Game 1 Sunday 10th October 2000. Kasparov-Kramnik Opening Ruy Lopez Berlin Defence.

Kasparov,G - Kramnik,V [C67 Berlin Ruy Lopez] (1), 2000

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 (Kramnik has in recent years favoured 2. ..Nf6, the Petroff Defence) 3.Bb5 (In turn Kasparov decides to play the Ruy Lopez. Kasparov has generally played 3. d4, the Scotch in this position in recent years) Nf6 (Kramnik plays the rare Berlin Variation. The last time this was played in a World title match was by Korchnoi in 1981 against Karpov. Karpov won very easily.) 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.Nc3 Bd7 10.b3 h6 11.Bb2 Kc8 12.h3 (They have been following the recent game Shirov-Krasenkow which went 12.Rad1 a5 13.h3 b6 14.a4 Bb4 15.Ne2 Re8 16.Nf4 g6 17.g4 Ng7 18.Rd3 Ne6 19.Nxe6 Bxe6 20.Nd4 Bd7 21.Ne2 Bd6 22.f4 f5 23.exd6 Rxe2 24.dxc7 Kxc7 25.Be5+ Kc8 26.Rfd1 Be6 27.Rd6 1-0) b6 (12...Ne7 13.Rad1 Ng6 14.Ne2 a5 15.a4 b6 16.Rd2 Bb4 17.c3 Be7 18.Rfd1 Rd8 19.c4 c5 20.e6 Bxe6 21.Rxd8+ Bxd8 22.Bxg7 h5 23.Bh6 Kb7 24.Ng5 Bxg5 25.Bxg5 Rg8 26.h4 Bg4 27.Rd2 Ne5 28.Ng3 Re8 29.Bf6 Nd7 30.Bb2 1-0 van den Doel,E-Narciso,M/ESP 2000/9 chess-international.de (40)) 13.Rad1 Ne7 (13...Be7 14.Ne2 Rd8 15.Nf4 g5 16.Nh5 c5 17.g4 Bc6 18.Rxd8+ Kxd8 19.gxf5 Bxf3 20.Ng7 Bf8 21.e6 Bxg7 22.Bxg7 Ke7 23.exf7 Kxf7 24.Be5 Be4 25.f6 Re8 26.Bxc7 Bxc2 27.f4 Bd3 28.Rd1 Bf5 29.fxg5 hxg5 30.Rd5 Kxf6 0-1 Ostos,J-Beliavsky,A/Caracas tt fin-A 1976 (39)) 14. Ne2 (Kramnik was now over an hour ahead on the clock.) Ng6 15. Ne1 (Kramnik sank into his first deep thought. Possibly the first move outside his preparation?) h5 (Kramnik had still only used 28 minutes) 16. Nd3 (Time left Kasparov 39: Kramnik 1hr 24 however Kasparov was definitely better placed here) c5 17.c4 a5 18. a4 (Kasparov 37 mins Kramnik 59 mins) h4 19.Nc3 Kasparov perhaps envisaged 19.Nef4 when he played 15. Ne1 but its really not as powerful as at first sight. 19. ...Nxf4 20. Nf4 Bf5 is enough for equalisation. 19 ..Be6! This is probably the point where black equalises. 20.Nd5 Kb7 21.Ne3 Rh5 (Kasparov hasn't made progress in the last few moves) 22. Bc3 Re8 23.Rd2 (Kasparov 12 mins Kramnik 38) Kc8 24. f4 Ne7 25.Nf2 Nf5 draw agreed (Kasparov 11 mins Kramnik 29)

My thanks to Geoffrey D Borg for some of the game references.

At the end of the game Kramnik said he had "defended precisely" and he was happy with his position at the end. He decided not to try and expliot his time advantage as he regarded Kasparov's position as not being especially hard to play. Both players seemed happy enough to draw in what was a tense first game.

Note

The start of game 1 was delayed by nearly half an hour. Half an hour before the 3pm start time the organisers were still laying carpet in the playing hall so the delay may have been due to that.

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