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GM Vladimir Kramnik - GM Peter Leko;
World Chess Championships / Brissago, SUI.
Page # 03, Excerpts from my "news page" on this match.
(This page is now a PERMANENT record of these events!)
WCC - GM V. Kramnik versus GM P. Leko
The Classical World's Chess Championships - between Kramnik and Leko - has already begun. Kramnik won game One, with the Black pieces no less. Games Two and Three have been drawn. For a full report, see the ChessBase web site. ---> You can also check here as well.
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Saturday; October 2nd, 2004: NEWS-FLASH! GM Peter Leko defeated GM Vladimir Kramnik to equalize the match score after only five games. After deciding that he could not punch a hole in Kramnik's defense to 1.e4, Leko switched to a quiet line of the QGD and was rewarded with the full point. Bravo! The official website. [The English version.] The full ChessBase report. [I annotate this game.]
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At the halfway mark, (rest day 10/06/04); the match is tied.
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Thurs;
(11:30 CDT) October 07th, 2004: GM Peter Leko wins game seven (G #8) as Black!
(A Marshall Gambit!!) More details (and links)
later ... as they become available.
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[ One news story ] [ REPLAY game eight (#8) ... on another server. ]
In a very surprising turn of events, GM Vladimir Kramnik played the Ruy Lopez, (as White); and ventured into the Marshall Gambit. {Accepted.} (Rarely have top GM's allowed this line, as of late.) It was obvious that Kramnik had deeply prepared this line, for most of the opening he bashed out his moves nearly instantly. As late as move 21, he had still not used that much time on his clock. Meanwhile, Peter Leko seemed to be struggling, and falling further and further behind on the clock.
But suddenly the tide turned. Leko played Re2, and Kramnik sacked his Queen. From the amount of time that Kramnik spent on this move, we could safely assume that Kramnik either was still in his opening preparation, or he thought that he was winning. (Or both.)
The position after Black's 25th move is VERY fascinating!!! If I fire up Fritz 8.0, (with about 175 MB of RAM for the Hash Tables - and my processor is an Intel 3.4 GHz); the box clearly shows that White is winning. ("+/-") However, after about 25-30 seconds, it suddenly flip-flops several times ... and then shows Black to be winning!! ("-/+")
I won't even venture on what happened here ... I would just be showing my ignorance. But I think that an over-reliance on chess programs was clearly at work here. (15.Re4, at least according to a few of my books on the Marshall Attack, is not that great a line, (and has been considered harmless for close to 30 years); - but is the first choice of many computer programs. I will also admit that my latest key reference on this line, aside from MCO, is the "C-89 Informant" monograph by GM V. Anand. And it is like 10 years old ... at least! )
Anyway, Leko was clearly finding most of this over the board. (At one point, all the pundits on ICC said they thought he would lose on time!!) After ...Qd3!!; White put his King on f2. It might appear that Kramnik was holding, but Leko ripped the position apart with ...Bxf3!! It soon became apparent to most strong players that Kramnik was losing. Big Vlad did hang on as long as he could, tried for a few tricks and drawing chances in the face of his opponent's obvious extreme time crunch. But Peter Leko covered all of his bases, and finished the game with a very steady hand. After 32...g4; Kramnik saw no real reason to continue. This could be one of the best chess games of the last 150 years ... ESPECIALLY at the World Championship level!!! Congrats to Leko to a well-played victory!
(Hint,
after you go to the official website, - below - click on the link, "--->
To the games."
Then after you reach the list, you have the option of using
"analyze," or watching a web-TV report.)
[ The Official Website ] [ The ChessBase Report ] [ A story on London's CC ]
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Tuesday, October 12th, 2004: (Game #11) Leko again uses the QP, this time Kramnik responds with a Queen's Indian Defense - transposing to a type of hedgehog. Kramnik sprung a TN that allowed him to make a quick draw. Meanwhile, Leko inches even nearer his goal of becoming World Champion.
(Since Leko won game eight - games # 9, 10, and 11; ... have all been drawn.)
