Chess: How does White win?

BACK IN the 1920s, world champions Jose Raul Capablanca and Emanuel Lasker decried the death of chess by draw. The game, they said, was just about played-out due to the developments in opening theory.

They even went as far as suggesting dramatic changes, such as increasing the size of the board to 10x10 and the introducing more pieces. Now, with the advent of computer databases and ever more powerful playing engines, the idea of a "game changer" is again gaining currency.

"The stronger computers get, the more opening lines are neutralized that were rich and varied, the more drawing resources are found for Black, unfortunately," former world champion Vladimir Kramnik said after a colourless 19-move draw in the recent Candidates matches in Kazan. This wasn't the case 15 years ago, when top players used computers mainly as databases, not as analytical tools – if they used computers at all.

"Right now, 1995 feels to me like some golden era when we all woke up in the morning and we just went and played whatever we like," current world champion Vishy Anand told chessvibes.com. Today, he said, "There's just a hell of a lot of theory."

One radical solution was Bobby Fischer's Chess960 – a variant where the pieces are shuffled on the back rank. While popular as a variant, many believe this to be just a step too far. To save the game, some elite players are more open about proposing subversive changes to the rules. "For instance, I had an idea of banning castling before the 10th move," said Kramnik.

N Vitiugov - N Chadaev

Russian Higher League, (2)

Slav Defence

1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3 dxc4 5 a4 e6 6 e4 Bb4 7 Bg5 Qa5 8 Bd2 c5 9 Bxc4 cxd4 10 Nxd4 0–0 11 Qe2 Nbd7 12 0–0 Ne5 13 Ba2 Rd8 14 Nc2 Nc6 15 Nxb4 Qxb4 16 Nd5 Qxb2 17 Rfb1 Qe5 18 Bc3 Qg5 19 Nxf6+ gxf6 20 Rb3 e5 21 Bb2 Bg4 22 Qf1 Kh8 23 Rxb7 Rab8 24 f4! exf4 25 Qb5 Qxb5 26 Bxf6+ Kg8 27 axb5 Nb4 28 Bxf7+ Kf8 29 Rbxa7 Rd7 30 Bc4 Rc8 31 Ra8 1–0