| Garry Kasparov, the World Champion for the last
fifteen years, recently lost a match and his title to challenger Vladimir
Kramnik. The combatants played 15 of the 16 scheduled games, with the score
being two wins for Kramnik and thirteen draws. Kasparov was unable to win
any games. This match was held in London during October. |
| I was in London from October 19-27, and attended
four of the games. Here is why I went. I have co-authored a poker book
with Stewart Reuben, who besides being my good friend and a fine professional
poker player, is also the head of the British Chess Federation and Chairman
of the FIDE Tournament Organizers Committee. Stew had me as his house guest
and got me a press pass to the match so I could cover it for Michigan Chess
magazine. This was my first opportunity to watch a real World Championship
chess match, although I had seen Kasparov in action against the computer
Deep Blue a couple of years ago. |
| Let me tell you a little about our new World Champion.
Vladimir Kramnik. He is a Russian, from Tuapse, a small town bordering
on the Black Sea. He first broke into the spotlight at the Manila Olympiad
in 1992, playing on the Russian team. Even though Kramnik was not even
a grandmaster, Kasparov asked the Russian Federation to let the 16-year-old
Kramnik play on the team. Even though Kramnik was known to be very talented,
Kasparov ran a bit of a risk doing this, as the success of the Russian
chess team is a matter of great importance in that country. If the teenager
did not perform well, Kasparov would have been heavily criticized. There
were some excellent experienced grandmasters available to play. However,
Kramnik scored 8.5 out of a possible 9 points facing opposition averaging
about 2600 strength, and winning the gold medal on his board. This was
even better than anyone had hoped for. From this point on his name consistently
came up when talking about potential future World Champions. |
| When Kasparov played Anand a World championship
match in 1995, he had Kramnik working as his second. Since 1995, Kramnik
has been ranked either second or third (behind Anand) in the world. |
| Kramnik has a "middle of the road" style of play.
He is not as aggressively attacking as Kasparov or Shirov, nor as positional
as Karpov or Petrosian. Perhaps he could be described as "soundly aggressive."
To my mind, a comparison in style with Fischer or Spassky is appropriate. |
| Have there been any questions about Kramnik's worthiness
of a title match? Yes. One would think that a player with Kramnik's style
and skills would be even better at match play than tournament play, but
this has not been the case. He lost matches a half-decade ago against Gelfand
and Kamsky, despite being favored. A couple of years ago, he played a match
against Alexei Shirov "to see who would play Kasparov." Shirov beat Kramnik––but
Kramnik was the one who eventually got a chance at the title, as the Shirov
match failed to attract enough sponsor interest. |
| In the last couple of years, Kramnik's record at
the chessboard has been awesome. Despite facing the best chessplayers in
the world on a continuing basis, he has only lost once in his last hundred
games. Those of us following chess closely thought the odds posted by the
London bookies a bit out of line. (They made Kasparov 3-1, or Kramnik 2.5
to 1, depending on which way you bet.) I bet a friend of mine $100 at 2
to 1. Ben Finegold was an even bigger Kramnik supporter, telling me before
the match that he thought Kramnik should be the favorite, and betting a
friend at even money. |
| The course of the match showed Kramnik dominating
throughout. He did better in the opening when he had white, held on solidly
with black, and actually would have won a couple more games if it were
not for time-pressure errors. Particularly impressive was the way he was
able to steer the game into positions where Kasparov seemed a bit uncomfortable.
We are used to dynamic attacking chess from the (former) champ, but it
seemed every time Kasparov had white, Kramnik was able to trade queens
and reach a tenable ending. To us oldtimers, it was reminiscent of the
way Tal was defused in his return match with Botvinnik. |
| The match was held in a three-story building in
the Hammersmith area of western London. The actual arena was a large auditorium
that had an electronic demo board that was hooked up to the playing board
and registered a move as soon as it was made. The players each had a cubicle
out of view of the audience with an electronic board in it that they could
retire to after making a move, and they preferred to be in the cubicle
when not on move. There were no reserved seats for the press, so I did
not spend much time in the auditorium. On the third floor of the building
there was a press room, and some of the time I was there. However, there
were earphones that people could rent (free to the press) that carried
the commentary of grandmasters like Short and Spielmann, and those earphones
could not pick up anything on the third floor. So my favorite place to
watch the match was in the bar-restaurant area on the ground floor, which
also had a big demo board. |
| After each game there was a brief press conference
in the playing area. Both Kasparov and Kramnik speak excellent English.
Kasparov was the more talkative of the two, but Kramnik was quite poised
and self-confident when he did say something. After one game where the
players blitzed into a known endgame position where white had a rook and
six pawns against black's bishop-pair and four pawns, Kasparov said that
he believed a different move at one point would have put him (white) on
the verge of a win. Kramnik, when asked about this, said, "I have studied
this endgame for many hours, and white is not winning, to put it mildly."
Maybe this match has strained the good personal relationship a little that
had existed for a long time between the two players. I am sure Kramnik
would not have entered this position unless he felt it was tenable, but
it is not clear that Kasparov was incorrect in his assessment. Kramnik
played this line only the one time, and even I could see that holding the
position was not easy for black, even if it should be a draw with best
play. |
| Before the match, everyone had expected Kramnik to answer 1.e4 with
1...e5, and after 2.Nf3 play 2...Nf6, the Russian (Petroff) Defense, Kramnik's
usual choice when facing an extremely tough opponent. But instead Kramnik
played 2...Nc6 and the black side of the Ruy Lopez after Kasparov's 3.Bb5.
At this point Kramnik sprang a big surprise, playing 3...Nf6, the Berlin
Defense, a rare guest in top-level play. Kramnik essayed this line three
times, drawing on each occasion. All three games took the course of 4.0-0
Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8 Kxd8 9.Nc3, reaching the following
position: |
position after 9.Nc3
|
| How should this position be assessed? White has
the better development, the better pawn structure, and black has lost his
castling privileges. On the other hand, black has the bishop-pair and no
structural weaknesses. The grandmaster opinion during the match was that
white had the slightly better chances, but that the black position was
an extremely tough nut to crack––especially with the best endgame player
in the world conducting the defense. I note that before the match, every
opening book in the world simply said that white had a clear advantage.
Kramnik was the one who realized the full strength of the black position––and
its unsuitability to Kasparov's tastes. |
| What of the future? Who will Kramnik's next opponent
be? I have heard he will play a an "exhibition match" against Leko early
in 2001, but not put his title on the line. The next logical opponent for
a title match would be either Anand or Shirov, but chess matches do not
necessarily follow logic. If I were Kramnik's manager, I would line up
a match against Judit Polgar. Such a match would get as much publicity
as Kasparov vs Deep Blue. Speaking of that computer, there are rumors of
it coming out of retirement now that Kramnik is the champ. One thing is
for sure; you should stay tuned to Michigan Chess magazine to keep informed
on the world chess scene! |
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