24th January, 2003

SERENDIPTY has been almost entirely replaced by days, even weeks of
study at a computer delving into gigantic chess databases that can
contain anything upwards of 3 million games.

Producing a stunning novelty at the chessboard is regarded as primitive,
risky and -- by trainers and coaches -- irresponsible. Nevertheless,
every once in a while something spectacular is seen that can shock an
opponent and excite the audience. During the Wijk aan Zee tournament of
1996, Alexei Shirov suffered a spectacular and humiliating loss to the
Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk, who stunned the chess world with an amazing
queen sacrifice in opening theory from nowhere.

In Shirov's brilliant game collection, "Fire on Board", he remained
sceptical about Ivanchuk's claim of having come up with the move 21 Qg7
over the board and not some exhaustive piece of home analysis -- however
you can never be sure what exactly goes on in the head of the quixotic
Ukrainian while he's staring around the playing hall, and he could just
have created the brilliancy at the board!

As the players reach the final rest day at the 2003 edition of Wijk, one
of the talking points was Ruslan Ponomariov's repeating of the same
spectacular queen sacrifice - and with the chutzpah to play it against
the same player, and in the same tournament!

However, Shirov is a player that seldom gets caught twice in a
razor-sharp variation, and he was more than ready for it seven-years on.

R Ponomariov - A Shirov
Corus 'A', (4)
Semi-Slav Defence
1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3 e6 5 Bg5 dxc4 6 e4 b5 7 e5 h6 8 Bh4 g5 9
Nxg5 hxg5 10 Bxg5 Nbd7 11 g3 Bb7 12 Bg2 Qb6 13 exf6 0-0-0 14 0-0 c5 15
d5 b4 16 Na4 Qb5 17 a3 exd5 18 axb4 cxb4 19 Be3 Nc5 20 Qg4+ Rd7 21 Qg7
Bxg7 22 fxg7 Rg8 23 Nxc5 Rxg7 24 Nxd7 Qxd7 25 Rxa7 Rg6 26 Rfa1 Re6 27
Bd4 Re2 28 h4 Rd2 29 Be3 Rxb2 30 R1a5 b3 31 Rc5+ Kd8 32 Rxb7 Qxb7 33
Rxd5+ Qxd5 34 Bxd5 Rb1+ 35 Kg2 b2 36 Be4 Rd1 37 Bg5+ Ke8 38 Bf6 b1Q 39
Bxb1 Rxb1 40 h5 Kf8 41 g4 Rd1 42 Bb2 Kg8 0-1

JOHN B HENDERSON, Press Officer