Chess: Kasparov develops Kramnik complex
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Your support makes all the difference.VLADIMIR KRAMNIK, who turned 19 last week, celebrated by winning the second Intel World Chess Grand Prix in New York. In the first such event, he had knocked out the PCA world champion, Garry Kasparov, in the quarter-final. This time the two met in the final, and Kasparov showed distinct signs of an incipient Kramnik complex, writes William Hartston.
He should have been a clear favourite. Compared with Kramnik, who squeezed into the final when Ivanchuk overstepped the time-limit against him in a winning position, his form had been by far the more impressive. He had dispatched Kamsky, Anand and Nikolic with ease in the earlier rounds, and must have relished the prospect of revenge against another of the pretenders to his throne.
Their first game showed that Kramnik was not going to be intimidated. In the sharpest of all lines of the Semi-Slav Defence, Kasparov discarded the usual 16. Na4 in favour of 16. Rb1]? Now 16 . . . bxc3 17. bxc3 gives White a huge attack, since any queen move may be met by Rxb7 with dxe6 to follow.
After 19. Qd5] White is a rook and bishop behind, but the threats of exd8, Rxf1 and, above all, Qa8+ followed by exd8(Q)+, ensure the return of most if not all of the capital invested. Kamsky scrambled a nice defence with Bxe7, Rdg8 and Rg6, keeping White's knight out of d6, then exchanged queens into an endgame of rare messiness.
When it simplified to a rook and pawn ending, it was still hard to say who was better. White had more pawns, but Black's were further advanced. 29 . . . Rxe7 even threatened to win with 30 . . . c3 31. bxc3 bxc3 32. Rf3 c2 33. Rf3 Re1+.
Instead of 31. Rf4, Kasparov could have kept the game alive with 31. Rf3 Kd6 32. Re3. After the rook exchange, an unusual draw was reached with Black two pawns behind. His king holds the three K-side pawns, while his b-pawn, supported by c4, will keep White's king occupied.
----------------------------------------------------------------- White: Kasparov Black: Kramnik ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1 d4 d5 19 Qd5 Bxe7 2 c4 c6 20 fxe7 Rdg8 3 Nf3 Nf6 21 Ne4 Rg6 4 Nc3 e6 22 Rxf1 Qc6 5 Bg5 dxc4 23 Qxc6+ Rxc6 6 e4 b5 24 Rd1 Re8 7 e5 h6 25 Nd6+ Rxd6 8 Bh4 g5 26 Rxd6 f6 9 Nxg5 hxg5 27 Bxf6 Kc7 10 Bxg5 Nbd7 28 Re6 Nxf6 11 exf6 Bb7 29 Rxf6 Rxe7 12 g3 c5 30 Kf1 Re4 13 d5 Qb6 31 Rf4 Rxf4 14 Bg2 0-0-0 32 gxf4 Kd6 15 0-0 b4 33 Ke2 a5 16 Rb1 Qa6 34 a4 c3 17 dxe6 Bxg2 35 bxc3 b3 18 e7 Bxf1 Draw agreed -----------------------------------------------------------------
After that epic, both men seemed content to play cautiously in their second game, which meandered for 40 moves with neither obtaining any clear advantage until queens came off the board. Then the crowd were entertained to the unusual spectacle of Garry Kasparov being mercilessly ground down in an endgame. Kramnik finally won on the 75th move to take the first prize and replace Anand as leader of the Grand Prix series.
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