4th March, 2003

THE big Linares showdown between the world's top two players, Garry
Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, ended in an entertaining draw as the
world numbers one and two battled it out to a 33-move perpetual check.
The result left the way open for Vishy Anand and Peter Leko to make up
some lost ground on the leader, as both faced the teenage wannabes of
FIDE Champion Ruslan Ponomariov and Teimour Radjabov. However, for the
second successive game, Anand uncharacteristically let slip a crucial
half-point after building up what seemed an almost winning position,
only for an oversight allowing Ponomariov to miraculously salvage a draw
from the jaws of defeat.

Following his promising start with a spectacular defeat of Kasparov
using the French Defence, Radjabov's favourite opening has now come
under the scrutiny of the elite microscope. After losing horrifically
in round six to Kramnik after a ferocious kingside attack, this time it
was the turn of Leko to show up the weaknesses in the teenager's
repertoire with a similar mauling on the hapless black king on the
queenside.

The McCutcheon variation, one of the most complex lines in chess praxis
today, is named after the Pittsburgh amateur John Lindsay McCutcheon,
who first played it against Steinitz during a simultaneous display at
New York in 1885. The (full) point to Leko's game-ending, dazzling queen
sacrifice is that if 32 ..Qxf8, then after 33 Nb5 there is no way to
prevent the threat of Nd6+ followed by c7+ and c8(Q) mating.

Standings: 1-2 V Kramnik (Russia), P Leko (Hungary) 4.5/7; 3-4 G
Kasparov (Russia), V Anand (India) 4/7; 5-6 T Radjabov (Azerbaijan), R
Ponomariov (Ukraine) 2.5/7; 7 F Vallejo Pons (Spain) 2/6.

P Leko - T Radjabov
Linares, (8)
French McCutcheon
1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Bg5 Bb4 5 e5 h6 6 Bd2 Bxc3 7 bxc3 Ne4 8 Qg4
g6 9 Bd3 Nxd2 10 Kxd2 c5 11 h4 Bd7 12 h5 g5 13 f4 Nc6 14 fxg5 Qa5 15
dxc5 d4 16 Nf3 0-0-0 17 Rab1 dxc3+ 18 Ke2 Rhg8 19 Qe4 Qc7 20 g4 Ne7 21
Bb5 hxg5 22 Rb3 Nd5 23 Rhb1 Bc6 24 Bxc6 Qxc6 25 Nd4 Qa6+ 26 Ke1 Rd7 27
c6 Rc7 28 Rxb7 Rxb7 29 Rxb7 Nb6 30 Qh7 Rf8 31 Qg7 Qa3 32 Qxf8 1-0

JOHN B HENDERSON