Kasparov vs. Karpov, Game 20 | WCC 1990 - GM Yasser Seirawan - 2015.03.05 

What a fantastic person Seirawan is! He is the living embodiment of the expression "a gentleman and a scholar".

Kasparov admitted in a documentary about that turnament that he should have taken with a rook, but he overlooked it in a heat of the moment.

When a GM can't answer a question from a student: "Ben, do we have a chess engine on this thing?" gold.

GM Seirawan's game analyses are a pleasure to listen to and learn from. Here he brings you inside the minds of Karpov and Kasparov and makes everything clear, even to 1600-rated players like myself. Plus, he really engages the audience and adds humor, and he even learns from this game himself!

GM Seirawan is an awesome guy, he just seems like the nicest guy in the world. :D

Great analysis Yasser. And it is amazing the way you treat the pupils and considere their questions. I saw another GM laughed on them when the question is no deep. Thank you very much from Argentina

GM Yasser Seirawan is a like a meditation guru turned chess teacher: calming,engaging and interesting - coming from Kenya, I'm extremely grateful to have access to these awesome lectures

I can listen to GM Seirawan analysing chess games forever :D

beautiful person explaining an immortal game , perfect combination , im certainly enjoying not just the game .. EVRything! his calm voice his manners in talking his way of explaining , god bless you yasser , i wish i could meet you someday :)

He's the Bob Ross of chess

Dear chess club, I would love to request an idea for a lecture, if that is possible. Many middlegame lectures out there are mainly focused on material: good vs bad pieces, good vs bad squares, tactics and space advantages. What I'd love to see is a lecture focused on time and tempo. For instance, in this game Karpov plays the move Kh8 in preparation for the combination that is gonna follow (12:46). I don't understand the advantage of this move order instead of moving the king later on. The same kind of time related move is Kh2 by Kasparov to be able to sacrifice the rook without being checked (31:33). Apparently, the advantage of having the threat of two continuous moves makes it worth playing such a slow king move. Also, sacrifices are often related to getting a time advantage. The comparison of material with time is a very hard one and grandmasters seem to have a superb intuition of 'sacrificing', or you could say 'trading', pieces to get time. For instance, in this game Kasparov gives away his centerpawns in order to get an unstoppable attack going. At my level (1700) we are not so conscious of this strategic 'making slow moves to get fast moves later' idea and we are not so precise in making a good balance between sacrificing material and getting a time advantage. I would greatly appreciate a lecture about this topic or if you direct me to some content explaining these strategic concepts. Regards, Sierk (ps: others interested please vote up this comment to make sure our friends from Saint Louis can read this)

The way he explains and also listens to the students paying attention and caring is amazing. I really liked this!

I love GM Seirawan! Such a humble and kind player/trainer. I wish I was a kid and get chess lessons from him :)

What a fantastic person Seirawan is! He is the living embodiment of the expression "a gentleman and a scholar". Someone said that before; but some things just bear repeating! What a fine human being he is!

Am 2100 now after 3 years...this video together with mato jelic changed me

Without his commentary I'd have no idea why the players made the moves they did. Thank you!

The guy who who said why not Rxg6 obviously knew this game before hand and seen the documentary on this match on RU-vid, where they go over this move, and Kasparov said himself " its unforgivable, here I should've took with the rook". The guy tried to make himself look good! Right away he blurts out why not Rxg6, interrupting yasser!

Wow, what an encouraging teacher! His warmth is felt through the video. Absolutely fantastic!

the greatest comentator ever...all time.....

That was a great lecture Yasser. You do so much for Chess and the community and your books are tailored to just about any level as well. To me, you are Royalty sir.

Today I was looking for this game, thanks.

I came here just for the Yasser comments.. Love that guy! I wonder if he knows what the world thinks of him

Whoever thinks Grandmasters are humourless nerds with no personality or human warmth should be directed here, to stand corrected.

Thumbs up for Yasser! Thanks for all the videos.

Yasser is an amazing commentator and person. Always inspiring! Why is it that if there is a Kasparov vs Karpov game analyzed, it is almost always the games that Kasparov won? Where are the games Karpov won against Kasparov? I know the style of Kasparov is more aggressive and fun to watch, but I am sure the games he lost against Karpov would be as instructive for us - the amateurs of chess.

Of course Kasparov's attack is unparalleled, but what an amazing defender karpov was.

Awesome guy Yasser Seirawan is.I had the pleasure of meeting and had a little conversation with him at the Hoogovens schaaktoernooi (Wijk aan Zee) in the 1991.He signed my first copy of Inside Chess he was Chief Editor of at the time.A true gentleman!

There is a video on youtube were Kasparov talks about how he should have taken with the rook and force mate, he was very mad at himself that he did not, still incredible game and you have to respect Karpov were he calculates these huge Kasparov sacrifices and knows that it is losing

Yes and no Yasser - in their 5 WC matches Gary was only +2, but if you add other tournament games at classical time controls Gary had a healthy plus score

His voice is MAGICAL!

