The Most Important Opening Novelties From The Modern World Championships

5.  Kasparov – Short (1993 game 5) 10. … Qa5

It will be Short and it will be Short! – Garry Kasparov

Believe it or not this match was actually quite important from a theoretical perspective, there were quite a few novelties that both sides brought to the table. It is a bit amazing that the move 10. … Qa5 hadn’t been played before this world championship. As the story goes during the game Nigel short used approximately 11 (!?) minutes to Kasparov’s 1 hour and 29 minutes. After the game Kasparov was quoted as saying,

I have now played five games while Nigel has played four. – Garry Kasparov

The line itself is a bit modern but it is quite surprising that this move Qa5 has gone through some very rigorous testing and has become the main line.

Similar to the Karpov novelty Kasparov (of course) found a reply on Short’s 10. … Qa5! and was able to employ it against Short just 4 games later in round 9.

To date the line with 10. … Qa5 has been played in 103 games and 60 GM games scoring 29.1% for white in the big database.

  1 comment for “The Most Important Opening Novelties From The Modern World Championships

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *