4. Karpov – Kasparov’s (1985 game 2) – 13. … Bd7
The rematch of the now infamous 1984 match was a tightly contested battle with Kasparov emerging as the better man. Similar to the Fischer game this is another game that doesn’t get a ton of attention outside of opening books. In the second game of the match Kasparov uncorked 13. … Bd7 as a solid waiting move against the classical Scheveningen. Kasparov has become well known for his contributions to the theory of the Sicilian Scheveningen (an opening where black’s main goal is to not lose before move 20). On move 13 Kasparov found a move that prolongs blacks suffering and pushed the forced mate to move 21. This game (and the ones that follow) have earned such a high ranking because of the “timelessness” of the ideas that were played. I want to point out that it is possible that this position occurred in the game Yudasin – Shabanov (1985) which may have been before the world championship but the dates are not given. If anybody out there knows please let me know.
Here’s what the man himself had to say in the book “Unlimited Challenge”,
After the opening, I created a maze of complications which, if White played correctly, could have got me into deep trouble. But Karpov failed to find the right plan, and by a series of tactical strikes I achieved a won position. The, under time pressure, I overlooked the continuation that would have clinched it. All the same, from the position we adjourned at I was counting on a win, though my sealed move turned out to be second rate. Having calculated that however White responded, I would have a clear win, we suddenly discovered, just two hours before the game was due to resume, that White in fact had a strong answer. We began frantically searching for other possibilities, but didn’t have enough time to find a precise solution.
Returning to the game without any clear idea of how to continue it, I was unable to find my way out of the situation and so lost the initiative. As a result, we drew.
Failures like that are always annoying, and in a world championship match your reactions to everything are doubly acute. – Garry Kasparov
To date the line with 13. … Bd7 has been played in 112 games and 63 GM games scoring 33.9% for white in the big database.
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