Kramnik shows class in draw

Kramnik shows class in draw
Friday , October 24 , 2008
GMSPEAK
Pravin Thipsay

The seventh game of the World Chess Championship match between defending champion Viswanathan Anand and the challenger, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, ended in an exciting draw after three hours and 36 moves in Bonn. Throughout, the game looked like a battle between two real champions with Kramnik showing his class for the first time in the match.

Halfway through the championship, the playing colour of the players was changed. In the first half of the match, it was Kramnik who had white pieces in the first game. In the second half, which began on Thursday, Anand started with white.

The champion began with the Queen’s Gambit, which was countered by the challenger with the Slav Defence, an opening Anand himself has been adopting in the match. Kramnik did not go for the sharp Meran Variation preferred by Anand but decided to play the solid main line, which he had successfully employed against Vasselin Topalov in their world championship match in 2006.

Anand followed the Topalov-Kramnik game till the 15th move, obviously planning to improve on the Bulgarian’s play somewhere.

However, Kramnik varied on move 15 to opt for a more solid option. Kramnik’s 17th move, defending the attacked bishop rather than retreating it, was the theoretical novelty.

Anand took the bishop for the knight and started playing energetically. Kramnik was forced to exchange queens on move 21 after which he was left with a solid position with practically no winning chances. With two rooks — one minor piece and seven pawns each — the players started fighting for control of the only open file in the position.

Anand continued to play aggressively and penetrated the enemy camp with his bishop. Kramnik’s position was very cramped at this stage, his king and knight having practically no move.

However, the challenger, who is a real master of solid defence, found correct pawn advances on the kingside and activated his king to a good position. On the 26th move, Kramnik rightly exchanged a pawn in the centre, creating a square for his knight.

Anand took away the knight’s square by advancing a queenside pawn on the 28th move but this gave Kramnik an opportunity to move his queen rook to an outpost, forcing Anand to capture it.

Kramnik got a passed pawn on the queenside in the process and although this pawn was quite weak, Anand was required to close the kingside in order to attack it. With a precise pawn advance on the 31st move, Kramnik was finally out of danger.

Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/