27th February, 2003

THE pressures continue to build up for Garry Kasparov at Linares
following his sensational loss to 15-year-old Teimour Radjabov, as the
world No.1 finds himself slipping further adrift from the leaders after
failing to make the most of an epic encounter with Peter Leko.

Looking for his first win in an effort to stay within striking distance
of the leaders, Kasparov showed much of his form of old in round three
with a typical Sicilian slugfest that went a marathon seven hours, a
frantic time scramble, 87 moves and four Queens on the board, only to
let Leko off with a draw following an inaccuracy in a difficult ending.
The draw leaves the defending champion with a lot of work to do to catch
up with his nemesis and world No.2 Vladimir Kramnik, who takes the sole
lead following his highly impressive victory in round two over FIDE
champion Ruslan Ponomariov.

With Kasparov sitting out round four, the front runners kept their
distance from the world No.1 with three draws. This time it was Leko's
turn to be the tormentor as he was involved in yet another epic with a
Linares record-breaker against Ponomariov, which lasted 110-moves!
However, resourceful play from Ponomariov, coupled with a few
inaccuracies from Leko - who was trying hard to convert his endgame
advantage - saw the game ending in a hard-fought draw. In the other two
matches, Kramnik and Anand agreed a very quick draw to conserve their
energies as Vallejo and Radjabov battled it out in a very lively tussle.
The player's now enter into their first of two official rest days in
Linares. Like last year, when Alexander Morozevich withdrew late from
the tournament, thus making it an odd number, for some reason the
organizers have again kept the tradition with a seven-player field in
the double round-robin tournament. This means that each round has a
player sitting out while the other six play, and thus their individual
scores are based on the number of games actually played.
Standings after four rounds: 1 V Kramnik (Russia) 2.5/4; 2-3 V Anand
(India) 2/3, P Leko (Hungary) 2/3; 4 T Radjabov (Azerbaijan) 2/4; 5 F
Vallejo Pons (Spain) 1.5/3; 6 G Kasparov (Russia) 1/3; 7 R Ponomariov
(Ukraine) 1/4.

R Ponomariov - V Kramnik
Linares, (2)
Sicilian Rossolimo
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 g6 4 Bxc6 dxc6 5 h3 Bg7 6 d3 Nf6 7 Nc3 Nd7 8 Be3
e5 9 Qd2 h6 10 0-0 Qe7 11 a3 Nf8 12 b4 Ne6 13 Na4 b6 14 Nh2 f5 15 f3 f4
16 Bf2 h5 17 bxc5 b5 18 Nb2 g5 19 d4 exd4 20 Nd3 Nxc5 21 Nxc5 Qxc5 22
Rfd1 Be6 23 Qb4 Qb6 24 a4 c5 25 Qxb5+ Qxb5 26 axb5 Kf7 27 Ra5 Rhb8 28
Nf1 Be5 29 Rda1 d3 30 Rxa7+ Kf6 31 Rxa8 Rxa8 32 Rxa8 dxc2 33 Rf8+ Kg6 34
Re8 Kf7 35 Rf8+ Kg6 36 Re8 Bc4 37 Rxe5 c1Q 38 Rxc5 Qxf1+ 39 Kh2 Qxf2 40
Rxc4 g4 0-1

JOHN B HENDERSON