World Premiere

Jörg Schwalfenberg – Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov
“World Premiere” 15-minute rapid game; Nußloch, July 26, 1995
nbqrknbr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NBQRKNBR w KQkq – 0 1

Position #220

“Here is a sample of the sort of chess Fischerandom can lead to. It was played in 1995 in a small chess festival near Heidelberg and shows Karpov quickly getting into his normal positional stride, despite the curious opening position (see diagram)”, International Master William Roland Hartston wrote in his May 16, 1997 column for The Independent.

1. c4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. cxd5 cxd5 4. Qxc8 Rxc8 5. Nb3 Nd7 6. e4 f6 7. Ne3 Nab6 8. f3 Bd6 9. Bd3 g6 10. Bf2 Nc4 11. Rb1 Ndb6

12. exd5? This appears a serious positional error, isolating the Pawn on d4. Any advice? In his book “Bobby Fischer Comes Home: The Final Years in Iceland, a Saga of Friendship and Lost Illusions”, New In Chess, Alkmaar, 2012, p. 83, Grandmaster Helgi Ólafsson — who was so lucky as to play a few games at Fischerandom chess with Bobby — wrote: “I noticed that in every game he tried to castle as soon as possible”. So why not to castle h-side (12. 0-0)?
12. ... Nxe3 13. Bxe3 Nxd5 14. Bd2 Be6 15. g3 Kf7 16. Ke2? Allowing Black to infiltrate on the h-file. A little better seems 16. Kf2 h5 17. h4, although after 17. ... Nb4 Black keeps a clear edge.
16. ... h5! 17. Rbc1 Rxc1 18. Rxc1 b6 19. Be4 h4 20. f4 hxg3 21. hxg3 Rh2+ 22. Kd3 Rh3 23. Rg1 Nxf4+ 24. Kc2 Ne2 25. Rg2 Nxg3 26. Bd3 Bd5 0 : 1. “Afterwards Karpov commented that as the game ‘did not produce the harmonious positions of normal chess’ it was ‘negative’ but he conceded that the player with the most talent would win”, David Brine Pritchard wrote in Variant Chess, Issue 18, Autumn 1995, p. 174.