By Lubomir Kavalek
Monday, February 21, 2000; Page C13

Jereon Piket, a Dutch grandmaster, beat Garry Kasparov in yesterday's final of the inaugural $50,000 Grand Prix knock-out tournament, staged by the champion on his new website (http://www.kasparovchess.com). For his stunning victory on the Internet, Piket collected the $20,000 first prize. The mouse-clicking event featured 15 strong grandmasters from around the globe and world's best computer program, Junior 6.0 from Israel.

To keep the quality of play reasonably high, each player had 60 minutes per game. Still, from time to time, the competition ran into technical and other difficulties: delays, postponements, one match forfeit and a "mismoused" move by Nigel Short. All three Americans, Nick DeFirmian, Boris Gulko and Yasser Seirawan, were eliminated in the first round. After smashing the Spanish grandmaster Miguel Illescas, the Junior program had to forfeit a match against England's Michael Adams because a server was down in Israel. During the online event Adams also managed to defeat Seirawan 5 to 3 in a match in Bermuda.

Kasparov eliminated Adams in the semifinal, but could not cope with Piket's inventive and tactically brilliant play in the final. On his thorny road to victory Piket also defeated Seirawan and two Russians, Alexander Morozevich and Peter Svidler. Piket played the most exciting attacking game of the event against Svidler with many beautiful mating images hidden behind the actual moves.

Piket - Svidler

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.h4!? (Danish grandmaster Bent Larsen, who made rook-pawn moves into an art, played it in 1982.) 5...Nf6 (Wasting more time with the same knight, but what to do against the h-pawn advance? After 5...h5 black surrenders the square g5, but 5...h6 seems to be the best choice. Alexei Shirov tried to counter it with a quick development against Piket in Monte Carlo 1998 and lost quickly after 5...Bg7 6.h5 Nc6 7.g3 Bg4 8.h6 Bxc3 9.bxc3 Bxf3 10.exf3 Qd6 11.Be2 0-0-0 12.Qb3 f5 13.a4 e5 14.a5 e4 15.f4 Nf6 16.0-0 Ng4 17.Ba3 Qxd2 18.a6 Na5 19.axb7+ Kb8 20.Qb5 e3 21.Bc5 exf2+ 22.Rxf2 and black resigned, not waiting for 23.Bxa7+ Kxa7 24.b8Q+ Rxb8 25.Rxa5 mate. ) 6.d4 Bg7 7.e4 0-0 8.Be2 c5 9.d5 e6

10.h5!? (A time-gaining sacrifice, opening the h-file, often seen in the Sicilian Dragon.) 10...Nxh5 (If black wants to refute it, he has to accept the sacrifice immediately. After 10...exd5 11.hxg6! Nxe4?! [Better is 11...hxg6 12.exd5 with white's edge.] 12.Nxe4 dxe4 13.gxf7+ white has a powerful attack either after 13...Kh8 14.Qxd8 Rxd8 15.Ng5 Bf5 16.Bg4 Bg6 17.Nxh7 Bxh7 18.Bf5 winning; or after 13...Kxf7 with the beautiful and shocking 14.Ne5+!!, resulting in some wonderful mates. For example 14...Ke6 15.Bc4+! Kxe5 16.Rh5+ Bf5 17.Rxf5+! Kxf5 18.Qh5+ Kf6 19.Qg5 mate; or 14...Bxe5 15.Bc4+ Kf6 16.Rh6+ Kg7 17.Rxh7+! Kxh7 [On 17...Kf6 18.Bg5+! Kxg5 19.Qh5+ Kf6 20.Rh6+ Ke7 21.Qxe5+ Kd7 22.0-0-0 mates.] 18.Qh5+ Kg7 19.Qh6 mate.)

11.g4 Nf6 12.Bg5 Qb6 13.Bxf6! (Eliminating one kingside defender and gaining time for an attack.) 13...Bxf6 14.Qd2 Bg7 (Black has to waste another move, preventing 15.Qh6.) 15.0-0-0 Nd7 16.g5 c4 (After 16...Rd8 17.Rh4 white doubles his rooks on the h-file.) 17.Rh2 (Piket is not interested in losing time with 17.Bxc4.) 17...Re8 (The immediate 17...Rd8 seems better.)

18.d6!? (Squeezes black's position and keeps the game closed.) 18...Rd8 19.Qf4 Qa5?! (White gets a mating attack along the h-file either after 19...e5 20.Qh4 Nf8 21.Nd5 Qc5 22.Ne7+ Kh8 23.Qxh7+ Nxh7 24.Rdh1 Bh6 25.Rxh6 Kg7 26.Rxh7+ Kf8 27.Rh8+ Kg7 28.R1h7 mate; or after 20...Rf8 21.Rdh1 Bxc3 22.e5! Bxb2+ 23.Kb1 Bxe5 24.Qxe5 Nxe5 25.Rh8+ Kg7 26.R1h7 mate. More difficult is to break down the defense 19...Bxc3 20.bxc3 Qa5. It weakens the black squares around the black king, but threatens to draw with many checks. However, white calmly sacrifices a rook 21.Rxh7! and after 21...Qxc3+ 22.Kb1 Qb4+ 23.Kc2 Qa4+ 24.Kd2! the king runs away. For example after the inferior 24...Qxa2+ 25.Ke3 Qa3+ 26.Bd3 Qc5+ 27.Ke2 cxd3+ 28.Kf1 f5 [Or 28...Rf8 29.Qh2 Qc3 30.e5 wins.] 29.Qh2 Qc3 30.e5 Nf8 31.Rh8+ Kf7 32.Rxf8+! Kxf8 33.Qh8+ Kf7 34.Qh7+ Kf8 35.Nh4 white mates soon. Black's best seems 24...Qa5+ 25.Ke3 Qc3+ 26.Bd3 f5 27.gxf6 Qxf6 28.Rdh1 Qxf4+ 29.Kxf4 Nf8 [On 29...Rf8+ 30.Kg5 cxd3 31.Rh8+ Kf7 32.R1h7+ Ke8 33.Re7+ Kd8 34.Ne5 Rxh8 35.Nf7 mates.] 30.Rh8+ Kg7 31.R1h7+ Nxh7 32.Rxd8 cxd3 33.d7 Bxd7 34.Rxa8 and in the resulting endgame white has good winning chances.)

20.Rxh7! f5 (Not 20...Kxh7 21.Qxf7 and black has no defense against 22.Rh1+.) 21.gxf6 Nxf6 (On 21...Kxh7 22.Rh1+ Kg8 23.fxg7 wins.) 22.Rxg7+! Kxg7 23.e5 (Misses a brilliant win 23.Rg1 Bd7 24.Nd5!! exd5 25.Rxg6+!! Kxg6 26.Ne5+ Kh7 27.Qh4+ Kg7 28.Qg5+ Kh8 29.Qxf6+ Kh7 30.Qg6+ Kh8 31.Nf7 mate. But Piket's move is good enough, since after 23...Nh5 24.Qg5 Rf8 25.Nh4 Nf4 26.Nxg6! Rf5 27.Qg4 Nxg6 28.Rg1 leads to a mating attack.) Black resigned.

Solution to today's problem by Walter Horwitz (White: Kb3,Rd3,P:c2,c4,d2,e3; Black:Ka1):1.Rc3! Kb1 2.d4 Kc1 3.Rd3 Kb1 4.Rd1 mate.

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