Seriously, why do people always show Kasparov's wins over Karpov and not vice versa? They had extremely close matches and yet everyone seems eager to make it seem like Kasparov destroyed the guy.

35:00 Garry said after the game the Bxg6 was an "unforgivable mistake". Nevertheless, Bxg6 was winning easily, that´s why Garry didn´t even bother looking for a better move.

Really entertaining as usual. Thank you

Actually per comment below, I was going to commend GM Seirawan for using the computer to make points more often in recent videos than some of his earlier videos. I can tell he is making greater efforts despite that pesky tab menu coming up at the wrong times. Thanks for all your great work. Keep the videos coming!

Great game and it was analyzed very well,really entertaining.thank you.

can i make a suggestion pls. this great guy seirawan uses the board a lot and you put half of video chess thing so we cant see the board at all can you pls make the chess board smaller ot record video on bettrer angle so we can see what he shows. thanks.

In the variation that follows the rook capturing the knight on h6, the knight capturing on d6 is indeed a winning move - however the somewhat spectacular rook e7 that is highlighted, simply doesn't work as after bishop takes the rook, cutting the connection of the queen to the pawn, and then rook takes g7 - the black rook is under no obligation to take, and the simple bishop f6 - re-establishing connection, forces the rook to trade itself for the queen resulting in white sacrificing both rooks and a minor for the queen, and if anything is probably worse. Instead the engine suggested move is to simply take immediately on g7 with a winning attack. Interesting that both players apparently misjudged that line.

Regarding the situation at 35:00, Kasparov actually already did the entire analysis of the end of the game back in 1990 in this video: watch?v=SMe-hvCwTRo Here he admits that not taking with the rook was an unforgivable mistake, because he said it would be an automatic mate by removing the rook again, but he joked that he could take more of Karpov's pieces by taking with the bishop. So yes, he did indeed - although maybe accidentally - want to torture Karpov. Hahaha! But I think he never calculated that specific line of moves at all, because it's not true that it would be an automatic win after moving the rook back to where he seems to suggest in the video, g3. Specifically, I think he completely forgot to calculate that Karpov would have a queen on b1 in the next move. If Kasparov simply pulled his rook back afterwards, or moved anywhere else, Karpov might have clawed his way out by taking the bishop with his newly granted queen and/or subsequently move his knights around, like to f4, to block the bishop's possible check from b1. He wouldn't be able to win, but he might have thwarted the original attack, prolonging the game. :) Ironically, Kasparov's unforgivable mistake was probably not a mistake. I wouldn't be surprised if taking with the bishop was the strongest move. What say the computers?

As a newb learning chess decisions like sacrificing the dark squared bishop on b2 when there isn't a clear win in sight amazes me. I believe this is where aspects of the game that are impossible to develop quickly are relevant: intuition and experience...having that feeling that the position must be crushing. Even if that example isn't a good one I believe the general point stands and I'm reminded of that topalov game where Gary sacrificed his rooks long before a forced win was in sight. I would be way too scared to do something like that...hopefully one day.

Thanks for the lecture! Great insights.

Classical games: Garry Kasparov beat Anatoly Karpov 28 to 21, with 121 draws. Including rapid/exhibition games: Garry Kasparov beat Anatoly Karpov 39 to 25, with 129 draws. Only rapid/exhibition games: Garry Kasparov beat Anatoly Karpov 11 to 4, with 8 draws

such a fantastic game and thanks to Yasser for guiding us move by move on the thought processes of great chess minds. kasparov i think didn't take with Rook because of pressure perhaps? i think kasparov did mention that sheer amount of games was mentally taxing on the both of them.

Awww ...What a nice guy Yasser Seirawan is

you are a really awesome teacher yasser seirawan

It's on youtube under the name: Karpov vs Kasparov Lion 1990. It's couple of hours long. The part in question is towards the end.

Kasparov him self gives like 10 different ways to mate, most likely everyone has already seen his video about it. For me this is Gary's best game ever, even better than the one against Topalov. It was an amazing attack, it was decisive I'm a world championship match, and with all respect to Topalov Karpov was a much better player.

The guy who said "why not take with the rook?" at the end of the game saw kasparov analysis and already knew in fact he asked it even before seirawan made the bishop move... Such a squalid thing when people make questions just to seem smarter than they are..

Incredible game, incredible lecture. I love chess.

Best game of the year was miserly, I would give it the GAME OF THE CENTURY.

Yasser at 13:49 and I'm reminded, there were once a Wizard from Riga

37.Rxg6 is actually stronger! Analysis by Houdini 4 Pro x64: 1. +- (#10): 37...b1Q 38.Bxb1 Nf4 39.Rg3+ Nbd3 40.Bxd3+ Nxd3 41.Re4!! Nf4 42.Rxf4 Bg7 43.Rfg4 Kg8 44.Rxg7+ Kf8 45.Nxd6 Ra7 46.Rxa7 a5 47.Rf7#

He changed his move against Judit Polgár in 1994 after momentarily letting go of a piece. Kasparov went on to win the game. The tournament officials had video records proving that his hand left the piece, but refused to release the evidence. A factor counting against Polgár was that she waited a whole day before complaining, and such claims must be made during the game. The videotape revealed that Kasparov did let go of the piece for one quarter of a second.

