Kamsky Leads Mtel Masters

After eight rounds of action, America's 2nd ranked player is leading one of the year's toughest tournaments, against some of the world's toughest players. Could Gata win this tournament making his comeback one of the greatest chess comeback's ever?

In the early 1990's the name Gata Kamsky became a very popular name in the chess world. Born in Siberia, Kamsky won the Soviet Under-20 championship two times in the late 1980's. In 1989 he defected from the Soviet Union to the United States and began to make a name for himself. Becoming a grandmaster in 1990, he went on to finish very well in a string of tournaments, including the 1991 U.S. Championships (1st), the 1993 SKA Biel Interzonal (2nd), and the 1994 Las Palmas tournament (1st).

In 1996 Kamsky took on GM Anatoly Karpov in a 20 game match for the World Chess Championship. The match did not end up in the American prodigy's favor. He lost to Karpov 10.5 to 7.5.

After this match, no one heard from Kamsky for three years. Rumors flocked around the chess world that Gata was disappearing like Fischer, that he went to study law, that we went off to be a surgeon. You name it, it was said. But, in 1999, he suddenly reappeared at the FIDE Knockout World Championship event in Las Vegas. He had an impressive performance for being gone from the game so long.

Again the chess star disappeared. This time for five more years! Again the rumors circled the chess world just as before. Sitings on the ICC often became a popular topic in many of the chat rooms, but no one could ever confirm the truth.

Then, on June 15th, 2004, the missing Kamsky reappeared at the New York Masters in New York City! And...he kept reappearing, playing in a number of the weekly master strength tournaments all the way to it's end in January 2005. Gata was on a comeback and since his second reappearance he has been on a war path playing in some of the biggest tournaments. He played in Corus 2006, the 2006 U.S. Championships, the VII Dos Hermanas 2006, the FIDE World Cup 2005, and others Although his performances in some of these tournaments was not the best, it was clear that Gata was back for more. Could this be his big win? So far, Kamsky has beaten everyone in the field with the exception of the FIDE Champion Veselin Topalov.

Rank	Name	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	Pts
1	Kamsky Gata	USA	-	0	1 ½	1	1 ½	½ 1	5.5
2	Topalov Veselin	BUL	1	-	0 1	½ 0	½	½ 1	4.5
3	Anand Viswanathan	IND	0 ½	1 0	-	½	1 ½	1	4.5
4	Svidler Peter	RUS	0	½ 1	½	-	½ ½	1 0	4.0
5	Bacrot Etienne	FRA	0 ½	½	0 ½	½ ½	-	½	3.0
6	Ponomariov Ruslan	UKR	½ 0	½ 0	0	0 1	½	-	2.5

If you'd like to watch Gata's action live, you can on the ICC. The ICC is having live relay coverage and live audio coverage of each round. You can also view all of the games played so far in PGN format.

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GM Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu at the Closing Ceremony

1    Nisipeanu,Liviu D.     2695     5.5 
2    Carlsen,Magnus         2646     5.5
3    Malakhov,Vladimir      2691     5.5
4    Predojevic',Borki      2566     5.0
5    Sasikiran,Krishnan     2692     4.5
6    Naiditsch,Arkadij      2664     4.0

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 The Queen's Indian Defence 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Be7 7.Bg2 c6 One of the most solid ways to play. Black intends to play ...d5 and if White captures he will recapture with the c6 pawn blocking the White's Bg2 and using his Ba6 on the opened diagonal. 8.Bc3 d5 9.Ne5 Nfd7 10.Nxd7 Nxd7 11.Nd2 White tries to maintain his pawn on c4 11...0-0 12.0-0 Nf6 13.e4 b5 14.exd5 exd5 [If 14...cxd5 15.c5! b4 16.Bxb4 Bxf1 17.Bxf1 and the White b and c pawns advanced in Anand-Adams Wijk aan Zee 2005 won by Anand.] 15.Re1 Rb8 16.c5 Bc8 17.Nf3 Ne4 18.Rxe4!!

The Topalov-Cheparinov laboratory strikes again. Significantly this improves over two games between Kramnik and Leko from Dortmund 2004. 18...dxe4 19.Ne5 Qd5 20.Qe1 Bf5 21.g4 Bg6 22.f3! Black cannot afford to take so White captures on e4 winning a pawn and takes the center. The Bg6 also become a spectator 22...b4 [22...exf3 23.Bxf3 Qe6 24.Nxc6] 23.fxe4 Qe6 24.Bb2 Bf6 25.Nxc6! Qxc6 26.e5 Qa6 27.exf6 Rfe8 28.Qf1! Having created two connected passed pawns Topalov wants to get to an endgame. 28...Qe2 29.Qf2 Qxg4 30.h3 Qg5 31.Bc1 Qh5 [31...Qxf6 was the best chance 32.Qxf6 gxf6 33.d5 Looks natural but Black holds after 33...Re1+ 34.Kf2 Rbe8 35.Bf3 Be4!; 31...Qxf6 32.Qxf6 gxf6 33.Bf4 Rbc8 34.a3! activating the rook is good for White after (34.Kf2 Also looks good) 34...bxa3 35.Rxa3 Be4 36.b4 Bxg2 37.Kxg2 Re4 38.Bh6] 32.Bf4 Rbd8 33.c6 Be4 34.c7 Rc8 35.Re1 Qg6 36.Rxe4!! The second sacrifice on this square, in this form Topalov is a worthy successor to Kasparov 36...Rxe4 37.d5 Rce8 [37...Qxf6 38.Bxe4] 38.d6 heading for touchdown 38...Re1+ 39.Kh2 Qf5 40.Qg3 g6 41.Qg5 Qxg5 42.Bxg5 Rd1 43.Bc6 Re2+ 44.Kg3

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