28 Oct 2008

BONN game X


The battle for the =e5= square.

Weird, unhinged game.

Both players on the wing, Kramnik on the queenside and Anand on the kingside.

Unfathomable moves, but particularly from Anand. He seemed to hand out gifts on various moves. Admittedly the first one had all the hallmarks of a Trojan Horse, but the others were rather transparent attempts to prolong the match by at least one game.





The engines looked askance at Anand's move 21....e5, but at 20 ply Junior 11 accepted it as a reasonable alternative to the top favourite.

Rybka stuck with 21...h6






“I didn’t do anything special,” admitted Kramnik, “but the position became winning. It was a surprise.”

Exactly.

26 Oct 2008

BONN game IX






Yes, Kramnik DID miss something:

35....Bc7! and he'd be in clover. 36.Qg2 Rxb3 37.Bc2 Rb6 38.Rd7 Rd8 39.Rfd1 Rbb8

There are several possible sequences from 35....Bc7 (rather than the text Qc7), but they all produce a reasonable foot-in-the-door for Black.

Click on pic to enlarge.

How come I see those things unaided and the pro doesn't? It's a puzzle. I know they are both very tired with overworked brains, but this miss was unprovoked by time pressure.

25 Oct 2008

BONN game VIII



Can't be bothered to put up the game itself, as yet again I fell asleep halfway through and by then it was obvious that no more than half a point was going in Kramnik's direction.

However, on Move 11 I was expecting 11.Nb3 after the rap on the knuckles from Anand. (One can hardly call it a novelty).

So I took a closer look at this Knight move, the more so as somebody told me that this actually came up in the press conference after the game. Kramnik said he had looked at it, but it needed more time. Ahem. More time? He's had 18 months.

Actually, it is not a brilliant improvement on the text, unless Black feels compelled to answer wih 11...Qb6, opening the -c-file, rather than the more productive 11....Qb7.

To see the analysis, take a look here on a separate page. I did it in the form of a .jpg file rather than the usual format.

Let me know if you like it.

24 Oct 2008

More than meets the eye


Clearly, there was more to the draw in game 7 than ordinary mortals could perceive.

I stand corrected in my denunciation of that game as dreary. A lot happened whilst I was having my boredom nap.

Slav again, as in the fated games 3 and 5 with reverse colours. But Kramnik doesn't go for Anand's successful Move4....e6. Why not I wonder. In my database it is top choice with almost 5000 games. Does Kramnik think that Anands home prep has exhausted that defence? In which case Kramnik himself ought to have done better in game 5, after a rest day.

Move 15....Bg6 as played by him in Elista one move earlier.
Move 20.Ba3, rather than 20.Bd2, would indicate Anand was satisfied with a draw and had no winning intention.
Move 21....Qxe3, after which Kramnik offered a draw. Refused.
Moves 34, 33, 24 and 25 all King moves, either played or considered, on =f7= and =g6= very influential to the outcome.

Move 34...Nc5+ instead of 34...Kg6 else white's DSB could weave its way to =e3= and hold Black's b-pawn and -g5 pawn to ransom.




23 Oct 2008

BONN game VII


To be frank, I've totally lost interest in this match.
In fact, I fell asleep halfway through today's game.

The only thing that I was interested in was the differences in analysis between my junior programme and chessok's Rybka 8pcu.

A mild curiosity as to an alternative move 24....b6 was about all that I can remember from the game.

Besides I suddenly seem to have trouble uploading my playing boards.
It is fiendishly difficult to incorporate them into blogger, and I forget how I did it from one day to the next.

Anyways, tomorrow is another day. And another game...





19 Oct 2008

BONN game IV

It was a moderately interesting game.

In tennis the motto is: If your opponents breaks you, turn round and get a point yourself immediately.

In chess it seems to be: If you lose as White, take a breather with a draw.
Hmmmm.

QGD, 5.Bf4 system, as played my many top level players today. Replacing 5.Bg5.

One theme running through the middle game was the placement of Black's Knight: =e6= or =e4=, a dilemma coming up at various stages of the game.

Move 11....Bf5 was a bit of a stirrer. Played before of course, but still a bit of a surprise to Anand it seemed, as it set him thinking.

Move
13.Bxf6 had a few alternatives. One was 13.0-0 which looked reasonable too, but no promise of an advantage.

I had high hopes of 14.Qxd5 rather than the text 14.Nd4, but again, this line seems to fizzle out as well.

14....Ne6 was considered somewhat rash on Kramnik's part. I saw little wrong with it. 14...Ne4 would have helped White as would 14...Be4

If, as Anand suggested after the game, Kramnik had played 18...d4, rather than the text 18....Nc5, we could have had a bit of fun.

A real hornet's nest would have been opened up. Pity we won't ever get to see that.

As it was, game IV trundled into a draw without much excitement but sufficient interest to keep us admiring their OTB skill and home preparation.





18 Oct 2008

BONN game III


Anand strikes the first blow.

It needn't have been a loss for Kramnik if he had put his Queen elsewhere.

Move 25.Qe2 was the losing move for White.

There were moments of great subtlety in this game. Far beyond my comprehension, although I was puzzled at the right time. First of all Anand's move 8....a6. Not that it was a novelty, but it was a psychological dart. Apparently. So Kasparov said.

Then there was a similarity to two games from 1946. The move order between move 12 and 15 was different and Anand may have been trying to trip Kramnik up, seeing that they were obviously both aware of the existence of these games, played over 60 years ago.
The outcome was that Black had to wait with Rg8.

I hope somebody somewhere will explain it to me.

Kramnik was using more time than Anand. He seemed to be trying to stir things up. This became clear at move 18 when he initiated an unexpected exchange on the =f4= square.
Actually, for a change I had seen this coming. It was something i would have played, even though the engines (including the powerful 8 proc Rybka ChessOK ) hadn't offered this in their top choices.
I was proud of myself, even though nobody took much notice.

Coming out of that scuffle, White had a choice of 19.Nxd4 and 19.Rxd4, and he opted for the former. Kramnik had by now used up one whole hour more than Anand. 44mins vs 1hr 44 mins.







Several forced sequences after move 25.Qb3 in my alternate versions. All leading to a firm draw by move 40.