[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: This Week's ChessBase Show: Anand-Kamsky, Las Palmas 1995

[Email subscription to blog articles]

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
This Week's ChessBase Show: Anand-Kamsky, Las Palmas 1995
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1216799130.shtml


   With world champion Viswanathan Anand set to defend his title against
   Vladimir Kramnik, and Gata Kamsky to do battle with Veselin Topalov
   for the right to play for the title next year, it's conceivable that
   2009 will see an Anand-Kamsky championship match. If so, it will be
   their third tilt, with their two previous contests taking place in
   candidates matches in the mid-1990s.
   In the first, an eight-game match in Sanghi Nagar, Anand led by two
   games with three to go. All would seem to be well, but he lost games 6
   and 7, and after a draw in round 8, continued his collapse in the
   rapid tiebreak, losing both games (the last in just 17 moves). That
   was the semi-final match in the FIDE cycle. Kamsky ultimately made it
   to the world championship match against Karpov in 1996, where he was
   defeated; he retired shortly thereafter.
   Meanwhile, they met again in a 12-game match, the final of the PCA
   Candidates, and here too they were tied after eight games. While Anand
   had generally enjoyed the better positions in their games, Kamsky had
   shown himself the better pressure player - up to this point. But now,
   in game 9, Anand rose to the occasion and played a beautiful game,
   winning convincingly and destroying Kamsky's main black opening for
   the match. Game 10 was drawn, and Kamsky's backup opening was beaten
   soundly in the finale. This gave Anand the right to face Kasparov the
   next year, and like Kamsky against Karpov, Anand too was ultimately
   unsuccessful in his first shot at the title.
   Still, the match was a big success for Anand, as he overcame a
   difficult opponent and proved that he could handle a big pressure
   situation - and with style. In our show this week, we'll look at his
   majestic win in game 9 of the 1995 match. The game demonstrated
   practically everything: a nice, new opening idea, a sustained attack
   that involved play on all three parts of the board in beautiful
   harmony, nice variations, the interplay of strategic goals and
   tactical play, a few ingenious maneuvers - this game had it all, aside
   from an endgame.
   Now that I've whetted your appetite, all you need to do is tune in to
   the playchess.com server tonight - Wednesday night - at 9 p.m. ET. Log
   on to the server, go into the broadcast room, and double-click on my
   nickname there (Initiative) and you're good to go. (Further directions
   [1]here, especially for those who would like to watch archived shows.)
   Hope to see you there!

References

   1. http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1114234449.shtml