Annotations Are a Guide to a Player's Style

Continuing with Early Kasparov Annotations, the next position is from Informant 28, covering the second half of 1979. It was the same Informant where Kasparov's first FIDE rating, shown in World Champion at What Age?, was published.

In December 1979, 16-year old IM Kasparov was an experienced pro playing in his second USSR Championship. The diagrammed position is from the third round against IM Yusupov, who finished second in the event, a half-point ahead of Kasparov. It stems from an unusual variation starting 9.Be3 against the Open Lopez.

1979 47th USSR Championship, Minsk
Yusupov, Artur

Kasparov, Garry
(After 12...d5-e4(xN))
[FEN "r2q1rk1/2p1bppp/p1n5/1p2P3/4p1b1/1BP1BN2/PP3PPP/R2Q1RK1 w - - 0 13"]

Kasparov played 13.Qd5, noting in Informant that 13...Qxd5 would leave White with a small advantage. Yusupov continued instead 13...exf3. After 14.Qxc6 fxg2 15.Qxg2 Qd7, Kasparov played the pretty 16.Bh6!, the point being that on 16...gxh6 17.f3, the Black Bishop is pinned and White recovers the sacrificed piece. Yusupov went wrong with 17...h5, then blundered a few moves later.

In his book 'Fighting Chess', Kasparov expanded the comment to Black's 13th move.

In the endgame arising after 13...Qxd5 14.Bxd5 exf3 15.Bxc6 fxg2 16.Kxg2 Rad8 17.a4, White has a clear advantage. This was already demonstrated in a game from the Alekhine - Teichman match, in Berlin 1921!

The comment reveals that, at the time of the game,

• Kasparov already had an interest in chess history, and
  
• the sequence through 17.f3 was home preparation.

Two important characteristics of future World Champion Kasparov were already apparent in the teenage Kasparov. To play through the complete game see...

Garry Kasparov vs Artur Yusupov, Minsk 1979
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1069794

...on Chessgames.com.