June 25, 1997
Kasparov wins in Novgorod
Gary Kasparov had a nervous wait in the final round to see if he was the sole winner of the Novgorod event. He played a lively game with Nigel Short which ended in perpetual check. Vladimir Kramnik had an edge over Boris Gelfand in their game but, although he made some progress, it didn't prove sufficient for a win.
The second half of the tournament was a little bit of a disappointment. The quality of the games did seem to decline somewhat with far more errors. With many of the players complaining of tiredness at the Las Palmas tournament last year, one wonders if the move towards ever lengthening time-controls (I believe 8 hour sessions, 7 hour sessions are virtually standard with adjournment on its way out) is good for the standard of chess produced. Another explanation might be the football match that the players were scheduled to take part in on one of the rest days. Regional and City Administration vs Chess Grandmasters. Nigel Short won in the 7th, 8th and 9th rounds and took the battle to Kasparov in the 10th. It was harder, however, to understand the play of his opponents in these rounds with Gelfand sacrificing a number of pawns to no apparent effect, Kramnik burying his Queen and Topalov losing the initiative as white right out of the opening (this was Short's best game as he completely outplayed the Bulgarian). Kasparov, too, was not unaffected: he was in some trouble against Bareev and did not seem to make the best of his chances against Kramnik. The key clash was the round 9 clash between Kasparov and Kramnik. Kasparov appeared to have a nice initiative from the opening but Kramnik came back to hold a slight initiative before move 40. Kasparov appeared to have managed to put the breaks on the position and the game was soon drawn.
The new scoring system seemed to have no real effect. I was not clear what effect it was to have on the prizes but it only resulted in tying the final three players.
In general the event was a most enjoyable one with a lot of fine chess, especially in the first half. It was nice to see both Short and Bareev do so well; for the latter this was his first really big invitation for some time. Topalov's form has been patchy for some time; he hasn't found the form of last year, or players have found ways of avoiding the positions he plays best. Gelfand performed only 50 points below his expected rating, almost entirely due to a 2-0 whitewash by Nigel Short against whom he has lost a match.
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