New In Chess 1998#3

!J
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Kaspalov, Kramnik and Svidler, the winners of Tilburg, had to settle fol less in Linares
The public may question whether
a match between you and Shirou
is the right way to find a challenger
for Kasparou;
'Yes, that is the point. It would
have been much better to have
this match between Anand and
me, because it is quite clear that
after Kasparov we are the first
players. It is a bit different if I
play a match against Shirov, even
if Shirov has been playing very
well lately. I liked the idea of a
match against Anand very much.
The legitimacy would be absolute.
This already spoils the idea a litfle
bit.'
Did this tournament haue the subconscious
role of a candidates'
tournament?
'This is what was unclear. I can
tell you that it would be an abso-
Iutely other story if everything
had been clear. I and everybody
else would have played differently.
It was a very strangie tournament
in many ways. I started quite well
actually. I won against Topalov
and had better positions against
Shirov and Ivanchuk which I
didn't mana$e to wirt. But I wasn't
very upset about that. On plus one
your situation is very shaky. The
next decisive game decides where
you go. If you win you have a great
chance to be first, but if you go
down you're not really fighting for
first. I was tied up with this situation
and found it difficult to fight.
And there was this uncertainty. I
didn't know what would happen if
I played badly and let's say Shirov
and Topalov played well and won
the tournament. Would they be
asked to play a match? Nothing was
clear. There was nothing on paper.
I understood that playing badly
would make a mueh bigger difference
than playing well, so I tried
to play solid and Iost some inspiration.
Somewhere around Round 5
14 ) NEW IN CHESS