Stockfish On The Classics: Kasparov's Gambit

Stockfish is the strongest chess entity in history. In seconds, it can find deep variations that masters of that past could only imagine. Last time, we examined the most famous move of GM Bobby Fischer's career. Today, let's examine GM Garry Kasparov's brilliant and controversial gambit. It's most famous for the amazing "Octopus Knight" game which brought him a beautiful victory in the 16th game of his 1985 match with GM Anatoly Karpov.

What Happened?

Kasparov debuted his gambit in game 12 of this 1985 match with Karpov. The critical move was the novelty 8...d5 (given a ?! by Kasparov himself)

In its first outing, Karpov captured the pawn and defended it with 11.Bc4, but soon gave the pawn back and made a quick draw. 

Just a few days later, in the 16th game of the match, Kasparov tried his gambit again. Karpov had prepared a new plan with 11.Be2 and kept the pawn for a long time. However, Kasparov stayed active, maneuvered his knight to the powerful d3-square, and won the most brilliant game of his career to that point.

NM Sam Copeland has a nice recap of the game here. It's his pick for the best game of the 1980s.

What Do The Commentators Think?

The post-match consensus was that Karpov played it safe in the first game with 11.Bc4 and went for the critical continuation in the second game. Kasparov in his 2008 book on the match called this move harmless, but "at first sight this is the only possibility of fighting for the advantage."

Eventually, analysts determined that there was a critical line, 11.Be2 Bc5 12.Be3 that may have refuted the whole gambit. Kasparov writes that soon after the match the refutation was found by A. Kostyuchenko, a master from Kiev. Kasparov said "If my opponent had played this, or if I had avoided 11...Bc5, the match could have turned out differently!" As a result of this line, Kasparov's gambit is rarely seen in modern practice. Let's see what Stockfish thinks of these conclusions.

Stockfish will help us evaluate three key questions:

1. Is 11.Bc4 really a drawing move?
2. Is the Kasparov Gambit really refuted?
3. Where did White go wrong in the critical 16th game?

Is 11.Bc4 Really A Drawing Move?

It turns out that Karpov's initial instinct was correct. When he first saw Kasparov's gambit, Karpov immediately chose the critical line to defend his extra pawn. The mistake that allowed easy equality was on the next move when Karpov met 11...Bg4! with 12.Be2 and traded into a safe position. Modern engines find chances for a white advantage with the provocative 12.f3!

It's hard to blame Karpov for avoiding these razor-sharp positions. While they might be White's objectively best chance for an advantage, the extremely complicated game would be much more in his opponent's style than the sort of long-term squeeze that Karpov usually favored.

Is The Kasparov Gambit Really Refuted?

The supposed refutation of the Kasparov Gambit stems from 11.Be2 Bc5?! 12.Be3 (the dubious annotation to Black's 11th move was given by Kasparov himself in 2008). Kasparov and other commentators thought that this was a substantial improvement on Karpov's 12.0-0, but Stockfish thinks the moves are equivalent and neither causes Black too much trouble.

You'll notice that in the final position, White keeps an extra pawn, but it's isolated and Black's bishop pair offers good compensation. In modern practice, top grandmasters have mostly stopped accepting the Marshall Gambit as White because Black has similar compensation for a pawn and nearly always holds a draw at the top level.

Where Did White Go Wrong?

You can check out a deep Stockfish analysis of Kasparov's masterpiece here. The engine isn't too down on White's position until 17.Nab1?. This quiet move is too passive. White needed to give back the extra pawn with d5-d6 on move 16 or 17 to avoid getting choked by the tentacles of the octopus knight on d3.

Are there any more classic games that you would like analyzed by the engine? Let us know in the comments.