Eugenio Torre vs Anatoly Karpov, E42 Nimzo-Indian Defense, Hübner Variation, Rubinstein (5.Ne2)
London 1984., Phillips & Drew GLC Kings Tournament

This is one of Eugenio Torre’s most memorable games. He faced one of the strongest chess players at the time, Anatoly Karpov (still the world champion). The game was a part of the Phillips & Drew GLC Kings Tournament held in London, which was a part of the “UK chess renaissance” during the 80-es. The country saw a rise in popularity of chess and there were numerous tournaments and investors who paid to help organize them.
This one was organized by the Phillips & Drew stock-brokers. They invited 14 of the world’s best grandmasters. It was the first all GM tournament ever played in the UK. Here is the lineup with the final standings after 13 rounds (the tournament was a single round-robin):

1. Anatoly Karpov 9/13
2. Murray Chandler 8/13
3. Lev Polugaevsky 8/13
4. Jan Timman 7.5/13
5. Zoltan Ribli 7/13
6. Yasser Seirawan 7/13
7. Viktor Korchnoi 6.5/13
8. Rafael Vaganian 6.5/13
9. Ulf Andersson 5.5/13
10. Anthony Miles 5.5/13
11. Jonathan Speelman 5.5/13
12. Andrew Jonathan Mestel 5/13
13. John Nunn 5/13
14. Eugenio Torre 5/13

Eugenio Torre finished in last place, unfortunately, but this game made up for his generally less than ideal performance. Him and Karpov entered a very theoretical Hübner Variation of the Nimzo-Indian, an after 15 moves of theory it was roughly equal. Then Karpov made a horrible positional and tactical blunder which lost him the game. One move made all his pieces less active, his rook trapped and his pawn structure compromised. Torre exploited that mistake to perfection. He put on relentless pressure and Karpov ended up resigning soon afterwards. Eugenio Torre was even nicknamed "E.T. the Extra-Torrestrial" by chessgames.com for this victory. A splendid display of super-precise chess and of how increasing the pressure can make even the strongest grandmasters crack and blunder.

Moves:
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 (Nimzo-Indian Defence) 4. e3 c5 (Hübner Variation) 5. Nge2 (Rubinstein Variation of the Hübner) cxd4 6. exd4
O-O 7. a3 Be7 8. d5 exd5 9. cxd5 Bc5 10. b4 Bb6 11. Na4 d6
12. Nxb6 axb6 13. Ng3 Re8+ 14. Be2 Re5 15. Bb2 Rxd5 16. Qc1
Nc6 17. O-O Ne5 18. Qe3 Be6 19. h3 b5 20. Rac1 Bd7 21. Rfe1
Rc8 22. Rxc8 Qxc8 23. f4 Ng6 24. Bxf6 gxf6 25. Bf3 Qc4
26. Bxd5 Qxd5 27. Ne4 Kg7 28. Nxf6 Kxf6 29. Qc3+ Ne5 30. fxe5+
dxe5 31. Rf1+ Ke6 32. Qc2 e4 33. Qc3 f5 34. Qg7 Qd2 35. Qxh7
Qe3+ 36. Kh2 Qg5 37. h4 Qg4 38. Qh6+ Ke5 39. Qg5 Qxg5 40. hxg5
e3 41. g6 Kf6 42. Kg3 Be6 43. Kf4 e2 44. Re1 Bc4 45. g7 Kxg7
1-0

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