Gata Kamsky Is Back
By Arvind Aaron

Gata Kamsky is back and did not require the tie-breaks to win big opponents like Ruslan Ponomariov, Magnus Carlsen and Alexei Shirov in the last three rounds as he won the FIDE World Chess Cup at Khanty-Mansiysk, in the Siberian part of Russia on Dec 17.

In the four-game finals, Kamsky won the second game with white when Shirov tried to win and allowed the passed pawns of white to get dangerous. The other three games were drawn for a 2.5-
1.5 result in favour of Kamsky.

Kamsky is now expected to play Veselin Topalov and the winner of that match will play the winner of the 2008 World Championship match between Anand and Kramnik. Kamsky, born in 1974 is older than both Topalov and Kramnik and is younger than Anand.

Kamsky is known in India for coming from behind to defeat Anand in the Sanghinagar Candidates match in July-August 1994 via the tie-break. He also went ahead until he lost to Karpov in the World Championship at Elista June 1996 before he gave up professional chess.

However, he is back as a married man and with a child. He came back in 2005 and has been able to regain his slot in the world elite group. 

In the earlier rounds, Kamsky knocked out Peter Svidler 2.5-1.5 (round four), Kiril Georgiev 1.5-0.5, Boris Avrukh 1.5-0.5, Adly Ahmed 1.5-0.5.

Home

Published on 19.12.2007