15 July 2015
Visiting Tal
Vladimir Barsky reports of the first day of the Karpov - Sveshnikov match.
The idea of organizing this match, as one might easily guess, belongs to Evgeny Ellinovich Sveshnikov, while the main sponsor of the Latvian chess (he preferred to remain unknown) supported this idea. Thanks to Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov, who found a gap in his tight schedule to come over to Riga and play six rapid games with his longtime friend.
Sveshnikov has lived in Riga ever since 1985, and although Karpov has not played in Latvia for some 40 years now, he visits this Baltic state on a regular basis and has conducted a great number of chess training sessions here, including one with his current opponent. As Anatoly Yevgenyevich admitted at the opening match ceremony he really liked it in Latvia and was coming there with pleasure. The 12th World Champion was accompanied by his older friend, adviser to the president of the RCF Alexander Grigorjevich Bakh. Riga is a hometown for Bakh as he spent his childhood and youth years in this place, where he first met and became friends with the chess genius Mikhail Tal...
It was the feeling of warm friendship that linked Karpov and Sveshnikov with the "hussar from Riga", as the eighth World Champion used to be often nicknamed, and it is not by chance that the so-called "Tal Residence“ was chosen as a venue for the match. These are the luxury apartments in the center of the Latvian capital; the house has been built quite recently and the repair works have not been quite finished yet, but the first two floors were put in order for the purpose of the match. It is rather symbolic that the "Tal Residence" starts its life with a major chess event!
A lot of spectators and journalists visited the opening ceremony; Zhanna Tal, who is the living image of her father, was among the honored guests. Anatoly Karpov and Evgeny Sveshnikov were welcomed by the President of the Latvian Chess Federation Peteris Smidre, by the country's strongest grandmaster Alexei Shirov (who was commenting on the game together with the International Master Nikita Meshkov on the first game day). The speeches were brief; Karpov and Sveshnikov responded to the questions asked by the TV people and then got into action.
Anatoly Karpov was in control of white pieces in the first game. He declined the opening duels with a well-known theoretician, having opted for a symmetrical line of the Tarrasch Defence. Black confidently overcame the opening problems and seized the initiative soon after. However, he failed to develop it any further, and following a number of simplifications the rook endgame arose on the board, in which minor winning chance already belonged to Karpov. However, the Sveshnikov’s position remained very solid, and he managed to fix a draw upon having come up with a necessary amount of precision.
In the return game the former World Champion decided to take his opponent by surprise by going for the Sicilian Defense as it is a rare guest in his opening repertoire. Sveshnikov, too, paid back in his own coin and instead of his "hallmark" 2.c3 or 2.f4 opted for 2.Nf3, and 2... Nc6 (was Karpov in fact willing to resort to the Sveshnikov system?!) was met with 3.Bb5, i.e. with the Rossolimo system. In this setup White employed the plan which has become fashionable only recently, and, judging by all appearances, it came as a big surprise for Karpov. He used a lot of his time for each move, while Sveshnikov replied almost instantly and gained a sizeable advantage. On move 30 Karpov was no longer in control of the game and finally lost it on time.
It was obvious that Anatoly Yevgenyevich would not put up with such kind of developments and would do his best to take revenge in the course of the next two days. Well, the more interesting the fight is going to be! To sum up my first review let me give you the excerpt from a fresh book by Evgeny Sveshnikov and his son Vladimir Sveshnikov "The Opening Repertoire for Blitz Games" (it is to appear on the market in the early autumn). That's what Evgeny Ellinovich wrote in the preface:
"... Almost every World Champion used to play blitz games brilliantly, especially at the peak of his achievements. Why do I say about at the peak? Because it was at the moment when they were playing the World Championship games that they had a perfectly configured opening repertoire (for lack of it it is impossible to be serious about fighting for the crown). Nicely built and tested opening repertoire, a lot of new ideas allowed to quickly and confidently perform in the initial stage of the game.
I used to play a great deal of blitz games against Mikhail Tal and Anatoly Karpov. In 70-80s it was just impossible to face Karpov in blitz. For example, one of his trainers, Sergey Makarychev, was a strong grandmaster and a theoretician, but Karpov would regularly crush him in the match games; the 9-1 score was nothing out of the ordinary. My blitz performance was pretty fair; I made it, for example, in my match against Petrosian in Hastings in December 1977 (it should be noted, nevertheless, that Tigran Vartanovich was 50 years then, whereas I was only half as old). I played a massive amount of games against Tal, and his advantage was only marginal. I would usually lose to Anatoly with a score of 3-7. However, I was once successful in a match of 12 games with a score of 6.5-5.5 in my favor, but then it was a thematic match with the aim of subjecting the Sicilian Defense to test in all games... "
I have a feeling that we are never going to see the Sicilian Defence in this match again!
Pictures by Sergei Ryblov and Vladimir Barsky
