Game 4, black
20...e5
Commentary for black move 20:
MAURICE ASHLEY: I like the suggestion a lot. I like it a lot.
That is definitely a possibility. This idea, again let's say
on a passing move, I'm going to make a random passing move
although Garry is not likely to do so. If a move like a6, this
idea of playing g5, and now let's say a bad move, I'm making so
many bad moves for Garry, but let's say a bad move like Qf5 Ne3
and let's say the queen were to drawback, this idea of bringing
this knight here and then here is nasty. Because now if NxN,
if this were to happen, then another knight would show up and
then the g-pawn is being attacked. Of course, Deep Blue still
has to worry about this pawn on f2 so maybe it could move over
and defend it, but once these two knights are here, it's almost
a picture perfect position, Mike. It's awesome. These are a
lot of flexible ideas. And the one thing that's beautiful in
chess, the one thing I've always appreciated, in moves like
Nd1, they look like they're just defending, but what they do is
they have the springboard effect; they defend and all the
sudden the pieces just spring out. They go to these very solid
positions, keep everything in the position harmonious, and you
think "Oh, that passive, that's defending," but suddenly those
pieces just wake up and come out and they're springing at you
and so Kasparov has to be concerned about that.
GK MOVE: 20...e5
MAURICE ASHLEY: As we speak Kasparov makes a move that I
thought
was impossible physically! (Audience laughter.) And Fritz is
going nuts. That just looks as if Kasparov has blundered a
pawn. It looks like he's giving away a pawn, Mike, and to my
eyes, I don't quite understand it, and we've got to ask what if
the simple move dxe 5, which we can expect Deep Blue to play
very quickly. Fritz is giving the evaluation 1.09 for white,
an extra pawn which is very typical of a computer to understand
that I've got a pawn, I've got a pawn, what's the deal? And
right now Qf4 looks like the best suggestion. What's Garry's
point? Maybe his intention is to bring a knight to e6 and
blockade this position, but I still see an extra pawn for
white. This position is completely dramatic. e5 just giving
away a pawn like that, he's going to be playing for
compensation, but this is deep. This is deep compensation.
Look at Garry looking very confident. (Audience laughter.) I
know the commentators don't understand it, but I got this all
down. Look how calm he is. Average chess move, give away a
pawn for nothing, do it all the time.
MIKE VALVO: Well, maybe in he intends to bring the knight to e4
this way.
MAURICE ASHLEY: Garry is certainly -- if he's nervous, boy, it
would be dangerous playing poker against him because he's
showing a face like no problem at all. He's even getting up
from the chessboard. This pawn sacrifice is clearly a pawn
sacrifice. He's not going to get back the pawn easily. He
intends to bring the knight to the center of the board and
possibly as you said, Mike, to c5 and to e4 --
MIKE VALVO: With tempo when it gets there.
MAURICE ASHLEY: With tempo, attacking the rook and shielding
white's pieces from defending the e-pawn and then he'll be able
to take the e-pawn. So that's a very long-range point that
Kasparov has calculated, that he would be able to win the pawn
back by force. So we're going to have to see if we can counter
that in any way.
In the meantime --
Real-time text commentary is made possible by LiveNote, Inc. and
Vincent Varallo Associates