Greetings faithful readers! As I was contemplating what to write about this week I realized a little known fact: the first Tal Memorial tournament began 25 years ago last month. The Tal Memorial has always been an elite super tournament, and this one was no exception. Many top players competed including Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand (both over 2800, which was a feat then and now!), Vassily Ivanchuk and Vladimir Kramnik. Not to say that the rest of the players were pushovers: in fact, much the opposite is true. Almost all of the remaining field were in the mid to high 2600’s.
I am not going to fully chronicle this strong tournament. But, for contrast, the top two players in the final standings were (1) Garry Kasparov with 7.5/10 and (2) Viswanathan Anand with 7/10.
As can be derived, the tournament was a close race, and both Anand and Kasparov must have been playing very well to achieve such massive plus scores against an average opposition of 2700+. Thus, I am going to analyze what I believe to be the best games of the top two finishers. Three from Kasparov (he had so many good games!) and two from Anand. Without further ado let us begin!
KASPAROV
Kasparov was an unstoppable force this tournament, achieving five wins and five draws. A crucial game was his demoliton of a top form Anand, as seen below. This game was crucial for the tournament standings, as if a draw had occurred the results would have been reversed! But the other two games analyzed were also astonishingly one sided crushes of strong opposition.
GAME 1: KASPAROV-ANAND
Kasparov brought the first surprise with an old fashioned Evan’s gambit. A most likely shocked Anand failed to defend correctly and came under some pressure. While his position was objectively fine, when Kasparov had the initiative most could not withstand his super accurate play. And the same was true for Anand, as he went down in flames after a decisive mistake on move 18. An impressive demolition by Kasparov of a very strong rival!
GAME 2: KASPAROV-KENGIS
In this game, out of a Sicilian Taimanov Kasparov avoided sharp opposite side castling situations (that his opponent was undoubtedly booked up on), and instead opted for a more restrained setup. This worked out well, as after a black mistake on move 11 Kasparov took the initiative. Kengis missed one last chance to hold on move 19, and after that Kasparov did not let up.
GAME 3: KASPAROV-TIMMAN
This was a strange game. In a standard opening position Timman retreated a knight. The only reason for this wasted tempo was a possible repetition. Kasparov declined and went on to thoroughly crush his opponent.
ANAND
While Kasparov stole the show Anand wasn’t too far behind. Kasparov was simply too far ahead and with a last round draw secured the tournament win, but Vishy finished with a strong win against Ehlvest to keep the gap to a minimum. Vishy was on very good form this tournament, and a 7/10 score would have been enough to win any other tournament, but Kasparov was simply on fire. Anyway, let’s get to the games.
GAME 1: ANAND-TIMMAN
Before starting the preview I would like to make a statement: I have nothing against Timman. He was one of the best in the world at his prime, and I thoroughly enjoyed his autobiographical work Timman’s Titans. That being said, Kasparov and Anand both played such great games against him that I had to include them here!
Moving on, this was another strange game. Out of the opening black missed the easiest way to equalize and landed under some pressure. After move 21 I’m not certain how black is supposed to defend. While Vishy didn’t play perfectly it was good enough to eventually scoop up the win.
GAME 2: EHLVEST-ANAND
This was a crucial last round game. If Kasparov happened to stumble Anand would need to win to keep up. Of course, Kasparov had no problems getting his much lower opponent to accept a draw, but even having seen that Vishy kept pressing for a win.
And win he did! In a strategic masterpiece, Anand showed how to correctly handle the same variation he won with as white in the game above… as black (!). Later Ehlvest played inaccurately, and with a strong exchange sacrifice Vishy took control and won smoothly from there.
Thanks for reading and look for new articles soon.
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