Tough road ahead of Kasparov

By Our Chess Correspondent

LONDON, OCT. 25. Two games down and six more to go appear to be a tough call for defending champion Garry Kasparov. He is up against a player who loses very few games. In the last 97 tournament games, Vladimir

Kramnik has lost just one, to Mickey Adams, at Dortmund this July. Importantly, Kasparov hasn't beaten him for three years. He will need to do it twice in the next six games to keep his title.

Unless Kramnik undergoes a major reversal in form and there is a huge confidence reversal in Kasparov, the younger player should be heading for the title.

The score after ten games favours Kramnik, 6-4, in the Braingames World chess championship which had a free day on Wednesday. Six more games remain to be played.

The factors favouring Kasparov are: he is more experienced, have been in such a hole against Karpov before, Kramnik has not played longer matches and his energy level is known to dip towards the end.

The factors favouring Kramnik are: the reality numbers in score, the trend, the factors in the opening in addition to having beaten all three choices of Kasparov with black.

The question of what to play in game-12 will nag the experienced Kasparov team and could have a negative effect on game-11 where he will have one of his last three white games.

Most factors point to Kasparov wearing a bleeding crown.

Minor surprises and huge use of psychology are favouring Kramnik. Luck also seems to be on his side in that he has so far not stepped on any Kasparov preparation which could explode like a landmine.

Is he receiving some hidden support? Could it be from Karpov or someone like that? He told The Sportstar after winning the Dortmund tournament that he may not reveal the names of some members of his team even after the match is over. So, is it Fischer? Only Kramnik can answer that.

His match record has been a big nought except for the Leonid Yudasin match in Wijk aan Zee 1994. To resurrect that Kramnik has put in plenty of work, largely surprises. Kasparov's usual bone depth preparation looked shallow in the games played so far.

Kramnik was also a bit lucky to win game-10. It was not a World championship quality game. The opening play by black was dismal. Kasparov said he had not recaptured 14...Bxf6 because he did not have a move against white's 15.Nb5.

That was precisely the position in which Atanu Lahiri and Abhijit Kunte agreed to a draw in the 16th round of our National Championship at Mumbai this June. Top players like Anand choose games played by 2400 and above for their databases.

Kramnik believes that only the top ten in the world contribute to the opening theory, not the rest.

On closer scrutiny, it looks like Kasparov never had a second chance after missing the bus in the opening when he made a bad retreat with his bishop on move 13. What Kasparov did may have hastened defeat but survival chances were dim with ...h5 instead of ...Rf8 as was thought in the pressroom analysis.

One Australian player said Kramnik not only played better but also offered a better analysis of the games on the Internet.

Eric Schiller, who is Kasparov's friend, said Karpov could still make it, for he was in a similar position against Karpov in Seville 1987. Trailing 11-12, he needed a victory to keep his title. Kasparov offered an incentive to his team to find something special. They did and he won.

Today, however, Kasparov is a much older and nobody knows what Kramnik is offering his successful team which includes M. Illescas, J. Lautier and E. Bareev.

`Historical day,' organiser GM Raymond Keene was heard saying. There is excitement all around-in the media and the chess world. Chess, to flourish, needs more champions and any change at the top will help the sport grow. Whether history is made or not, there is $2 million to had for the players on November 4 when it will all be known.

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