Elista: Analyse der dritten Partie

Photos: FIDE
 

Der Handschlag vor der dritten Partie

Vor dem Start der Partie dürfen die Pressevertreter fünf Minuten fotografieren.

Die Bühne in Elista. Eine Glaswand trennt Spieler und Zuschauer bzw. Sekundanten.

Kommentar zu Partie 3

The following express commentary was provided to us by Romanian GM Mihail Marin, who is the author of a number of very popular ChessBase training CDs and articles for ChessBase Magazine. GM Marin will study the game from the World Championship in Elista in greater detail and provide the results of his analysis in the next issue of ChessBase Magazine. Note that there is a replay link at the end of the game. Clicking this will produce a (separate) JavaScript replay window, where you have replay buttons but can also click on the notation to follow the moves.

Kramnik,V (2743) - Topalov,V (2813) [E02]
WCh Elista RUS (3), 26.09.2006 [Mihail Marin]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3. In previous matches for the World Title, the Catalan Opening has usually been a sign that White finds himself in a peaceful mood. However, it seems that Kramnik intends it as more than just a one-game surprise weapon. 4...dxc4 5.Bg2 Nc6. Deviating from 5...Bb4+ which had been played in the first game. According to an old advice regarding general match strategy, one should not repeat a variation that led him to defeat, even if the result of the opening had been satisfactory. The main point is to avoid having bad memories during the new game. On the other hand, Topalov's apparently multilateral preparation against the Catalan makes one think that he did not discard such an opening choice of Kramnik during his pre-match preparation. 6.Qa4. Here we go again. I have already mentioned in the notes to the first game White's tendency to spend a lot of time on early queen moves in the Catalan. 6...Bd7 7.Qxc4 Na5 8.Qd3 c5.

Curiously, the game Kramnik-Naiditsch, Dortmund 2006 reached a similar position with the only difference that the f6-knight had been transferred to b6 already. This had been made possible by a rather tortuous trajectory of the white queen (c4-b5-b3-d3) as an answer to Black's 6...Nd5. Dr. Tarrasch used to evaluate an opening position by counting the tempi needed by the pieces of each side to occupy their actual squares. According to his method, Naiditsch was two whole tempi up (or better) than Topalov, but in fact it seems that the knight is better placed on f6 than on b6! In that game Kramnik captured on c5 and after ...Bxc5 played Qc3, attacking on c5 and g7 at the same time. This should have brought him an advantage but he later avoided the most ambitious continuation and the game ended in a draw after interesting but equilibrated fight.

9.0-0 Bc6. Black has managed to neutralize the Catalan bishop at the cost of several tempi and the awkward placement of his queen's knight. This compensates entirely for the time loss provoked by the white queen. 10.Nc3 cxd4 11.Nxd4 Bc5 12.Rd1 Bxg2 13.Qb5+! An important intermediate check that finally forces Black remove his king's knight from its optimal square. 13...Nd7 14.Kxg2 a6 15.Qd3 It might look that White just lost two additional moves, but in fact Black faces now problems castling because of the threat Nc2! attacking the d7-knight and enabling the fork on b4. (Nxe6 would be worse because it would open the f-file for the enemy rook). 15...Rc8.

16.Bg5! A nice way to connect rooks. Each player with long experience in the Catalan has probably played such a move at least once. 16...Be7. The bishop is taboo. 16...Qxg5 17.Nxe6 would lead to a very strong white attack. 17.Bxe7. To a certain extent, this can be regarded as a premature release of the tension. 17.Ne4! was the main alternative. 17...Qxe7 18.Rac1. White has completed his development, while Black still needs to find a way to remove his king from the centre. For the first time in the match, the outcome of the opening looks very promissing for Kramnik. 18...Nc4 19.Na4 b5 20.b3 0-0. Black could have inserted a knight jump to e5 somewhere, but Topalov seems to prefer simpler ways today. 21.bxc4 bxa4 22.Nc6. Probably the only way to fight for an advantage. If Black was allowed to get his knight to c5, he would hardly faced any problems. In this case, the double pawns would have been quite useful. The a6-pawn would have denied the enemy knight's access to b5-d6 while his colleague would have prevented the exchange of the own knight by means of Nb3. 22...Rxc6 23.Qxd7.

23...Qc5!? In case of the exchange of queens, Black should probably dispose over sufficient resources to make a draw in spite of his double pawns, but only after long suffering. Topalov's move shows that he does not wish to give away the psychological initiative in the match. By keeping queens on board, he preserves his own chances for active play. 24.Rc3 g6 25.Rb1 h5 26.Rb7 e5 27.e4. White's position looks quite active, especially wth such an outpost for his pieces on d5, but Black's next moves wll force him retreat almost completely. 27...Rf6 28.Rc2 Qa3 29.Qd1 Rd6 30.Rd2 Rfd8 31.Rd5 Rxd5.

32.cxd5. A critical moment. Optically speaking, the position is just asking for 32.exd5 when, for the second time in a row, Kramnik would have obtained two connected passed pawns, quite advanced this time. He probably feared that his far from optimal coordination would not allow him defend them properly, especially in view of the outside passed a-pawn (after an eventual ...Qxa2) as well as of intermediate moves cush as ...e4. It is early to give a definitive verdict yet; for complete analysis please consult CBM 115. 32...Qxa2 33.Qf3 Rf8 34.Qd3 a3 35.Rb3 Apparently, Black has no way to avoid the loss of both his a-pawns now. 35...f5! Now that the white pieces have retreated, this move does not present any risk for the black king. In fact, the pressure against the f2-pawn forces White take a draw by perpetual. 36.Qxa6 Qxb3 37.Qxg6+ Kh8 38.Qh6+ Kg8 1/2-1/2. [Click to replay]