Blast from the past
By Malcolm Pein
23/06/2007
 
Anatoly Karpov took drastic action at the Gorenje 2007 tournament in Valjevo in Serbia. The twelfth world champion reverted to the Kingâ019s Pawn, 1.e4, the move he favoured almost exclusively until his hegemony was challenged by Garry Kasparov.
 
The result was a very pleasing miniature and Karpov moved up the table to finish third, a point behind the joint winners Michael Roiz of Israel and Suat Atalik of Turkey who scored 6.5/9. Roiz defeated Karpov in a game that will be analysed in the Sunday Telegraph.
 
A Karpov â013 M Stojanovic
Gorenje GM Valjevo (8)
French Defence
 
1.e4 (Karpov played 1.e4 for most of his career before switching to 1.d4 - this must have come as a surprise to Black)
 
1...e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bd7 (This line is so solid it has been named the â018Fort Knox Variationâ019)
 
5.Nf3 Bc6 6.Bd3 Nd7 7.0â0130 Ngf6 8.Ng3 (White declines the exchange of pieces as he has more space. The natural thing for Black to do now is exchange on f3 and play pawn c7-c6. Indeed this is what Karpov did when he played the line as Black, see below)
 
8...Be7 9.Re1 0â0130 10.Qe2 (10.c3 Re8 11.Bf4 Bd5 12.c4 Bxf3 13.Qxf3 c6 14.Rad1 Nf8 15.Bc2 Qb6 and Black later won in Kamsky-Karpov Monte Carlo 1996)
 
10...b6?! 11.Ba6! (Prophylaxis against Rc8 and Bb7)
 
11...Rb8 12.c4 Bb7?! (This leads to a serious weakness on c6, 12â026Ba8 was preferable)
 
13.Bxb7 Rxb7 14.Ne5 Qc8 (After 14...Nxe5 15.dxe5 Nd7 16.Qg4 White has a dangerous attack which can be augmented with Nh5 and Re3)
 
15.Nc6! (Hitting the bishop on e7 and paralysing the poor rook on b7)
 
15...Re8 16.Bg5 Bf8 (16...h6 17.Bxf6 Nxf6 18.b4 Followed by b5)
 
17.Bxf6 Nxf6 18.Nh5 (Calmly removing the black kingâ019s defenders)
 
18...Nd7 (18...Nxh5 19.Qxh5 Qd7 20.Qf3 )
 
19.Qg4 Kh8 20.Re3 Nb8 21.Rg3!! f5 (Black is lost. 21...e5 22.Qxc8 Rxc8 23.Nxe5 wins a pawn and retains a big positional advantage; 21...g6 22.Nf6 Nxc6 23.Rh3 mates and 21â026Nxc6 22.Nxg7 e5 23.Nxe8 is decisive)
 
22.Qh4 Nxc6
 
23.Nf6! h6 (23...gxf6 24.Qxf6 Bg7 25.Qxg7 mate)
 
24.Qxh6 ! gxh6 25.Rg8 mate