This Week's ChessBase Show

After several weeks of featuring completely crazy games, we'll take a brief respite into sanity. This week's game is a masterpiece of the aggressive positional chess that made Anatoly Karpov the World Champion for 10 years (and in the top 2 for nearly a quarter of a century).

In our game, Dutch legend Jan Timman essays the Pirc Defense, an opening that typically generates serious counterplay for the second player. Typically, but not always - Karpov absolutely strangles the Black position into submission without allowing so much as a whiff of play from Timman's side of the board. How did he do it? We'll figure out the details this Monday; for now, to whet your appetite, here is the game:

Karpov,Anatoly (2705) - Timman,Jan H (2625) [B07]
Montreal Montreal (2), 1979

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.g3 Bg7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.Nge2 e5 7.0-0 Na6 8.Re1 c6 9.h3 Re8 10.Bg5 h6 11.Be3 Qc7 12.Qd2 Kh7 13.Rad1 Bd7 14.g4 Rad8 15.Ng3 Bc8 16.f4 b5 17.a3 b4 18.axb4 Nxb4 19.Nce2 exd4 20.Nxd4 a5 21.c3 Na6 22.Qc2 Bd7 23.Nf3 Re7 24.Bf2 Be8 25.Qd3 Qb7 26.Ra1 Nc7 27.Rxa5 Rdd7 28.b4 Ne6 29.Be3 c5 30.f5 Nd8 31.b5 Kh8 32.Bf2 Qc7 33.Ra4 Qb8 34.c4 Ra7 35.Rxa7 Rxa7 36.e5 dxe5 37.Nxe5 Ra2 38.Bxc5 1-0

[For details on how to watch the show, click here; for a list of previous shows, try this link.]