[Bobby Ang]
World Championship Match, Elista, Russia
12-Game Match:
GM Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2743, 6.0-6.0
GM Veselin Topalov BUL 2813, 6.0-6.0
Playoffs:
1 Topalov vs Kramnik, Slav D18 ½ 47 moves
2 Kramnik vs Topalov, SemiSlav D45 1-0 45 moves
3 Topalov vs Kramnik, Slav D12 1-0 50 moves
4 Kramnik vs Topalov, SemiSlav D47 1-0 45 moves
Overall Tally:
Kramnik vs Topalov, 8.5-7.5
The Russian Vladimir Kramnik won the playoff match against Bulgarian Veselin Topalov with a score of 2 wins 1 draw 1 loss to crown himself as the undisputed World Chess Champion.
Topalov did not roll over and play dead. On the contrary he fought well and scored a mighty victory in the 3rd game.
Topalov,Veselin (2813) - Kramnik,Vladimir (2743) [D12]
WCh Unification Playoffs Elista (3), 13.10.2006
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bf5
[4...e6 5.Bd3 is game 7]
5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Bg6 7.Be2
[7.Nxg6 hxg6 was used 3 times in their 12-game match - that's 25%. The interesting thing is that Topalov played white in games 9 (which he won) and 11, while he was black in game 12]
7...Nbd7 8.0–0 Bd6 9.g3 dxc4 10.Bxc4 Nb6 11.Be2 0–0 12.Nxg6 hxg6 13.e4 e5 14.f4
Topalov also used this move in games 9 and 11. You know, many years ago when Bent Larsen was rampaging over the chess world (this was in the late 60s, 70s and early 80s) many journalists wrote that his favorite move was h2-h4. During Mihail Tal's best years he boasted that his favorite maneuver was to play Ne5, sacrifice it soon on f7, and then mate his opponent. After this match perhaps f2-f4 will be forever connected to Topalov's name.
14...exd4 15.Qxd4 Qe7 16.Kg2
[16.e5?? Bc5 wins the queen]
16...Bc5 17.Qd3 Rad8 18.Qc2 Bd4 19.e5 Nfd5 20.Rf3 Nxc3
If Topalov was handling Black I'm sure he would have played 20...g5!?
21.bxc3 Bc5 22.Bd2 Rd7 23.Re1 Rfd8 24.Bd3
White is obviously building up for the f4-f5 advance.
24...Qe6 25.Bc1 f5
The pin on the e-file against white's rook makes this move possible, but white's attack is not that easily parried.
26.Qe2 Kf8 27.Rd1 Qe7 28.h4 Rd5 29.Qc2?! Nc4! 30.Rh1 Na3 31.Qe2 Qd7! 32.Rd1
Kramnik is milking the d-file for all its got.
32...b5 33.g4! fxg4 34.Rg3
Threat is 35.e6 followed by 36.Rxg4.
34...Ke7
Caption: position after 34...Ke7
Now Topalov breaks through.
35.f5! gxf5 36.Bg5+ Ke8
[36...Kf8 37.Bxf5! Qxf5 38.Rf1; 36...Ke6? 37.Bxf5+! Kxf5 38.Rf1+ Kg6 39.Qe4+ and mate]
37.e6 Qd6
Kramnik did not allow the brilliancy 37...Qc7 38.Rxg4! fxg4 39.Bg6+ Kf8 40.Rxd5! cxd5 (40...Rxd5 41.e7+! Bxe7 42.Qe6! forced mate) 41.Qxg4 Qe5 42.Qf3+ Kg8 43.Bf7+ Kf8 44.Be8+!
38.Bxf5!
Kramnik's idea was that 38.Bxd8? Kxd8 and it is he who is winning.
38...Rxd1 39.Bg6+ Kf8 40.e7+ Qxe7 41.Bxe7+ Bxe7 42.Bd3! Ra1 43.Qb2 Rd1 44.Qe2 Ra1 45.Qxg4! Rxa2+ 46.Kh3 Bf6 47.Qe6 Rd2 48.Bg6 R2d7 49.Rf3!
The end.
49...b4 50.h5 1–0
The fourth and final game was vintage Kramnik – he took a tiny endgame advantage and nursed it into a winning game, one which ended abruptly when a depressed Topalov blundered a rook and resigned.
Kramnik,Vladimir (2743) - Topalov,Veselin (2813) [D47]
WCh Unification Playoffs Elista (4), 13.10.2006
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5 8.Be2 Bb7 9.0–0 Be7 10.e4 b4 11.e5 bxc3 12.exf6 Bxf6 13.bxc3 c5 14.dxc5 Nxc5!?
