National Open 1998 Simul
Anatoly Karpov v. Severine Wamala

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	Severine meditates before the game	Pre-game Activities
	Severine wakes up
	Severine watches Karpov walk up to him
	Severine greets Karpov
	Defence and Tigers Oh My! Which One ?	Karpov,A - Wamala,S [B00] National Open Simul Las Vegas, 04.1998 [Wamala] 1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 e5 3.d5 Nce7 4.Nf3 Ng6 So far Karpov is playing a line I am familiar with. 5.h4! This caught me by surprise. I had never faced that move. Because of the excitement of playing a World Champion coupled with a surprise move, my hand fell short. You will see what I mean. So I tried real hard to assess the position, and before I could finish, Karpov was on my board waiting for me to make a move. For those who don't know how a simul works, this is how: Usually the person giving the simul has the white pieces on all the boards. You only make a move when the person giving the simul comes to your board. I did not know all that, this was my first time. So when Karpov came to my board, I quickly though to stop the advancing h-pawn by playing 5...h5 but my hand fell short and my pawn stopped at the h6 square. Ooops! 5...h6? 6.h5 N6e7 7.Nxe5 Nf6 8.Nc3 All my pieces are trapped, and I am trying to get them out. I considered resigning here, but I did not think it was fair to me to have travelled all the way to Las Vegas only to resign after seven moves. Besides no one has ever won a game by resigning. I fought on and had some chances I think!? 8...Neg8 9.Nd3 c6 10.Be2 Qa5 11.Bf3 b6 12.Bd2 c5 13.e5 c4 14.Nf4 Nh7 15.0-0 Qa6 I am suffocating. I have no space, so I took a moment to look at other games to see how others are doing. Believe it or not in almost all games, Karpov's pieces were commanding the six ranks and the opponents were left with only two ranks. Actually in some games, Karpov's pieces were as far as the eighth rank. One thing which was obvious in all the games was, Karpov knows how to grab space. Now back to my game... 16.d6 Bb7 17.Nfd5 threatening family fork on c7. 17...0-0-0 18.a4 Ng5 19.Bg4 Ne6 Here I congratulated myself. A knight which was seated at h7 has been greatly improved to e6! By now, people have started resigning, but I am hanging in there. 20.Be3 g6 21.Nb5 Bc6 22.Qf3 Qb7 23.Rfd1 Bg7 24.Qxf7! Bxe5? Actually 24...Bxd5 25.Bxe6 dxe6 was a better line for me. From there it was downhill. The rest of the moves is without comment. 25.Nxa7+! Kb8 26.Nxc6+ Qxc6 27.Bxb6 Rf8 28.Qxg6 Nf6 29.Bxe6 Nxd5 30.Rxd5 dxe6 31.Bc7+ Kb7 32.Rxe5 Rf4 33.Rb5+ Kc8 34.Qxe6+ 1-0 Final position.
	Darn! Where should I put the knight?
	Oops! He's here, now I have to move...
	Ooh! I was afraid he'd do that!
	Ugh, I'm suffocating... why are all of Karpov's pieces on my side? (photo credit by Myron Lieberman, see below)
	The crowd goes crazy! Karpov can't believe it. Good move Severine! The improved knight will surely help! (photo credit by Myron Lieberman, see below)
	C'mon Severine, Karpov is waiting... (photo credit by Myron Lieberman, see below)
	Victory will be mine!
	Hmm, it's fun capturing all of Wamala's pieces! (photo credit by Myron Lieberman, see below)
	What should I do with all these extra pieces?
	Another day, another simul...	After four long fought hours I resigned. And the World Champion prevailed! What a surprise?! The overall score: Total 30 games, 28 wins, 2 draws. 1-0