Painless execution- Matlakov Maxim - Vladimir Kramnik, Qatar Masters,2015

One of the finest games played in the modern times and surely would find a place right at the top in this edition of Qatar Masters!

After going through the game once, you might be tempted to ask..."what is so great about it!?"....and probably even be deluded to think that this is a pompous exposition....

.....and to that inveterate questioner I only hope that he allows him sufficient time to see through the game again and again....dispassionately....and more importantly.....without that 'devil called engine'.

For under its apparent simplicity, the game hides a silent dynamism ....a poetic concept....and hence I am tempted to find a parallel to it in that great game played by Capablanca against Lasker in their world championship match, almost a century back; which I shall deal in a separate post. Again please don't expect a similar ending...in fact it is a Rook and Knight ending, but in spirit, both these games are 'similar' - a carefully chosen word to avoid further ambiguity!

Matlakov Maxim - Vladimir Kramnik, Qatar Masters, 2015

Let us pick up the game from this position where both sides pieces are on the threshold of crossing the 'equator' and entering the opponent's 'zone of important squares'!

9.dc5?!

Not sure if this is an attempt to get Kramnik out of his notes!  The normal move here is cd5....towards center as they call it....and both sides exchange couple of pieces and then start conceiving a further course of action. At least cd5 should have preceded this capture.

As we will see, in an analogous position, Lasker manoeuvred his pieces and Capablanca initiated the central resolution with ....cd4 followed by .....dc4.

Center resolution is the heartthrob of a chess game, like singing a note to perfection in music, not only it is very important and a difficult aspect, but even the greatest masters cannot say with authority that they have mastered this art!

Don't get me wrong if I say that most of the outcome is decided in this phase, for it is with relevance to this central resolution, and the type of pawn formation that one gets subsequently, the trading of forces are conceived subsequently.....and a concrete plan emerge!

Chess game is a dialogue between the player and his pieces....and the pieces know better where they should be posted and heading towards...and therefore a player has to engage himself with a subtle and silent dialogue with his pieces, instead of struggling with his mind and indulging in irrelevant calculations, which only end up shunning his instincts and creating more doubts.

To attain this and fine tune this art, one needs to keep studying the classics again and again and again and again.....no shortcut methods are available!

Becoming a Grandmaster is not the end, but beginning of Chess Mastery - Alekhine when he was interviewed after his rematch with Euwe was asked about what he needs to do further to which he replied, that learning is a never ending process and his life time would not suffice to learn something about chess

9.....dc4! 10.Bc4 Nc5; 11.OO a6!

Generally, moves such as ....a6; ....h6; ....a3;.....h3 and in similar way pushing the b-pawn to one square needs to be done with great deal of comprehension.....note the term comprehension and not calculation....

....for these pushes not only create weakness around them, but also deprive the movement of pieces horizontally! 

But, the move played by Kramnik is of waiting in nature and he must have gauged the consequences, as you can see, as the game unfolds.

12.Nd4

Probably it makes more sense not to leave the Bishop loose on c4 and immediately put it on e2.

12....Nfe4; 13.Be7

Now or a move later, it was necessary to exchange the Knights on e4.

13.....Qe7; 14.Qc2 Nc3; 15.Qc3 Na4!?

In an equal position, Kramnik pushes his Knight to the corner to create some pseudo threats!  But that is how a chess game ought to be played....there has to be some quirkiness in the plan and play so as to confuse your opponent and make him imagine improbable threats....which the player never would have intended! 

16.Qc2 Bd7; 17.b3?!

A move which weakens the dark squares and its consequences were far reaching!  Moreover, by this move, White only manages to drive this Knight to a better square on the board 'd5'!

17.....Nb6; 18.Be2 Rac8; 19.Qe4

Better probably is to have this Queen placed on b2 for the moment so as to bring the other Rook into play and wait to see what Black intends.  For, with this and his next move, White is not achieving a great improvement or even creating a threat; but rather he only ends up giving Black more ideas!

19.....Nd5; 20.Bd3 f5; 21.Qe5 Nc3!? 

Very cunning move!  It is superficially declaring that "I do not have a more reasonable option"! But nevertheless, the move is a natural follow up for his previous move 20.....f5; which he chose to play instead of the very normal and perhaps better option 20.....g6.  

Then why did Kramnik chose this continuation?  Here lies the crux of pushing chess beyond the realms of ordinary....where players even of considerable strength would chose to play 'moves' and not the 'mind'. Probably....probably, White would have have also continued to played normally.... appropriate moves if Black had played .....g6 and it was precisely this which Kramnik detested and did 'something else' which contested the sense of stability and sureness in the mind of his opponent!  

