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Linares 15th · Linares · 24 February 1998

Kasparov, Garry vs Anand, Viswanathan, Linares 15th

Kasparov, Garry 1–0 Anand, Viswanathan
Kasparov, Garry vs Anand, Viswanathan
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Linares 15th, 24 February 1998

The Kasparov-Anand game at the 1998 Linares 15th tournament (Round 3, February 24) was won by Kasparov as White. The 1998 Linares was one of the strongest tournaments of the year, with Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, Shirov, Topalov, Ivanchuk, and Adams in the field.

Kasparov’s win was a sharp Sicilian Najdorf. The Najdorf English Attack — a system Kasparov had used famously in the 1995 World Championship — produced a similar attacking position here. Anand’s defence held through 25 moves before a small inaccuracy let Kasparov’s attack become decisive. The conversion took 40 moves.

The 1998 Linares was won by Anand and Shirov on co-shared first place with 7/11. Kasparov finished third. Linares had become by 1998 the strongest annual tournament in the world; its winners during 1990s-2000s were a who’s-who of elite chess. Kasparov won Linares 8 times during his career — the most of any player.

The Najdorf English Attack pattern Kasparov used in this game would appear again in subsequent matches. Its specific theoretical contributions through the 1995-1999 period reshaped Najdorf theory for the next decade. The 1998 Linares game was one piece of that larger theoretical contribution.