Kramnik saved by the clock!

A Chessbase report of what happened in the Kramnik – Radjabov playoff

While this last game (Aronian vs. Grischuk) was taking place, Kramnik and Radjabov were already into their blitz tiebreaks. The reason is that they started their rapid games one game before Aronian and Grischuk. In other words, Aronian and Grischuk started their first game at the same time Kramnik and Radjabov started their second. Unfortunately, the significant dullness of the first four classic games, continued into the rapids, and a further lot of draws were presented to the spectators. The blitz games were another story though.

The structure of the blitz games was a mini-match of two games played at five minutes with a three second increment per move. Each match is potentially decisive, and up to five such matches could be played to decide a winner. In the first game, Kramnik went down in flames badly, and resigned one move before being mated. This essentially meant that he had an absolute must-win situation if he wanted to stay in the match. Things didn’t seem to be going his way as the position seemed headed for a draw. The pieces went off, no weaknesses appeared, and it went down to a rook and opposite-colored bishop ending where all considered the match a done deal. Kramnik understandably meant to play to the very end, and with fifteen seconds left each (remember they received a three second increment per move though), this is what happened:

It took a good thirteen minutes for the game to resume, during which the players strolled about waiting – with ample time to study the position (one would think). When the game continued, Radjabov quickly collapsed with a series of decisive mistakes and lost. This meant a second blitz mini-match, and this time Kramnik won the first, while in the second Radjabov was caught in a perpetual, which ended the match. The two players shook hands and proceeded to the press conference.

Full article here: http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=7206