2013 World Cup: Finals, Day 1: Kramnik Wins
Both Vladimir Kramnik and Dmitry Andreikin are seeded into the next Candidates' event by virtue of reaching the finals (in fact Kramnik was already seeded there, as mentioned many times in previous posts), but bragging rights, rating points and a good chunk of change will keep them both motivated to do their best in this, the final round of the 2013 World Cup. Unlike the previous rounds, this one is a best-of-four, and after the event's only rest day the players got back to the board today for the first game.
Kramnik had White, and Andreikin played the Tartakower variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined. For many decades that was an almost automatic choice in the QGD, but nowadays it's even a bit unusual for top level chess. A further slightly unusual aspect of the game was the pawn structure that emerged, one more characteristic of the Semi-Tarrasch than a QGD. White enjoyed slightly more comfortable play as a result thanks to his extra space in the center and the possibility of pressuring Black's isolated b-pawn, but the game was close to even for a long time.
The big moment came when Kramnik broke in the center with 28.d5. Andreikin swapped, 28...exd5 29.exd5, and now faced a major moment of decision...though he might not have realized it. In Kramnik's view, the safest way would have been 29...Bd7, which leaves White with a somewhat better because more active position after 30.Qe4. So why allow that? Andreikin played 29...Re8, and was surprised by 30.dxc6! White wound up with a rook, bishop and a dangerous passed c-pawn for the queen, and while the evaluation may be equal according to Houdini, proving it for a human is another story.
Before the final move of the time control Kramnik was certainly better, but after Andreikin's 40th move that advantage had grown, and perhaps he was even winning. 40...Qd8 allowed the exchanging variation 41.c7 Rxc7 42.Rxc7 Qxd5, and this ending is not drawn. There are all sorts of endings that are drawn when all the pawns are on one side of the board, but this is not one of them. The rooks can gang up on the pawns, and the side with the queen must either shed material or give up the queen and one pawn for the rooks. Since that would render a pawn ending with White a pawn up, that strategy would have been hopeless here, and sure enough Kramnik managed to convert his advantage and win. Incidentally, it's not the first time Kramnik has won such an ending - he also did so against Peter Leko in game 1 of their 2004 World Championship match.
With that, Kramnik also managed to stop the negative momentum in their head-to-head matchups and avoid "castling queenside" against his young opponent - a definite plus for him if they're going to meet in the Candidates' next year. However, this event isn't over, and we'll see what Andreikin can do with the white pieces in a few hours. Stay tuned!
Reader Comments (1)
The key moment was exactly allowing the queen sacrifice. It seemed to me Andrejkin didn't check the situation after the sacrifice. That can't be the case normally but on the other side the situation that emerged was rather unpleasant and had to be checked thoroughly. He made the move Re8 nearly without hesitation..