Paul Hoffman’s “Chess It Out!” at NPR offered an interesting commentary on Gata Kamsky’s “Brain Freeze” in the second game of his match with Veselin Topolov for the right to challenge Anand:
Wednesday’s game was morbidly dramatic, in the way NASCAR racing is when cars collide. Kamsky got strangely caught up in the boundlessness of chess and self-destructed. He suffered brain freeze and spent much too much time thinking in simple positions. The rules required him to make his first 40 moves in two hours, but he managed to play only 32 and forfeited — a very rare result in world-class chess.
Kamsky briefly pulled even at the halfway point, but Topalov soon took a commanding lead in the match and won it all with Game 7. Analysis of the seven games can be found online from various commentators:
Game 7
Topalov – Kamsky, 1-0 (French Defense, Tarrasch Variation C07)
- USCF, “Topalov Wins Game and Match“
- Dennis Monokroussos
- Mihail Marin
- Vladimir Dimitrov
- Peter Doggers
Game 6
Kamsky – Topalov, 1/2-1/2 (Caro-Kann, Short Variation B12)
Game 5
Topalov – Kamsky, 1-0 (French Defense, Tarrasch C07)
Game 4
Kamsky – Topalov 1-0 (Ruy Lopez, Closed – C88)
- Dennis Monokroussos
- Ian Rogers
- Mihail Marin
- Vladimir Dimitrov
- Malcolm Pein
- Susan Polgar
- Jorge Luis Fernandez
- Peter Doggers
Game 3
Topalov – Kamsky 1/2-1/2 (Gruenfeld – D81)
- Dennis Monokroussos
- Mihail Marin
- Vladimir Dimitrov
- Susan Polgar
- Peter Doggers
- Hector Leyva Panequas
- Malcolm Pein
- Commentary and Photos from ChessPro
Game 2
Kamsky – Topalov 0-1 (Ruy Lopez, Berlin Variation – C65)
- Dennis Monokroussos
- Mihail Marin
- Malcolm Pein
- Vladimir Dimitrov
- Peter Doggers
- Mig Greengard
- Jorge Luis Fernandez
- Photos from ChessPro
- Dylan Loeb McClain
Game 1
Topalov – Kamsky 1/2-1/2 (Gruenfeld – D86-88)
- Dennis Monokroussos
- Mihail Marin
- Malcolm Pein
- Vladimir Dimitrov
- Peter Doggers
- Mig Greengard
- Hector Leyva Paneque
- Photos from ChessPro