Kasparov takes Leko in his stride

Kasparov takes Leko in his stride
Associated Press

Linares (Spain), March 2: Like everyone else in this tournament, the world's top-rated chess player Garry Kasparov started the Elite Linares tournament with three consecutive draws.

But since then he has rattled off three consecutive wins to take a commanding lead. His latest victim yesterday in round six was Hungarian Peter Leko.

In other games, Anatoly Karpov of Russia drew with Spain's Alexei Shirov while Hungarian Judit Polgar drew with Alexander Grischuk.

In a position similar to the Tchigorin Defence to the Ruy Lopez, Leko quickly found himself in difficulties. On move 15, Yugoslav Grandmaster Ljubomir Ljubojevic predicted that ``Kasparov will eat him alive.''

That is more or less what happened.

As sometimes happens in these lines, Black's knight on a5 has trouble getting back into the game. While analysing the game with his opponent afterward, Kasparov said ``Your knight on a5 is just...'' He didn't finish the sentence but shook his head in disgust.

Kasparov may have missed a win on move 16, but maintained an edge. Leko managed to exchange off his knight but the queen that recaptured on a5 was just as offside.

Forced to move the queen on move 21, Leko chose the wrong square. Australian Grandmaster Ian Rogers said the error was understandable given Leko's uncomfortable position. ``He's trying to grab some pawns and make a game of it but I don't see how he can.''

To make matters worse, Leko got himself into serious time trouble. After the game he remarked, ``It didn't matter how much time I was investing, my position wasn't getting any better.''

Indeed, it quickly got much worse as Kasparov moved in for the kill. He combined kingside mating threats with threats against Leko's misplaced queen to force resignation on move 31.

Karpov and Shirov played a line in the queens gambit accepted that leads directly into a symmetrical, virtually even endgame. On move 18, Ljubojevic said that Karpov had a ``tiny, tiny'' edge.

But he overpressed his tiny advantage and actually stood somewhat worse for a time. Shirov, however, could make nothing of his advantage and the two players agreed to a draw on move 44.

Grischuk outplayed Polgar with the black pieces. He was up two pawns with a clearly winning position when he blundered in time pressure.

His weak play continued after the time control and by move 46 Rogers thought that Polgar ``had all the chances.''

Watching in the press room, Shirov commented, ``a few moves ago I thought it was a draw, but now I'm not so sure.''

Although Grischuk remained a pawn up, Polgar's rook was well positioned behind her opponent's passed pawns, and she had passed pawns of her own to push. And Grischuk was in time pressure in the second time control as well.

But in the end, Polgar was forced to give perpetual check and take the draw.