MARK RUBERY CHESS

The ‘other’ Kasparov is a Bulgarian journeyman grandmaster named Sergey Kasparov. He has published a couple of books that have been well-received by such an eminent reviewer as GM Matthew Sadler. His treatise on the Philidor Defence possesses the following lengthy title: ‘A Cunning Chess Opening for Black-Lure your opponent into the Philidor swamp!

His earlier book had an equally eye catching title called ‘Steamrolling the Sicilian’-play for a win with 5 f3!

The book’s theme is to avoid the entire mainstream Sicilian theory via 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 f3 and the Bulgarian used his opening to good effect at the DSK tournament held in Cape Town some years ago until the final round of that event. There he faced an out of form Watu Kobese, and what resulted might not have made the pages of his book…

Kasparov,S (2470) - Kobese,W (2343) [B54]

DSK GM Open 2013 Cape Town RSA 2013

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.f3 e5 6.Nb3 d5 (The Bulgarian GM had been playing this system against the Sicilian with success thus Kobese had decided to take him on in one of the sharper lines) 7.Bg5 d4 8.c3 Nc6 9.Bb5 h6 10.Bh4!? (10 Bxf6 Qxf6 11 cxd4 Bb4+ 12 Nc3 was fine for White in Hartman-De Firmian 1984)…Qb6 11.Bxc6+ bxc6 12.cxd4 Bb4+ 13.N1d2 Ba6 14.Bf2 exd4 15.Bxd4 c5 16.Be3 Rd8 17.Kf2 Rd3 18.Re1 0–0 19.a3 (19 Qc2!?)…Bxd2 20.Nxd2 Qxb2 21.Qc1 Qe5 22.Nf1 c4 23.Kg1 Nd7 24.Qc2 Nc5 25.Qf2 Rc8 26.Bxc5 Qxc5 27.Qxc5 Rxc5 28.Ne3 c3 29.Rad1?! (29 Re2 Ra5 30 Kf2 was a more tenacious defence)… c2 30.Rc1 Rd2 31.h4 Rc3 32.a4 Be2 33.Kf2 Bb5+ 34.Kg3 Bxa4 35.Kf4 Bb3 36.Nf1 (36 Ra1 a5)… Rd1!

0–1

‘But the most staggering thing is that Polugayevsky’s failure in no way affected his attitude towards me, on the contrary: the worse things went for him, the more courteous and benevolent he became to me. With no one else did I ever discuss in such detail and so openly a game just played. These analyses drew us very close. One of the paradoxical results of the match was that I gained his friendship. If only all matches would end this well!’ -Karpov (after decisively defeating Polugayevsky in their 1974 Candidates match)