I could listen to this guy talking chess all day.

Kasparov actually pointed out that take the queen with the rook was better than with the bishop, and yes Garry just wanted to have some fun.

Great video

Yasser is just a class act

I love Yasser. Don't know why, but I just do. Who I DON'T love is whoever put this video together. Yasser is getting up and pointing to things we can't even see because the graphic is blocking him. That's annoying, not just because I know he's pointing out cool stuff and I'm missing it, but because this late in the game CCSCSL still can't get it's shit together. STILL. After how many videos? C'mon, people!

Yasser is the Bob Ross of chess lecturers. *in the softest voice* "thunder and storm clouds..."

What is with 34.Nf7+ Qxf7 35.Qxh6+ Bh7 36.Rxa8+ Nf6 37.Rxf8+ Ng8 38.Rgxg8+ Qxg8 39.Qxh7# mate?

Instead of Qxh6 near 34:00 the computer found checkmate in 6 with Nf7 followed by Qxf7 Qxh6 Bh7 Rxa8 Nf6 Rxf8 Qxf8 Qxf8 Bg8 and Qxf6 checkmate

Garry said that he just wanted to get all of Karpov's pieces off the board, there's no other reason, like he didn't want to finish him too soon.

Hello there, I've got a question: in the position of 10:00, why doesn't black take the e4 pawn? Then the d5 pawn will fall soon too. I would probably have played that as black. But the masters will know better for sure! Are the attacking chances of white too big in that position?

Kasparov said himself "It's unforgivable, here I should've taken with the rook." 'Unforgivable' may be a strong term but the discovery (check-)mate threat after Rxg6 would, indeed, have been much better. Engines really are unforgiving, though. I fed this one to Leela, and she suggests White doesn't even play 34. Qxh6+, but rather just 34. Rxa8. You'd think White's attack loses momentum that way, but the funny thing is, that Black gets mated, after all, but this time on h8! Like 34. ... Bxb1, 35. Nf7+! Kh7, and now simply 36. Rxf8, and whatever Blacks plays, it's mate; like 36. ... Qg6, 37. Qxh6+! Qxh6 38. Rh8+ checkmate.

This guy sounds like my Math teacher! Oooohhhhh

I think the guy who said "...to torture him..." was right! Rxg6 is FAR SUPERIOR than Bxg6+, both are completely winning obv and Bxg6 is actually a "bad move", that's how much better Rxg6 is. I think he did take with the Bishop to just torture him psychologically too! Great game!

People seriously underrate Karpov, but Karpov in his prime was easily a match for Kasparov in his prime.

Fantastic game !!

Kasparov himself talks about how he should have taken with the rook at the end of this game

THANKS!!!

Talk about a game with complexities!

Yasser is better than any antidepressant.

What is the name of your (Sir Seirawan's) book? I really like the analyses!

I think Gary later said in an interview that he should have taken with the rook, with a forced mate, but he just wanted to take all of Karpov's pieces

Cool game.

Why didnt black capture at e4 at 2:20?

What software is that?

I heard that Kasparov would train for matches by playing with Karpov

rook takes queen was the best move and will lead to checkmate

at 27:27 why didn't white go knight to g7?

actually d4 is playable immediately instead of h3 followed by Be3 see Fischer my memorable games for analysis.

@27:28 what is wrong with the idea of NxG7?

Osea que en ingles se pronuncia "Gerry" 00:17 y en español "Gary"

30:58 what if after Kh2, black plays h5, preparing Bf7?

At 17:33 what if white moves his knight at g5 attacking the rook and threating to fork the king and the queen ? Black wouldn`t capture with the pawn because white would be able to h5 with the queen and..probably win..

FIVE CROWNS!

At 34:12, what would be the variation if black king moves to g8?

You are firgetting that when kasparov were un jail karpiv went visit him and helped kasparov

To drone. Nice shot!!!

well done

Epic

If Rook takes on g6 then black can play knight to e7!!!!. I saw this move in 10 seconds.

at 21:04 you once the king moves you would not take the rook, you would play Bh7+, Kh8...Bg6+, Kg8...Qh7#

the guys who saw rook g8 is bobby fischer xd

karpov is a pokemon

About the Rook taking at the end- Kasparov admitted that that would have been better later on.

36:06 if you take with the rook i think Kasparov didn't do it cos he was lazy and wanted to win quickly. I don't see a defence - but i'm not 2780 so how would i? - but Ke4 attacks the bishop the after Rxe4 Re8 then Rg(anything) i think he just wanted to end the game quicker by taking with the bishop with check

at 16:30, i had the same question :)

This is such a cool game I'd trade every game I've ever played for this one if I was white lol

is it recent?

No.. after queen sacrifice karpov resigned