Promotion (chess) - Unusual Situation

Unusual Situation

Karpov vs. Kasparov
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1 1
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Position before 24...cxd1(Q)+

An unusual situation occurred in a 1993 game between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov. Karpov was in serious time trouble, with one minute to make 16 moves. In this position, Kasparov captured the rook on d1 with the pawn on c2, and said "Queen!", indicating that the promoted piece was a queen. However, no queen was immediately available. It took some time for the arbiter to come up with a black queen. Kasparov said that if he had been attentive, he would have promoted to a rook, which was available. Kasparov's clock was running while the arbiter was getting a queen, so he started Karpov's clock. Karpov immediately played 25.Qxe4 and Kasparov told him that he was in check. Karpov replied "From what? It might be a bishop on d1." The clocks were stopped. The arbiter found a black queen, the game was backed up to the position after 24...cxd1(Q)+, and Karpov was given an extra two minutes on his clock because of Kasparov's illegal move. Kasparov disputes that he made an illegal move. Kasparov soon won the game, however (Kasparov 2010:332).

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