Kamsky beat Topalov game 2 of Candidates Matches. Only 31 moves. Kamsky was black. Very good game. Nice to see our US Champion doing so well on the World Championship scene.
Last time they played a match Topalov won. I hope Kamsky wins this time.
games here will change each day. But the game will be here for today at least.
The ending position appears to be a forced checkmate. See if you can find it. I see a forced checkmate. I am sure it is there. never know with chess however. Can someone show me to have missed something. I dont think so.
The more interesting position is on move 30. White played 30.b3? and lost immediately. But he cannot play Kb1 to get out of the pin (Rxc4), and thus cannot prevent b5. He can hardly move anything!
Therefore, Black played 28 … Rxc5 willing to give up that knight on d5. But 28…fxe4 still looks easier to me.
Those people who kept saying during the US Championship that Kamsky has a boring style and beats you by grinding you to death – take that! It just may be that in the US Champ he can win without taking any risks, but he also knows how to take risks against an opponent he could not beat by grinding – especially if provoked by queenside castling.
I really think that this thread ought to be shared with the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this forum is closed to it. The reason that I keep asking for non-USCF threads to be moved to the open section is that one of the benefits of the USCF is the discussion forums which are available in few other places. This is a resource which we can exploit more frequently. That is why I want threads such as these to be placed in the open thread.
Some threads last months with a dozen pages or more–some die quickly. You never know when you will be overwhelmed. . . . . . or underwhelmed by the responses.
So … Kamsky won the match and is through to round 2, where he faces Boris Gelfand who beat him in the last cycle (did they skip any cycles?) of Candidates’ matches. As I remember, it seemed that Kamsky had no prep whereas Gelfand was well prepped for Kamsky. Kamsky was beaten time after time in the opening.
Due to the schedule this time, things might be better. Not because Kamsky will have much more prep, but because Gelfand won’t have much prep for Kamsky either. The fast elimination schedule means you prepare only for your first round opponent. All the thinking by Kamsky was about how to get past / survive Topalov. Now that is done, it’s a whole new world with no time for either player to prepare.