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THE KASPAROV-TIMMAN match kicked off on Sunday in the Archa Theatre in Prague. They are playing six games for a purse of $100,000 to be divided 65:35, with the last game next Sunday.
There had already been fireworks, however, at the press conference preceding the opening ceremony on Saturday, as Kasparov excoriated Luis Rentero Suares, president of the World Chess Council and erstwhile organiser of Kasparov's "title defence" against Alexei Shirov, for which the Timman match was intended to be a warm-up.
"We all understood that he [Rentero] had received verbal assurances and, in fact, a commitment from the government of Andalusa... Luis Rentero personally announced a $2.1m total prize money pool, of which $200,000 would go to the losing player in the candidates match [between Shirov and Kramnik] and the $1.9m remaining would go to the two players in the finals... What then transpired is not totally clear to me... [Rentero] stated on numerous occasions that his word was his bond, that he would guarantee that the match would take place... As of today no alternative site has been found, and within the next week or two we will decide what to do."
Kasparov finished with a proud defence of his title, which "cannot be taken away from me by decree... somebody is going to have to sit down across the table from me and beat me fair and square."
Of course, it was only one game, but Timman very nearly did just that on Sunday. He bravely adopted a most perilous line of the Queen's Gambit Accepted which Tony Miles once successfully used against Vladimir Kramnik. White could certainly consider 13 Qxg7 but lines like Rf8 14 Be2 Na4 15 0-0 Bxc3 16 bxc3 Nxc3 are very unclear. Kasparov never quite "connected" and Timman finally reached a vastly better ending after 34...Rxd4. But Kasparov held on. In the final position after 57...Ng3+ 58 Kg5 Black can reach either rook v bishop with Nxf5,or rook and knight v rook with 58...Nxe2; but both are fairly easy theoretical draws.
White: Gary Kasparov
Black: Jan Timman
Prague (Game 1) 1998
Queen's Gambit Accepted
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