Dortmund 2011: Kramnik Loses to Nakamura, Still Wins the Tournament
Le Quang - Giri and Meier - Ponomariov were relatively easygoing draws, so the drama du jour fell fully upon the Kramnik - Nakamura game. Normally one would expect both players to be happy with a quick draw: Nakamura had the black pieces and would probably like to put an end to a bad tournament, while Kramnik had achieved what he needed to and could put a relaxed end to a great event.
Didn't happen. Nakamura played one of his usual combative openings, the King's Indian Defense, and Kramnik went for a speculative sacrifice on move 23 (23.Nfxg5). Black was better, but White had fair chances for equality. This could have been achieved, for instance, with the obvious 32.Nxd6, bailing out to a probably drawn ending. Kramnik chose instead 32.Ng5??, with a losing position. Nakamura gave him one last chance to save the game with 36.Qg6, but it was easy to miss (Kramnik's last move was 35.Qh7-h5), and miss it he did. After that there were no further opportunities, and Nakamura soon won. A nice finish for him, ending with two wins after a dreadful -3 start that could have been even worse.
Final Standings:
1. Kramnik 7
2. Le 5.5
3-4. Ponomariov, Giri 5
5. Nakamura 4.5
6. Meier 3
Tournament site here, games (with notes to Kramnik-Nakamura) here.
Reader Comments (2)
It was nice to see the comments on the Live Broadcast. People were speculating about this and that, including GM Ray Keene. None suggested Vlad's Nxg5! It was an entertaining game, worthy of both Vlad and Nak, I think.
[DM: Entertaining, sure, but worthy of them? I think Kramnik may need to suppress his gag reflex after this game.]
The Kramnik-Nakamura game reminds me of their game from London in December, with Kramnik making a speculative/dubious piece sacrifice and then failing to hold the draw when he was close to having it in hand. If I'm remembering properly, Kramnik talked about using that game as a chance to test himself in an unclear position against a strong tactical player like Nakamura. Maybe he had a similar motivation here, with the tournament already wrapped up.