Chess
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Your support makes all the difference.THE FIDE world championship starts at the end of this week in Las Vegas, with the Opening Ceremony on Friday evening. All 100 participants are required to be there and many, especially the 72 non-seeds who start battle the next day (Saturday, 31 July), have already crossed the Atlantic to mitigate the jet lag: indeed I'm currently in upstate New York (which is five of Las Vegas's eight hours behind London) before flying on in a few days.
I imagine that many others are already in Las Vegas; and even some of the 28 seeds, who join the fray three days later, on 3 August, have arrived, including my potential second-round opponent - should I get past Pablo Ricardi - Boris Gelfand, who's been there for a week or so already.
Each round consists of a mini-match - followed, if necessary, by tie- breaks working down eventually to sudden death, with White having four minutes plus 10 seconds per move and Black five minutes plus 10 seconds.
Knockouts are always somewhat "random", and with the first five rounds over just two games - the semi-finals are over four, while the final, beginning on 22 August is over six - nobody can be too confident. However, it's highly likely that it will be one of the seeds, indeed one of the top dozen, who will win.
Based on a weighted average of the July '98 and January '99 rating lists, they are Kramnik, Shirov, Morozevich, Kamsky, Michael Adams, Ivanchuk, Svidler, Karpov (if, in the end, he plays), Topalov, Short, Leko and Gelfand.
Of these, perhaps the most intriguing of all is Gata Kamsky, who quit chess three years ago to concentrate on medical studies but is now making a comeback. It will be fascinating to see how he gets on and indeed whether he can pass his first opponent: the winner of the match between Alexander Khalifman and Dibyendu Barua, and so very likely Khalifman, currently seriously underrated at just 2,628.
The only game I could find between Kamsky and Khalifman was a somewhat inconclusive draw at the Biel Interzonal 1993, so here instead is a powerful victory from the Melody Amber Rapidplay the following year.
Kamsky very much likes using bishops, and after 23 f5 he got a vicious attack which he finished with clinical precision.
White: Gata Kamsky
White: Yasser Seirawan
Melody Amber
Rapidplay 1994
Queen's Indian Defence
1 d4 Nf6
2 c4 e6
3 Nf3 b6
4 Nc3 Bb7
5 Bg5 Be7
6 e3 Ne4
7 Nxe4 Bxe4
8 Bf4 c5
9 Be2 0-0
10 0-0 Nc6
11 Nd2 Bg6
12 d5 Na5
13 Bf3 Rc8
14 Qe2 Bf6
15 Ne4 e5
16 Nxf6+Qxf6
17 Bg3 e4
18 Bg4 Bf5
19 Bxf5 Qxf5
20 Rad1 Rfe8
21 b3 Qf6
22 f4 Nb7
23 f5 d6
24 Rf4 Rc7
25 Rdf1 a6
26 Qh5 h6
27 Rg4 Kh7
28 Bf4 Rh8
29 Bg5 Qe5
30 Bxh6 gxh6
31 Rg6 Qg7
32 Rxg7+ Kxg7
33 f6+ Kf8
34 Rf4
1-0
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