Kramnik-Van Wely

Submitted by FM zibbit on Mon, 06/30/2008 at 6:43am.

Kramnik decided to show Van Wely who is his daddy in the 2nd round of Dortmund ... reminding the Dutchman that his ambitions should remain as his second!

White: Vladimir Kramnik
Black: Loek Van Wely
Dortmund 2008 (2)

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.b3

rnbqkb1r/pp3ppp/2p1pn2/3p4/2PP4/1P2PN2/P4PPP/RNBQKB1R b KQkq - 0 1


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Kramnik chooses a quiet setup vs Van Wely's semi-Slav. In this context it interesting to look at his 1st round game vs Gustafsson where Kramnik after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 replied 2...g6!? (which I think he has very rarely done or not at all!) on they played 3.Nc3 d5 and Kramnik made an easy draw in the Grunfeld. I've heard people say that with this 1st round game and now this game with Van Wely...Kramnik is showing that he has no intentions of disclosing or showing Anand any of his preparation whatsoever in this tournament. For instance Van Wely is a specialist in the Anti-Moscow 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 dxc4 7.e4 g5 8.Bg3 b5

rnbqk2r/p4p2/2p1pn1p/1p4p1/2pPP3/2N2NB1/PP3PPP/R2QKB1R w KQkq - 0 1


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and Anand has played that very often with good results and used it as his main weapon en route to the WC title in San Luis. Kramnik has also entered the theorectical discussion in this line, playing with white against Anand in San Luis and also a recent famous game against Topalov with black where Topalov uncorcked a most surprising Nxf7 sacrifice. Anyway, with the e3/b3 setup Kramnik is avoiding any theoretical discussion in these lines and saving his shotgun for Anand!

5...Nbd7 6.Bb2 b6 7.Bd3 Bb7 8.0–0 Bd6 9.Nbd2 0–0
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Both sides are developing rather straightforward with automatic moves.

10.Ne5 Qe7 11.Qf3

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This was maybe the first move I stopped at. This Qf3-h3 and f4 plan is interesting and Kramnik's intentions are clear!

11...Rfd8 12.Qh3 h6 13.f4
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13...Bb4 14.Ndf3 Ne4 15.Nxd7 Rxd7 16.Ne5 Rc7 17.Bxe4 dxe4

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Somehow Kramnik hasn't done anything spectacular or special so I find it interesting how preferable the white position is. The Bb2 seems to have a lot more potential than the Bb7 who is battling his own pawn on the diagonal. The Ne5 stands very well and hard to kick it away or exchange it without concessions. Generally I would think all exchanges are good for white here. Blacksquared bishops straightup leave white with good N vs questionable B and exchaing B for Ne5 means white takes back fxe5 and has some potential of a buildup on the f-ile and the kingside. All these considerations are rather general but it's actually somebodies move and it's Kramnik's move and his next move is excellent!

18.c5! bxc5 19.a3 Ba5 20.dxc5 Qxc5 21.b4 Qb5

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After a series of forced moves and only a measly pawn sacrificed we see that white's pieces are all directed at the kingside while blacks are all stranded on the queenside unable to give protection to the king.

22.Qg3 Bb6 23.Nd7 g6

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This can't end well with the holes on the kingside!

24.Nf6+ Kf8 25.Be5 Rcc8 26.Qh4 h5 27.Nh7+ Ke8 28.Bd6 Rc7 29.Rfd1

Van Wely resigned 1-0

» posted in zibbit's Blog

| 1087 reads | 6 comments

Comments:

by BirdBrain - 16 months ago
KY United States

Member Since: Apr 2008
Member Points: 1806

He took the ideas from the Bird Stonewall systems and reserved them for later. For instance, c4 makes for an improved Stonewall (if Black allows White to keep the structure) and the early b3 gives White a chance to play on the diagonal.

Since Black allowed the structure, Kramnik simply played into it. Stonewall attacks can be nice if properly played. Of course, if Black alters the structure in the least, a player as well prepared as Kramnik has lines for those situations as well. Nice flexible ideas.

by FM zibbit - 17 months ago
Hafnarfjordur Iceland

Member Since: Jun 2008
Member Points: 102

10...Bxe5 likewise is probably just a bad move. After 11.dxe5 the knight has almost no squares and must retreat to e8, 11...Ne8 which is a very passive looking move and white can force some weaknesses on the kingside with say 12.Qh5 and he is also ready to open the position up with e4 for his newly earned bishop pair.

by GotGoose - 17 months ago
Indiana United States

Member Since: Aug 2007
Member Points: 330

err, I meant to say Bxe5... :) Sorry about that; I saw the fork.

by FM zibbit - 17 months ago
Hafnarfjordur Iceland

Member Since: Jun 2008
Member Points: 102

Seems to me that 10...Nxe5 just lose a piece to a fork after 11.dxe5.

by FM zibbit - 17 months ago
Hafnarfjordur Iceland

Member Since: Jun 2008
Member Points: 102

These copied from when I made this post in Icelandic and seemed good enough so I didn't have to bother with making diagrams which is hard from work ;-)
I'll study the built-in stuff for future posts. I realized these aren't ideal and I realize that it's more difficult if people just don't have a builtin feeling for which color the squares are...I didn't even notice the squares had no color till I read your comment!!

by GotGoose - 17 months ago
Indiana United States

Member Since: Aug 2007
Member Points: 330

Thanks for the analysis zibbit. Could you comment on why Van Wely did not play 10... Nxe5? Also, it looks like you aren't using the built-in chess.com diagrams (yours are hard to view). If you didn't know, you can click on the small chessboard in the post box to create diagrams.

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