26th February, 2003

IN one of the biggest upsets in the history of the game, 15-year-old
Teimour Radjabov has sensationally defeated Garry Kasparov in round two
at Linares, to become the youngest person to beat a world No.1 in
tournament praxis.

Kasparov is regarded as "Mr. Linares" due to his dominance at the top
Spanish tournament. Since his debut in 1990, Kasparov has won eight
titles in twelve appearances. A defeat at Linares is rare for Kasparov,
and indeed his last loss was back in 1997 to Vassily Ivanchuk - a record
of 62 Linares games in a row without defeat until today's game.
And, to add insult to injury, Radjabov, who will turn 16 next month,
also comes from Kasparov's home town of Baku in Azerbijan - Kasparov
even attending school with his father, Boris. Radjabov talent for the
game shone through from a very early age. By 10 he beat Viktor Korchnoi
in a simultaneous display and by the time he was 11 Kasparov himself
predicted he had the "right stuff" to one day become world champion.
One apocyrphal tale has it that after presenting prizes at a junior
competition a few years ago, Kasparov spent time on stage talking to the
young wunderkind, who afterwards told friends "I saw the fear in his
eyes".

He'd stopped attending school by 12 to devote his life to chess, and now
spends upwards of seven hours a day studying the game, and by 14, he
attained the coveted title of grandmaster. Although Radjabov never had
the accolade of being the world's youngest grandmaster, he does have the
distinction of being the youngest player to get into the world's top
100. The nearest comparison to Radjabov's achievement is that of Sammy
Reshevsky, Bobby Fischer, and Arturo Pomar. At 15 Fischer drew with Tal
in the 1958 Portoroz Interzonal and then went on to beat Larsen in the
same event. He was 16 before he added victories against Smyslov and
Keres; and 18 before the American genius finally got wins against the
world's top two players Tal and Petrosian.

Spain's "Arturito" Pomar played several games against the ailing
Alekhine in the champion's final years - one of these was a tough 77
move draw when Pomar was just 13 (Gijon, 1944), and, according to
Alekhine's own notes to that game, Pomar was just a move away from
winning. The famous win by disputed 11-year-old Sammy Reshevsky over
Janowsky at New York 1922 is also a worthy contender for most impressive
win by a youth - even if he was 13 and not 11. However the fact remains
that Janowsky, a former world championship challenger, wasn't the world
No.1.

Such is the impudence of youth these days: on his debut at Linares,
Radjabov has been bold enough to sacrifice his knight in his two opening
games against two of the world's top players; both being declined.
Kasparov admitted after the game that he should have accepted the knight
offer. However, his big mistake was 24 Qg4, allowing Black to grab the
initiative with g5! After the further blunder of Rdf1, there was no way
back for Kasparov.

G Kasparov - T Radjabov
Linares, (2)
French Defence
1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 e5 Nfd7 5 f4 c5 6 Nf3 Nc6 7 Be3 a6 8 Qd2 b5
9 a3 Qb6 10 Ne2 c4 11 g4 h5 12 gxh5 Rxh5 13 Ng3 Rh8 14 f5 exf5 15 Nxf5
Nf6 16 Ng3 Ng4 17 Bf4 Be6 18 c3 Be7 19 Ng5 0-0-0 20 Nxe6 fxe6 21 Be2
Ngxe5 22 Qe3 Nd7 23 Qxe6 Bh4 24 Qg4 g5 25 Bd2 Rde8 26 0-0-0 Na5 27 Rdf1
Nb3+ 28 Kd1 Bxg3 29 Rf7 Rd8 30 Bxg5 Qg6 31 Qf5 Qxf5 32 Rxf5 Rdf8 33
Rxf8+ Nxf8 34 Bf3 Bh4 35 Be3 Nd7 36 Bxd5 Re8 37 Bh6 Ndc5 38 Bf7 Re7 39
Bh5 Nd3 0-1

JOHN B HENDERSON