Vladimir Kramnik vs Alexey Shirov (1997)

Vladimir Kramnik vs Alexey Shirov
Tilburg Fontys 1997 · King's Indian Defense: Orthodox Variation. Bayonet Attack Sokolov's Line (E97) · 1-0

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Sep-27-05		Per: Kramnik at his finest, finding resources and ideas nobody else would. I miss him...

Dec-01-07		plang: 10 Re1 was suggested by Bronstein in 1975 but it did not become popular until I. Sokolov started playing it in 1995. One of the ideas is that instead of prohibiting the knight to come to f4 with 10 g3 the knight is invited there and then exchanged. Fedorowicz had played 18..a5 against Browne a month prior to this game (drawn). Kramnik called 22 Qd4 the most difficult move in the game. He felt it was the only way to prevent the black pieces from breaking out with ..Qb6, ..Rf6 and ..Raf8. A pretty variation is 22..Nf5 23 Qe5..Nxe3? 24 e7..Rxf1+ 25 Rxf1..Qb6 26 Rf8+..Rxf8 27 Qh8+!..Kxh8 28 exf(Q)#. Kramnik and Shirov both felt that 23..Qf4? was a mistake and that black would have had reasonable drawing chances after 23..Qxc5. Kramniks quote was "his liking for sharp play deprived him of his objectivity. 25 Rf7 was a pawn sacrifice to open the e file for an attack though it couldn't have been easy to give up his strong e pawn. Kramnik felt that 28..Qxb4 was the decisive mistake; recommending 28..Rf8 though white would still have been clearly better. 31..d4 lost almost by force but, at this point, Kramnik had no suggestions to improve blacks play.

Feb-19-08		newzild: planq: Thanks for your lucid notes. I play the KID myself, and was playing through this game for openings ideas, so your comments are helpful.

Sep-13-08		notyetagm: <Per: Kramnik at his finest, finding resources and ideas nobody else would. I miss him...> Kramnik really does play some strong chess with the White pieces.

Sep-13-08		notyetagm: <plang: ... Kramnik called 22 Qd4 the most difficult move in the game. He felt it was the only way to prevent the black pieces from breaking out with ..Qb6, ..Rf6 and ..Raf8. A pretty variation is 22..Nf5 23 Qe5..Nxe3? 24 e7..Rxf1+ 25 Rxf1..Qb6 26 Rf8+..Rxf8 27 Qh8+!..Kxh8 28 exf(Q)#.> 22 d2-d4! (McDonald) click for larger view (VAR) 22 ... e7-f5 <knight fork> click for larger view (VAR) 23 d4-e5 f5xe3? click for larger view (VAR) 24 e6-e7 f8xf1+ click for larger view (VAR) 25 e1xf1 d8-b6 click for larger view (VAR) 26 f1-f8+ a8xf8 click for larger view (VAR) 27 e5-h8+! click for larger view (VAR) 27 ... g8xh8 28 e7xf8=#! click for larger view An incredible variation by Kramnik, in which he utilizes his dangerous <PASSED PAWN> White e6-pawn to the absolute maximum.

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