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Oct. 14th, 2004; 11:58 CST: Game twelve (# 12) is a draw. I watched this entire game - on the Internet, of course. It was a truly fascinating struggle. Kramnik opened with the sharp 1.e4, Leko used the Caro-Kann Defense ... which he had used before. (I found 27 instances {in the db} of Leko using the Caro-Kann, dating back to 1993.) The game featured a main-line Caro-Kann of the system that begins with 4...Bf5; this is a system that has NOT been used at the WCS level for probably close to 50 years. (I personally cannot remember ANY games in this line since 1972 - at this level.)
Kramnik seemed to be developing an extremely powerful initiative. ALL the on-line commentators liked White, and even Fritz 8.0 - at least at one point in the struggle - gave over half a Pawn edge to Kramnik's position. (One GM on ICC predicted a "technique-win" for White.)
I never got up from in front of my computer, and my room-mate checked in with me every 5-10 minutes to glance at the board. When Kramnik played Qc3, most (all the pundits on ICC; IM J. Wegerle on the official web site; and also GM's Larry Christiansen and Joel Benjamin on Chess-dot-FM) fell over themselves in an effort to praise this move. However, I told my room-mate that if Black got in f5-f4, this would give Black a ton of counterplay.
This is exactly what happened, I think Kramnik played a real risky move with 33.Qe4, (Joel Benjamin said White should force a draw with Qc5); the box did not like this move at all. Suddenly Black was TWO Pawns up ... then they decided to make a draw! (LC felt this was not the correct decision.)
All-in-all, it was a great game to watch, I think both sides played pretty well. {Really great fun to watch.}
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Saturday; October 16th, 2004: Game Thirteen (# 13) turned into a torrid affair. I watched this whole game from start to finish, it was some wild party! (It was almost too funny to hear the commentators exclaim that White is winning, then Black, then White, then Black, etc.)
Game # 13 started off as a Benoni, the commentators said this was completely unexpected. (Black had to play something to mix it up. Being a point down, and only two games left in the match, Kramnik has finally decided that he must begin to play!!! I guess late is better than never!)
Of course the Benoni surprised everyone, Leko took close to an hour to make it to move 20. But then he seemed to have everything figured out and made several moves fairly rapidly.
Things looked to be headed back to "draw city," when Kramnik played ...g5!?; a really wild move that was the signal for Kramnik to start a very strong - if somewhat risky - (all-out?) attack. Kramnik did not quite burn all of his bridges behind him, but he came darn close. Suddenly, things were looking like Kramnik was making progress when Leko found Nf5, forcing a dual-rook ending.
What ensued was easily one of the most fascinating 2R end-games that I have ever studied ... certainly the hairiest that I can remember watching. Even the so-called experts were sharply divided over who was better, some guys seem to continually to be changing sides. (Heck - even Fritz thought Black was winning ... by close to three pawns near then end of the game.)
Eventually, the players found the very narrow path to a draw. Actually, Leko's 'save' here was a lot like a Harry Houdini act; he managed to escape only when everyone was quite certain he was doomed! After move 65, only two Kings were left on the chess board. While maybe not a perfect game - I much preferred some other play than 30.Rb8 - it will certainly go down as a very memorable and exciting contest. [ The ChessBase report. ]
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The Classical World Chess Championships - between GM V. Kramnik and GM P. Leko is over. Kramnik drew the match and has managed to retain his title. Congratulations to the champion, and good luck in his next match.
In
a situation where Kramnik HAD to win to retain the title in Game
14 - he did. (More later.)
(The game is now deeply annotated, plus there are many
links. Click on "Game 14" just above.)
[ The official web site. ] [ The ChessBase report. ] [ The CC/TWIC report. ]
[ Home ] [ Site Map ] [ News Page ] [ CN-archives ... page # 02. ] [ The first Page ... in this series. ]
Copyright (c) LM A.J. Goldsby I
Copyright © A.J. Goldsby, 1985 - 2014. All rights reserved.
This page was created in 10/04 and first posted on my website on October 25th, 2004. Page last updated on: 04/28/2015 .
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