Amber 2010 (Roundup)
Sharper play from Kramnik at Amber
IM Malcolm Pein - Wednesday 7th April 2010
Vladimir Kramnik showed a willingness to play sharply with black. Malcolm Pein looks at wins against Ponomariov and Svidler from the Amber tournament.
Following his defeat by Vishy Anand in the 2008 world title match, Vladimir Kramnik parted company with his agent and analytical team. His black openings used to make him difficult to beat, but gave few winning chances. Nowadays, Kramnik plays sharper lines and won two games at the Amber tournament with the Ragozin Variation of the Queen’s Gambit with the aggressive Bb4 instead of the solid Be7.
R Ponomariov - V Kramnik
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 d5 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bh4 c5 8.dxc5 0-0 9.Rc1 g5 10.Bg3 Ne4 11.e3 Qa5 12.Be5 Qxa2!
(Brazen, but good, as Qxb2 is a threat)
13.Bd3 Qxb2! 14.Bxe4 dxe4 15.Rc2 Qb3 16.Nd2 Qe6
(The raiding party returns and Black is a pawn up)
17.Bd6 Rd8 18.0-0 b6 19.Ncxe4 Nd7 20.Qa1 bxc5 21.Rb1??
Vladimir Kramnik
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Ruslan Ponomariov
Position after 21.Rb1??
21... Bxd2
(winning a piece)
22.Bc7
(22.Nxd2 Qxd6; 22.Rxd2 Qxe4)
22...Qxe4 23.Rxd2 Re8 0-1
P Svidler - V Kramnik
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.e3 c5 8.Qc2 Qa5 9.Bd3 c4 10.Bf5 0-0 11.0-0 Re8 12.Nd2 g6 13.Bh3 Kg7 14.Rae1 Nb6 15.Bxc8 Raxc8 16.Bxf6+
(16.f3 Bxc3 17.bxc3 Na4 18.Nb1 aiming for e3-e4 might be better)
16...Kxf6 17.f4 Bxc3 18.bxc3 Na4 19.f5 Kg7 20.f6+?
(A strategic error after which White has no play as he cannot get his queen to h6 or open the ‘f’ file for his rooks)
20...Kg8 21.Nb1 Re4!
(Stopping e3-e4 forever and Qc2-f2-h4)
22.Rf3 Rce8 23.Qf2 b5 24.Qd2 Qb6 25.h3 h6 26.a3 Kh7
(White can only wait as Black prepares b5-b4. Now g5 and Kg6 might pick up f6 in the endgame)
27.Qf2 a5 28.Kh1 Qd6 29.Kg1 R4e6 30.Kh1 b4
(Creating a very strong passed pawn)
31.axb4 axb4 32.cxb4 Qxb4 33.Nd2 Nb2
(Threat Nd3)
34.Rb1 c3 35.Nf1 Qc4 36.Qc2 Nd3 37.Kg1 Ra8
(The pawn’s advance forces the win of material. Ra2 will be crushing)
38.Rb7 Kg8 39.Nd2 cxd2 40.Qxd2 Ra1+ 41.Kh2 Qc8 42.Re7 Qb8+ 43.g3 Qb1 0-1
Vladimir Kramnik
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Peter Svidler
Final position