This position has already come up several times in the international tournament circuit, but Black has always castled his king to safety at this point. Topalov just grabs the pawn and dares Kramnik to prove him wrong.
15.Bb5+ Kf8 16.Qxd8+ Rxd8 17.Ba3 Rc8 18.Nd4
White's pawns are fragmented but he has the freer play. This is the type of position which Kramnik specializes in, and true enough he converts it into a winning position.
18...Be7 19.Rfd1 a6 20.Bf1 Na4 21.Rab1! Be4 22.Rb3! Bxa3 23.Rxa3 Nc5 24.Nb3! Ke7
I was watching this game live and the GM consensus was that Black is already out of the woods. Not quite.
25.Rd4! Bg6 26.c4 Rc6!? 27.Nxc5 Rxc5 28.Rxa6 Rb8 29.Rd1! Rb2 30.Ra7+ Kf6 31.Ra1 Rf5 32.f3 Re5
The threat is ...Bb1.
33.Ra3!
Probably overlooked by Topalov. Now the worse that can happen to white is a draw.
33...Rc2
[33...Bb1? 34.Rb3! Rxb3 35.axb3 and, with two connected passed pawns, White has an easy win]
34.Rb3 Ra5 35.a4 Ke7 36.Rb5! Ra7 37.a5 Kd6 38.a6 Kc7 39.c5 Rc3 40.Raa5 Rc1 41.Rb3 Kc6 42.Rb6+ Kc7 43.Kf2 Rc2+ 44.Ke3
White is probably winning, but there is no clear path yet if, for example, Black plays 44...e5, 45...Bf5 and 46...Be6. However, Topalov cracks and plays ...
44...Rxc5?? 45.Rb7+! 1–0
The controversies introduced into the match by Topalov’s manager, IM Silvio Danailov, brought a lot of unneeded tension and conflict into the match atmosphere. He accused Kramnik of going to the toilet too many times (at least 50, but this claim has been debunked) and therefore “might” be cheating, and later on took it one step further by charging that the 78% of the Russian’s moves matched the suggestions of the popular chess playing software “Fritz”.
The tactics were successful, and Kramnik rather stupidly fell into the trap and did not show up for the 5th game. This violated the rule that in controversies there should be no pussy-footing – either you tough it out (the grin and bear it method) or you put your foot down and completely refuse to give an inch. Anything in between and you get shafted – witness Kramnik’s forfeit loss in the 5th game, which FIDE would not invalidate.
He should have listened to Karpov, the last representative of the bygone age of Soviet chess, who advised Kramnik not to resume the match after the forfeit loss and walk away. Of course you cannot expect anything else from Karpov, who made it his trademark to make a lot of small demands from organizers (games must start half an hour earlier, change the schedule of free days, etc) and refuse to budge over every single issue.
Anyway, Kramnik rather generously agreed to resume the match under protest with the handicap of a forfeit loss, even though he knew that in a match of 12 games this will count heavily. Because of this Topalov was able to catch up (he even took the lead briefly in the 9th game) and earn a tie-break match.
But don’t get me wrong, I am not implying that Kramnik was hands-down the deserved winner. When it comes to purely “chess reasons” I would think that Topalov had the better claims - it cannot be denied that he was the aggressor throughout the match, showed a lot of creative ideas, and luck had a lot to do with the two zeroes he got in the first two games. Topalov was also the reason why there were no short draws in the match – he kept fighting on even in lifeless positions and forced his opponent to give his best to resist.
Nevertheless, Kramnik also showed strong and consistent chess to repulse Topalov’s attacks and a ruthless efficiency to take advantage of whatever opportunities presented themselves.
Both Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov showed us a high class of chess in Elista. Personally I much prefer Topalov’s relentless attacking rather than Kramnik’s wait-for-your-opponent-to-err approach, what Kasparov called “anti-chess”. But we cannot deny that the match had already been tainted when Topalov got a forfeit point, and if the Bulgarian had gone on to win with that early Christmas gift then the dispute over who is the real world chess champion will never end.
What I am saying is that last Friday for the sake of unification of the title the chess world needed a Kramnik victory, and that is what it got. So we should all be happy.
Reader comments/suggestions are urgently solicited. Email address is bangcpa@gmail.com
"This article first appeared in Bobby Ang's column in Businessworld (Philippines) on 16 October 2006"
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