HISTORY
AN EXCITING CONFRONTATION!
CONFRONTATION!
The match between Khalifman and Leko started today in Budapest. The mayor of this wonderful city and other important personalities assisted to the presentation of the match. The spectators filled up the 300 seat playing venue, leaving practically no free space during the afternoon.
Today's game was a very hard and dificult fight. The queens were changed early, and a complicated middle game ensured. The world champion, Alexander Khalifman played very strongly, alternating dangerous moves. His opponent, the young hungarian player Peter Leko, saved a very dificult position, and has probably already gained an important psychological advantage. I offer you a few notes on this game, although a more deeper analisis is needed before better moves can be found for both sides.
The giant tv screen for the audience wathcing live at the playing hall showed the current board position, close up shots of the protagonist and their time left for each time control. As seen above here in game one, and throughout the rest of this six game match, the world champion found himself always in deep time trouble.
Khalifman,A (2653) - Leko,P (2725) [D97] Budapest match (1), 03.01.2000 [GM Amador Rodriguez]
After the draw was agreed, both players attended correctly all the questions posed by the press journalists in the press room. 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 d5 On the board a Grunfeld defense has been played. No surprise, as both players regularly employ this defense with the black pieces. 5.Qb3 dxc4 6.Qxc4 0-0 7.Bf4!? The first surprise of the match. Khalifman chooses this mild move, instead of the natural center advance, 7.e4, which has been recently revitalized by the strongest players in the world such as Kasparov, Karpov and Anand who have used this variation in 1999 to beat Peter Svidler in diferent tournaments. 7...Na6 The normal reply, although Leko took a few minutes to play it. Other moves are 7...Be6?! and especially 7...c6, which is an interesting continuation. [7...c6 8.e4 (8.e3 Qa5 9.Qa4 Qxa4 10.Nxa4 Nbd7 11.Rc1 Re8 12.Nc3 Nb6 13.Be2 Nfd5 14.Nxd5 Nxd5 15.Bg3 Bg4 16.Ne5 Bxe2 17.Kxe2 e6 18.Nc4 with a slightly better position for White in Azmaiparashvili, Z - Ivanchuk,V /Tilburg 1994) 8...b5 9.Qb3 Qa5 10.Bd3 Bg4 11.e5 Be6 12.Qd1Nd5 13.Bd2 Qb6 with a complicated position in Piket, J-Kortchnoi, V / Tilburg 1989] 8.e4 c5 9.d5 Another small surprise. Although this move is a normal reply to c5, like in the principal line 7.e4 Na6 8.Be2 c5 9.d5, in this precise position the capture of the pawn on c5 has been the most explored move, for example: [9.dxc5 Qa5 10.e5 Nd7 11.a3 Qxc5 12.Nd5 Nb6 13.Qxc5 Nxc5 14.Nxe7+ Kh8 15.Rc1? Ne6! 16.Be3 Bd7 17.Be2 Rae8! 18.Bxb6 axb6 19.Nd5 Bc6 20.Rd1 f6! and Black is already better in Piket, J - Ivanchuk , V / Tilburg 1989] 9...Bg4!? A new move. Over the board, and sensing the danger, Leko finds an interesting reply which hasn't been played before. 9...e6, or 9...Nh5 were the moves played up to now: [9...Nh5 10.Be5?! Bxe5 11.Nxe5 e6 12.Be2 Nf4 with good counterplay 0-1 Wickens,T-Webb,S/Sunderland 1966] 10.Be2 Nd7 11.Qb3 Khalifman reacted quickly against Leko's novelty and used only a few minutes in his last two moves. 11.Qb3 was critizied in the press room although it seems a logical move, 11...Qb6!? The other alternative was 11...Nb6, but Leko's decision seems correct. Changing queens reduces White's chances of a kingside attack before castling. 12.Qxb6 axb6 13.a3 Khalifman avoids a knight jump to b4 and the hungarian fans considered this a defensive measure, indicating that black had already resolved all his opening problems. 13...Bxf3 This is a complicated decision [13...f5 was an interesting alternative, altough White seems to be OK after 14.exf5 Rxf5 15.Bg3 or even 14.Ng5!?] 14.gxf3 f5 15.Bg5 Bf6 A move which Black would have prefered not to do, to be able to play Bd4 or Bc3, but it is dificult to defend the e7 pawn, as 15...Rf7 fails to 16.d6 with a pin on the a2-g8 diagonal. 16.h4 Nc7 The Black pieces seem to be well placed. Now a plan based on f5-f4 could be interesting, to establish a grip on e5. At this moment, a lot of people thought that White didn't have anything,
but.... 17.0-0-0! The World Champion finds this energetic move. At this moment both players had less than 40 minutes for the last 23 moves... 17...Ne8 Leko preferred not to waste the rest of his time with complicated variations. White's long castle is positionally interesting, but deeper analisis is needed to confirm the move tactically: [17...Bxc3 18.bxc3 A) 18...fxe4 19.Bxe7 exf3 20.Bc4 (20.Bf1!?) 20...Ne5 21.Bxf8 Nxc4 22.d6 Ne6 23.Be7 Kf7 24.Rh3 Rxa3 25.Rxf3+ Ke8 and Black has some resources but is clearly worse; B) 18...Rxa3 19.Bxe7 Rfa8 20.d6 and the opening of the position is very dangerous for Black] 18.Bxf6 Nexf6 19.d6! fxe4?! It is dificult to suggest a better move for Black, altough opening the game for White's bishop and undoubling the pawn can't be good. 20.fxe4?! A normal move, but White misses a good chance [20.dxe7 Rfe8 21.fxe4 Rxe7 22.Rhe1!
This would have been a very dificult position for Leko. White threatens f4 and e5 with a strong expansive center and an excelent minor piece.] 20...e5! Black is still worse but better than before... 21.Bb5 Rad8 22.f3 Kg7 23.Rhf1 Nh5!? A dificult move. Black provokes the knight jump to d5. 24.Nd5 Nf4! [24...Ng3 was interesting, but posibly it was not enough after 25.Rfe1! Rxf3 26.Bxd7 Rxd7 27.Nxb6 Rd8 and White has a few different moves to consolidate his advantage, for instance 28.Nc4, 28.Rd5 or 28.Na4] 25.Bxd7 Nxd5 26.Rxd5 Rxd7 Everyone thought that Black equalized now but Khalifman has a good move awaiting. 27.Rxe5! which Leko had seen a few moves before. The idea is that after the normal 27...Rf6! [27...Rxd6 Black comes out badly after 28.Re7+ Rf7 29.Rxf7+ Kxf7 30.Rd1! with a totally lost king ending] 28.Rd5 Kf7! 29.f4 [29.h5 An interesting alternative in time trouble.; 29.e5 Rf4 Followed by Ke6, blockading the position..] 29...Rfxd6! Only now that White has been obliged to advance his f pawn. Soon we will see why 30.Rxd6 Rxd6 31.Rd1 Rf6! Before, when Black would have taken on f3, no big damage would have occured, but now all the pawns are on the fourth rank! 32.Rf1 Rd6 33.Rd1 Rf6 34.Rd7+ Khalifman rejects the draw, but objectively he has no winning chances. 34...Ke6 35.Rxh7 Rxf4 36.Rxb7 Rxe4 37.Rxb6+ Kd5 38.Rxg6 Rxh4 39.Kc2 Rh2+ 40.Kb1 c4 41.Rg5+ Kd4 42.Rg3 White offered a draw. I can imagine other Grandmasters who would have tortured his opponent in a position like this. The ending is a theoretical draw, and obviously Leko would have no trouble with it. 1/2-1/2
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