Learn From The Greats (part seven)

VLADIMIR Kramnik became the 14th officially recognised world chess champion by finishing victorious in his match against Garry Kasparov on November 2, 2000.
Two days later he accepted a challenge from me in my role as a writer for The Sun
Spanton - Kramnik
Home House (London)
English Symmetrical
1.e4 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Ne2 e5!?
Ruling out a Maroczy Bind by White.
4.Nbc3 d6 5.d3 g6 6.g3 Bg4!?
Trying to take immediate advantage of the early holes in White's set-up.
7.Bg2 Nd4!? 8.h3 Bd7
Not 8...Nf3+?? 9.Kf1.
If 8...Bf3, then 9.Bxf3 Nxf3+ 10.Kf1 with Kg2 to come is good for White.
Stockfish10 and Komodo10 reckon Black should, at least temporarily, give up the bishop-pair with 8...Bxe2 9.Nxe2 Nxe2 10.Qxe2, and now 10...Bh6 to try to swop off Black's bad bishop. White is probably slightly better.
9.Nxd4 cxd4 10.Nd5 Bc6?!
Black is falling dangerously behind in development. The engines reckon White is only slightly better after the natural 10...Bg7.
11.0-0 Bg7 12.f4 h5?!
White now gets a strong initiative.
13.Qf3 Qd7 14.Bd2?!
Even stronger seems to be 14.fxe5, eg 14...dxe5 15.Bg5 Bxd5 16.exd5! f6, when Stockfish10 continues 17.d6!? fxg5 18.Qxb7 Qxb7 19.Bxb7 Rb8 20.Bc6+ Kd8 21.Rf7 with a winning attack, eg 21...Bh6 22.Raf1 or 21...Rb6 22.Rd7+ Kc8 23.Rc7+ and 24.c5. Consequently, the engines prefer accepting doubled and isolated d pawns with 14...Be5, but White is much better after 15.Bf4.
14...Bxd5 15.cxd5 h4!?
This is Komodo10's second choice, but both engines prefer occupying the open file with 15...Rc8.
16.g4 exf4!?
Stockfish10 comes to marginally prefer this over the engines' initial choice of 16...Rc8.
17.Bxf4 Be5 18.Bxe5 dxe5 19.Rac1 f6?!
The engines suggest 19...Rd8 or the very ugly 19...Rh7!?, but in each case with White much better.
20.g5 Kf7?!
Another doubtful move. The engines want 20...Rh7.
21.gxf6?!
Even better is the engines' 21.Qg4!?, eg 21...Qxg4 22.hxg4 followed by Rc7(+), or 21...Rd8 22.gxf6, eg 22...Nxf6 23.Qg5 with mate to follow, one line being 23...Qe7 24.Rxf6+ Qxf6 25.Rc7+ etc.
21...Qd6?
Black had to play 21...Rc8 to contest the open file.
22.Rc2 Rf8 23.Rfc1?!
My original notes show Fritz5 thought the game is now even. While it is true that 23.Rcf2 is almost certainly stronger, Black is also in trouble after the text.
23...Nxf6 24.Rc7+ Kg8 25.Rxb7 Rh7
Not 25...Nxd5? 26.exd5! Rxf3 27.Bxf3 Qd8 28.Bg4, when White will emerge a bishop up.
26.Rc6?!
It seems stronger is 26.Rxh7 Kxh7 (or 26...Nxh7 27.Qg4) 27.Qf2.
26...Qd8 27.Rxh7 Kxh7 28.Qd1 Nh5 29.Qg4 Nf4
White is a protected pawn up and is clearly better, but Black has the superior minor piece.
30.Bf1?!
The engines prefer 30.b4, as the d3 pawn is not really threatened by the knight since g6 needs protecting.
30...Kh6?!
The engines reckon 30...a5 more-or-less equalises.

Position after 30...Kh6?!

Kramnik did not allow me to keep score during the game - he probably feared I would take a long time.
Instead, once the game was over, he wrote the moves down from memor, without using a board.
However, at this point he could not recall what came next (and I had even less of a clue), although he was able to pick up the game a few moves further along at about move 35:

White to make his 36th(?) move

As can be seen, the game has radically changed between the two diagrams. Indeed, the position is now dead-equal, according to the engines.
36.Kg1 Rxa2 37.d6?
Playing for a win, but my bishop and king are too passive for this to be a realistic attempt. The engines reckon 37.Rc8 maintains equality.
37...Kf6 38.Rc6?
38.d7? is simply met by 38...Ke7, but better was counterplay against e5 with 38.Rc5.
38...Ke6 39.Ra6 Nf4 40.b4!?
This does not help, but White is lost anyway.
40...a4 41.b5 g5 42.Rc6 Rb2 43.b6 a3 44.b7 Rxb7 45.Ra6 Rb1 46.Rxa3 Nxh3+ 47.Kg2 Nf4+ 48.Kf2 g4 0-1
Kramnik said: "You played well." (I believe those were his exact words, but, if not, he said something very similar.)

Dominic Lawson ran the following leader in the Sunday Telegraph, which at least pleased my parents (and my Editor):
VLADIMIR KRAMNIK, the new world chess champion, was pictured in The Sun newspaper yesterday, playing a game with Tim Spanton, a Sun journalist.

Mr Spanton, on his own account, began by giving Mr Kramnik an unexpected run for his money. At one point, Mr Kramnik was even heard to lament, "My position is getting worse with every move" - but that was before he comprehensively destroyed Mr Spanton's defences. Mr Kramnik, no doubt, was playing the game in every sense, including supplying a crowd-pleasing touch of hyperbole for the event.

None the less, when Britain's leading tabloid newspaper publishes a full account of a game of chess in international algebraic notation, describing the opening - correctly - as "English Symmetrical, by transposition from the Sicilian Defence", it is to be congratulated. Chess offers the greatest adversarial intellectual challenge known to mankind. Until yesterday The Sunday Telegraph was the only newspaper to have bothered to interview Kramnik about his achievement in ending the 15-year reign of Garry Kasparov.

We are delighted at The Sun's interest: there are so often lamentations about "dumbing down" - might this be the start of a process of "braining up"? Perhaps The Sun could further its relationship with Mr Kramnik by inviting him to guest-edit the newspaper for a day. We look forward to his first headline: "Bishop in Pawn Scandal".

LESSONS FROM THIS GAME
Even a world champion can be caught out in the opening if he happens to play down a line his much-weaker opponent is familiar with (I doubt if Kramnik would have played 6...Bg4!? and 7...Nd4!? if he had realised 8.h3 was a good answer). White then had an initiative, which makes it much easier to find good moves (and makes it much more likely the opponent will find bad ones). It is a shame there is no record of how the game quickly moved from much better for White to equal, but the further transition to winning for Black is an all too familiar one of a club player not knowing endgame basics.
(Next: Deep Fritz at ChessBase's Hamburg HQ)