian
(Armenia) draw Svidler, Sicilian Defence, 18; Vaganian (Armenia) 1-0
Adams, Colle System, 38.
Individual scores: Armenia/Petrosian: Kasparov 3.5/6, Leko 4/6,
Vaganian 3.5/6, Akopian 2.5/6, Lputian 2/6, Gelfand 2/6. Rest of the
World: Svidler 4/6, Adams 3/6, Bacrot 3.5/6, Anand 3.5/6, Vallejo
Pons 3/6, Van Wely 1.5/6.
Final score: Rest of the World 18.5-17.5 Armenia.
In the final position 26 Qxd4 27.Rxb5 Qxd1 28.Rxd1 (28.b3!?) Bxb2 is
level or 26…f4!? is unclear.
V Anand – G Kasparov
Armenia – ROW Moscow (6)
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 e5 6 Ndb5 d6 7 Bg5 a6 8
Na3 b5 9 Bxf6 gxf6 10 Nd5 Bg7 11 c3 f5 12 exf5 Bxf5 13 Nc2 0-0 14
Nce3 Be6 15 Bd3 f5 16 0-0 Ra7 17 a4 Ne7 18 Nxe7+ Rxe7 19 axb5 axb5 20
Ra6 d5 21 Nc2 Bc8 22 Ra8 Qd7 23 Nb4 e4 24 Be2 Bb7 25 Ra5 d4 26 cxd4
draw
Kasparov
p p 7 ) p p – p Y 7 k c p p p p
6 c p p c p l n c p p p p p p n p A n b n p p Z p * d
Anand
Final position after 26.cxd4