When Kasparov pushed Harry the h-pawn against Aronjan in the Qc2-Nimzo it came as a surprise, but since then he has repeated it twice, scoring 75%. So what is the big idea behind it and does the put Kramnik’s pet line under pressure?

The big idea behind pushing Harry is to develop the rook which is usually out of play in this structure for a long time. If white manages to create enough threats to force the exchange of queens, then his king is rather safe in the center and his two bishops should tell in the long run. Anand demonstrated the engine-equalizer, so black is ok. Nevertheless, Garry’s concept should be good enough for a freeroll.

On a sidenote: Kasparov did pretty well on the last day. My feeling is that age wasn’t the biggest factor in his performance, it was the fear of damaging his legacy. Once he got past that, he started producing positive results again.