Peter Leko vs Vladimir Kramnik (2004) Kramberry Sauce

Notes by Raymond Keene *** 1. e4 No surprise; Leko plays little else. I felt a pang of sympathy for those commenting live on this game. After the combinational flurry ending on move 23, it was too easy to reach for the script that was titled "And White converts his material advantage". However, that account had to be shelved hastily as Kramnik emphatically showed the virtues of Black’s position, rapidly attaining at least equality, then having some pressure, and finally seeing Leko go astray in a much simplified ending where the best White could hope for was a draw.The Petroff Defence was originally designed as an equaliser, but it also gives Black dynamic counterchances.This move order has supplanted the ancient debate between 6...Bd6 and 6...Be7.As we shall see, the Petroff is a defence where Kramnik appears to be equally at home with both White and Black.So far, we are still well inside ’theory’, the current habitual move order of modern masters. 16.h3 is an interesting psychological ploy by Leko, as it was Kramnik’s own choice when he played against Anand in Corus 2003. Kramnik - Anand, Wijk aan Zee 2003 saw 16...Bf6 but, according to Huzman, after 17 Nh2 Qa5 18 Bd2 Rcd8 19 Bf3 h6 20 Ng4 Bxg4 21 hxg4 Bg5 22 Bxg5 hxg5 White could have got a clear advantage by 23 Qc1 Rxe1+ 24 Qxe1 Kf8 25 Rb1 Re8 26 Qc1."Provocative," said Leko afterwards, but also "the most thematic in this position, It reminds me of the Grunfeld, which I love to play with Black.". He had this position as White against Bologan at Dortmund earlier this year, but his opponent that day played now 17...Rcd8; the game was drawn in 26 moves.Leko is provoked! This forcing sequence leads ineluctably to a situation where Black will have rook and bishop for the white queen. Also possible was 18 Nd2 as 18...Bxg2 fails to 19 c4 Qc6 20 d5 Qg6 21 Bh5 Bf3+ 22 Bxg6 Bxd1 23 Bf5. A tremendous decision. Black could probably draw with 24...Bf4 25Qxa7 b6 followed by ...Bd6 when it is doubtful that White can break through. The text is considerably more ambitious. Black creates a passed pawn for himself, but he must also take account of the fact that White’s passed apawn could become exceedingly dangerous. This is a key move, creating a situation with rival racing pawns. One might expect this still to favour the side with the material advantage, but Leko’s Queen and Rook are out-numbered and out-manoeuvred by Kramnik’s pieces.In the press conference afterwards, Leko with cheerful self-deprecation commented that "Once I got my queen to b3, I then spent time trying to get it to e4!"Leko, with only a few minutes left, tires of the bind that Black is exerting and chooses to go into and endgame where only Black has winning chances. It might have been better to stay passive and trust in his blockade.Susan Polgar, commenting live online, pointed out that an ending with the same material and the same distribution of pawns on the king’s-side occurred in Gurgenidze-Averbakh, Baku 1961, and it saw a win for the rooks. However, Leko’s pawns stand better placed for defence here than did Averbakh’s.When Leko played h4, Kramnik should have quickly replied ...h7h6, so as to meet h4h5 with ...g5. It’s important to retain pawns here, as explained below. After the game, Leko mentioned that he was thinking about the idea Qe1!? but rejected it as too ugly for such a game(!).White’s last two moves inhibit this ...h6 manoeuvre by Black. This is a blunder, which allows Black to fix the pawn formation and ultimately gang up on the weak white fpawn. White must play 44 hxg6 as they say in the beginner’s books, swap pawns in the ending to reduce the opponent’s winning chances. Even after the superior 44 hxg6 hxg6 it is not obvious that White can reach the safe haven of a draw, as the basic black strategy of piling up with his rooks against the white f-pawn still seems valid. However, with only two pawns each on the board, White can place his g-pawn on g5, so that even if black trades both rooks for queen and f-pawn, the resulting king and pawn ending is a draw.This is a very clever move from Kramnik, clearly overlooked by Leko, whose last move could have no other purpose than to threaten h6. If now 46Qxh6, then ...R8a6 traps the white queen.Black weaves a net inexorably around White’s sorry f-pawn.Kramnik’s manoeuvres, though lengthy, have finally triumphed. If White does not trade his queen for Black’s rooks, the white king will soon be hunted down. If White does exchange, then Black has an easy win in the king and pawn endgame.White resigns. The pawn endgame is a trivial win, e.g. 66 Ke4 Ke6 67 Kd4 f5 68 gxf5+ Kxf5 69 Ke3 g4 70 Kf2 Kg5 71 Kg3 Kxh5 72 Kg2 Kg5 73 Kg3 h5 and the black pawns march down to promote. A marvellously dramatic encounter and a fine riposte to critics who thought the match would be dull. In the press conference after the game, Kramnik looked drained, Leko cheerful and phlegmatic. Kramnik insisted throughout that the position objectively is drawn, and pulled many sceptical faces when describing his win. The following day, both players remarked how hard it is to move on from such a battle, Kramnik musing "I tried to get the two rooks out of my mind, and to stop trying to coordinate them in different attacking patterns. I think it was four o’clock in the morning when I was able to sleep." Leko added, "I needed until five a.m. to get rid of those two black rooks."0-1