"Kasparov's Immortal" Garry Kasparov Vs. Veselin Topalov 1999

Garry Kasparov had not played for 11 months and hé wanted to show the world that hé is still worthy of the world champion title. So hé played in the Tata-steel tournament.

The opponent hé was playing against was a super Grand Master whose name is well known, yes indeed hé was playing against Veselin Topalov. A Bulgarian GM whose rating then was 2700 (2700 vs 2812). The game was played in the Tata-steel tournament (Wijk aan Zee NED ) in 1999 [B07].

The game was a huge sensation it even has a name: "Kasparov's Immortal".
The game is the most interesting game ever played in history tels research.

There were 44 moves played in this game, a really big amount of moves.
The game is famous because of the rook for pawn sacrifice (24).
Kasparov was with the white peases and Topalov with the black.

e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Be3 Bg7 5. Qd2 c6 6. f3 b5
Garry wanted to reinforce his knight for safety.

7. Nge2 Nbd7 8. Bh6 Bh6 9. Qh6

This bishop exchange is better for white I think, but Topalov wanted to castle queenside anyway.

Bb7 10. a3 e5 11. O-O-O Qe7 12. Kb1 a6 13. Nc1 O-O-O 14. Nb3 ed4 15. Rd4 c5 16. Rd1 Nb6 17. g3 Kb8 18. Na5 Ba8 19. Bh3 d5 20. Qf4 Ka7 21. Rhe1 d4 22. Nd5 Nbd5 23. ed5 Qd6 24. Rd4

Garry was really afraid that Topalov will play the move Kb6. That would have become a draw and Kasparov did not want that this happens because Topalov was gonna leed on points then and win the tournament. That's why hé sacrificed the rook for a pawn.

24... cd4 25. Re7 Kb6 Kasparov wanted to bring Topalov's king out in the open where it can be easily attacked.

26. Qd4 Ka5 27. b4 Ka4 28. Qc3 Qd5 29. Ra7 Bb7 30. Rb7 Qc4 31. Qf6 Ka3 32. Qa6 Kb4 33. c3 Kc3 34. Qa1 Kd2 35. Qb2 Kd1 36. Bf1 Rd2 37. Rd7 Rd7 38. Bc4 bc4 39. Qh8 Rd3 40. Qa8 c3 41. Qa4 Ke1 42. f4 f5 43. Kc1 Rd2 44. Qa7 1- 0

Topalov resigned because there was no way hé could win the game after the killing move by Kasparov.