Kasparov, like Capablanca, a whiz in simul play

Gary Kasparov, the youthful world champion, shares as least one ability with the great Jos'e Raoul Capablanca, who held the title back in the 1920s. Like the late Cuban immortal, Kasparov possesses incredibly fast sight on the board, which manifests itself in the art of simultaneous play. In Stockholm, in 1928, Capablanca defeated the entire seven-player Swedish national team headed by Lundin and Stolz by a 5-2 score in a clock exhibition.

Kasparov, while waiting for another championship match (scheduled for October) against Anatoly Karpov, the Soviet countryman from whom he wrested the title last year, has been matching the legendary Cuban's feats.

One of his more recent achievements was a 5- crush of the Swiss Olympic team in a clock simul in Zurich.

En passant, it should be mentioned that the styles of the two titans are poles apart.

Capa usually built his position slowly, striving for simplicity, eschewing complications and seeming to win without an obvious error on the part of his opponent.

Gary loves the attack and goes immediately for the jugular regardless of the tactical difficulties, usually forcing and punishing blunders.

Today's featured game against Heinz Wirtensohn, taken from the Zurich exhibition, is an excellent case in point.

When Wirtensohn ambitiously strove for complications right from the opening, he was literally rolled off the board. This was an awesome tactical display, since Kasparov was also coping with five other clock games at the same time. Nimzo-Indian Defense Kasparov Wirtensohn 1. P-Q4 N-KB3 2. P-QB4 P-K3 3. N-QB3 B-N5 4. P-K3 P-QN3 5. B-Q3 B-N2 6. P-B3 N-R4 (a) 7. N-R3 P-KB4 8. B-Q2 O-O 9. Q-K2 P-B4 10. P-Q5 BxN (b) 11. BxB PxP 12. O-O-O Q-K1 13. KR-N1 PxP 14. BxP ch K-R1 15. P-KN4 PxP 16. RxNP! N-KB3 (c) 17. QR-N1 (d) NxR 18. RxN R-B3 (e) 19. BxR PxB 20. R-N8 ch QxR 21. BxQ KxB 22. Q-B4 ch K-B1 23. Q-KR4 K-N2 24. N-B4 N-B3 (f) 25. N-R5 ch Resigns (g)

A.Here 6.... P-Q4 is the ``natural'' continuation. The text move initiates a nervous attacking maneuver of the type frequently espoused by players hoping to complicate matters and confuse the master giving the simultaneous display.

B.Black plays to win material but in doing so he allows Kasparov a dangerous attacking initiative. Black should strive instead for active piece play, so preference should have been given to 10.... PxP; 11.PxP, P-Q3, aiming for N-Q2-K4. Even a countersacrifice of 10.... P-QN4 might have been contemplated.

C.An attractive conclusion follows 16.... BxP, RxNP, NxR (17.... BxQ; 18.R-N8 mate); 18.R-N1, Q-N3; (18.... R-B2; 19.QxB, RxQ; 20.BxN mate); 19.RxQ, PxR; 20.Q-KB2 and White has too many attacking threats for Black to defend successfully, e.g., 20.... N-B3; 21.Q-R4 ch, B-R4; 22.N-B4, K-R2 (the threat was 23.NxP mate); 23.NxP (better than 23.BxN, RxN, when Black can still offer some resistance); 23.... KxN; 24.Q-N3 ch, K-B4; 25.BxN, and White threatens a winning checking sequence starting with 26.Q-B4 ch.

D.White masses his heavy artillery without worrying overly about material considerations as the Black fortress cannot be successfully defended. This time White's sacrifice must be accepted, since 17.... P-N3; 18.N-B4 followed by 19.NxP is absolutely devastating.

E.What else? White threatened 19.BxP mate and 18.... R-B2; 19.BxR, QxB; 20.Q-N2 spells immediate curtains for Black.

F.The 24th move is a bit too late for this piece to be successfully developed.

G.Black spares himself the embarrassment of being checkmated as in 25.... K-N3; 26.QxP ch, KxN; 27.P-KR4, R-KN1 (or 27.... P-KR3; 28.Q-B5 ch, KxP; 29.Q-N4 mate); 28.Q-B7 ch, R-N3; 29.QxP ch, R-R3; 30.Q-B5 ch, KxP; 31.Q-N4 mate.

International Grandmaster Arthur Bisguier is a former US champion and has won or shared the US Open title five times.