Vlad the Impaler

As I write, the former world champion Vladimir Kramnik is leading in the Norway tournament in Stavanger. The line-up is impressive, including Magnus Carlsen, Lev Aronian, Fabiano Caruana and Sergei Karjakin, and missing only Viswanathan Anand, who was defeated in last year’s World Championship match by Carlsen.
 
At his best Kramnik is a subtle tactician, with a penchant for extraordinarily complex middlegames. Sometimes the search for complications lets him down, as in his notorious last-round loss to Ivanchuk in the final round of last year’s Candidates tournament in London. This deprived Kramnik of the right to challenge Anand for the world title, ceding the palm to Carlsen, who went on to victory.
 
This week’s game is vintage Kramnik from the Norway tournament.
 
Giri-Kramnik: Norway Chess 2014; Catalan Opening
 
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 d5 4 g3 Be7 5 Bg2 0-0 6 0-0 dxc4 7 Qc2 a6 8 a4 Bd7 9 Qxc4 Bc6 10 Bf4 Bd6 Part of White’s strategy in the Catalan is to exert pressure in the c-file against Black’s queenside pawns. Here, however, Kramnik has guarded well against this particular danger. 11 Qc1 a5 12 Bd2 To me this retrograde step appears to lose time and gives Black the chance to aspire to the initiative. 12 … Nbd7 13 Rd1 Qe8 14 Bc3 Ne4 15 Nfd2 f5 Setting the theme for the rest of the game. Exploiting White’s feeble manoeuvres with his queen’s bishop Kramnik opens up a second front to feed over his pieces to the kingside attack. The deep point of placing the black queen on e8 is now revealed. 16 Nxe4 fxe4 17 Be1 Qh5 18 Nc3 Nf6 19 h3 Rf7 20 e3 Raf8 (see diagram 1) A dream position with all Black’s pieces massed for an attack on the white king. 21 Qc2 Qf5 22 Nb5 h5 23 Bxa5 Nh7 Black gives up a wing pawn in order to concentrate further forces in the vicinity of the white king. Chess engines prefer White’s extra pawn here but in a practical game Black’s long-term attacking build-up is very hard to counter. 24 Nxd6 cxd6 25 Bb4 Qd5 26 Rf1 Ng5 27 b3 Rd8 28 Rac1 Nf3+ With such a piece planted in White’s vitals Black’s attack has every prospect of success. 29 Kh1 Qf5 30 Qe2 Kh7 31 Rc2 Bd5 32 Rc3 Kg6 33 Qc2 Kh7 These moves merely demonstrate that Black was short of time and was racing to reach the time control. They have no particular significance to the prosecution of the onslaught. 34 Ba3 e5 Kramnik finds the correct idea of opening the d-file, thus granting a further avenue of entry into the white position. 35 dxe5 dxe5 36 b4 Be6 37 Bc1 Qg6 (see diagram 2) 38 Rd1 Although passively placed, this rook was vital for defensive purposes. Now Black’s attack quickly becomes overwhelming. 38 … Rxd1+ 39 Qxd1 Rd7 40 Qf1 Bf5 41 Rc2 Qe6 42 Qe2 g6 43 Rc4 Bxh3 White resigns After 44 Rxe4 Bxg2+ 45 Kxg2 Ng5 46 Rh4 Qc6+ picks up the bishop on c1.