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This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

Kasparov – Topalov, 1999

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Position before 24. Rxd4!

The chess game between Garry Kasparov and Veselin Topalov played in Round 4 at the Wijk aan Zee tournament on 20 January 1999 is noted for a 15+ moves rook and knight sacrificial combination by Kasparov. It is one of the most heavily annotated chess games ever played.

The diagram shows the position just before the start of Kasparov's combination. Topalov had achieved a comfortable position using the Pirc Defence, and had begun to open up the position. Kasparov, aware of the combinatorial potential of the position, had brought his king's knight to a5 and has just exchanged his queen's knight on d5. This exchange exposed Topalov's queen to attack along the e-file and Topalov placed his queen at d6. Kasparov then played 24. Rxd4!

The point of this rook sacrifice is that it opens up a prospective attack on the Black king with Qxd4+ after Black's 24... cxd4. Topalov had the choice between playing the safe 24... Kb6 and settling for a draw at best, or accepting the sacrifice and defending his king against a heavy attack with the prospect of counterplay of his own. Topalov accepted the sacrifice and in the ensuing play Kasparov offered the other rook and sacrificed a further knight, driving the Black king to Whites's backrank to win the engame.

Computer analysis has demonstrated that Kasparov's sacrifices were sound and the game is cited as one of his finest, with some commentators dubbing it Kasparov's immortal game.

Background

Garry Kasparov born 1963 is a Russian (formerly Soviet) chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer and political activist, considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time.^[1] He was the highest ranking player in the world over a period of some 20 years from 1986 until his retirement in 2005.

Veselin Topalov born 1975 is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He became the FIDE World Chess Champion in 2005. He replaced Kasparov as the highest ranking player in the world in 2006, holding that position for some 27 months in his career to date. He was the challenger facing world champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2010, losing the match 6½–5½.

The international chess tournament at Wijk aan Zee in Holland dates back to before 1946 and regularly attracts the world's top grandmasters. In 1999 the competitors included Viswanathan Anand, Vassily Ivanchuk, Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Svidler and Veselin Topalov from amongst the twenty highest rated players ever. It included seven of the top ten players of the time, and on that basis Jeff Sonas has estimated the 1999 Wijk aan Zee tournament as the sixth strongest tournament of all time.^[2]. It was won definitely by Kasparov with a total of ten points out of a possible thirteen points (eight wins, one loss, and four draws, losing only to Ivan Sokolov), in his first appearance at the tournament. Topalov came tenth with six points (three wins, four losses, and six draws).^[3]

Annotated game

The game has been analysed exhaustively in all its lines with the aid of computers, and the soundness of Kasparov's 24. Rxd4! confirmed; i.e. to say that acceptance of the sacrifice does indeed lead to a win for White against any defence by Black. Much of this analysis is extremely intricate and beyond any reasonable expectation of what any individual can possibly calculate for herself. Moreover, the wins for White they lead to are not always especially striking chess, but rather positions White wins because he was able to recover his material and win, for example, on the basis of a pawn majority. The moves that Kasparov and Topalov actually played in the game, such as 28. Qc3!? and 30... Qc4?!, are not necessarily the strongest a computer might play, but they are the natural and instinctively correct moves a grandmaster might find in play over the board, and they do lead to Kasparov's immensely attractive and devastating 36. Bf1!, which he must have foreseen a full dozen moves previously to embark on the combination in the first place, and which makes this game so attractive and memorable. The annotations cited here concentrate on these game moves.