Understanding in Chess transcends the boundaries of normalcy and even correctness, beyond a certain level of mastery and it is difficult for the master to explain himself on "why" he did such and such thing and "why not...". Beyond a point, explanation of understanding or even expressing what one understood becomes impossible as it is more about "higher level of experience"....at some point experience becomes metaphysical. 

22.Nc6?

The first serious wrong step.  

Kramnik's cunning .....Nc3 had the very strong 22.....Rc5! in the air.  And this ruled out two natural response of White for the 'threatened a2 pawn' viz., 22.Rc2 and 22.a4.

But there is another way to circumvent the threat of ......Rc5.   White could have played 22.Qa5! after which Black will almost be forced to trade the Queens with 22......Qd8 and the game will take a different contour!

Could White have thought he was better after that ....Nc3 and thought this as an interesting rejoinder? 

22.....Rc6; 23.Rc3 Rc3; 24.Qc3 Rc8; 25.Qd2 Rc8! 26.Qe2?!

The second wrong step!  White is perhaps oblivious to the dark squares on his Queenside, else he would have put his Queen on b2....at least now if not an earlier 25.Qb2 and then brought his Rook to the centre along with the useful h3 and waited.

26.....Bc6! 27.a4?

This is outrageous.  One of the aspects of higher level of understanding in chess manifests in the frugality of pawn moves....great masters are very conservative in their pawn pushes.  

And, don't we learn that the pawns do not move back and yet how many occasions we find ourselves overstretch it or make a very inappropriate push weakening square around it and inhibiting movement of our own pieces!

Yes, as Philidor said "pawns are souls of chess" and therefore they are very delicate as you can create life giving and enriching possibilities with it as well as "kill" a position at one stroke!

27.....Qg5; 28.f3 Rd6; 29.Rd1 Kf7!

Black ensures that his King becomes mobile and active than his counterpart, as the game is getting transformed into an ending.

30.Bc2 Rd1; 31.Rd1 f4!!

May not be a spectacular move, your chess engine may not even consider this.....yet, this is a fantastic human move!!  The effects of it is not apparent immediately, in fact as per 'science' it may even appear bad as it self creates three pawn islands.....as you can apparently see in the position.....

Then, what is so great about it!?

32.ef4 Qf4; 33.Qd3 Qe5; 34.h3 Ke7

As you can see now, the centralise Black Queen is commanding all the dark squares.  His Bishop has a nice niche on d5 from where it will attack the b3 pawn.

Black King is nicely posted on his-file and is ready to travel to the Queenside through the "dark-road" laid for him by White!

Your computer engine might say this is equal, but the human mind which is sitting on the other side of the board will slowly start feeling the heat.  For, he cannot take his King for a walk like Black towards the center as his King side dark squares are also weak and are under the rowing eyes of Black Queen! 

Most importantly, a human mind - unless steeped in such classical expositions - will only see the darker side and cannot recoup to look beyond for active preventive measures to stall further damage.

What now follows is a manoeuvring phase, for the next 20 odd moves, where Black slowly but surely increases his hold over the position to reach a Queen and pawn ending.

35.Bc2 Qc5; 36.Kh1 a5! 37.Qd2 Qe5; 38.Bd3 Qa1; 39.Kh2 Qd4; 40.Qc2 Qd6; 41.Bc4 Be8; 42.Kh1 h5! 43.Qc1 Bd7; 44.Qa3 Kc7; 45.Qc1 Kd6; 46.Qa3 Kc7; 47.Qc1 Kb6; 48.Qc2 h4! 49.Bd3 Bc6; 50.Be4 Bd5! 51.Kh2 Qe3; 52.Bd5 Qe5; 53.Kh1 ed5!

Neither the players, nor the commentators could give much as a way of explanation for the preceding 18 moves! Not that they are simple, complex, uneventful or anything like that.....but they were only transitions and preparations to the position given above.

Shall we take a stock of the position now!?

• Black has managed to create a well protected passed pawn in the center, which is only a move away from becoming truly lethal!
• Fixed White's pawns on both sides especially the majority on the Kingside - where his numerical superiority is hemmed by ....h4!
• White Queen has no targets to attack in the Black's camp as he has all of them defended nicely 
• Black's King is very active and close to his passed pawn as well as to attack the White's weak queenside pawns. Whilst his own King is tucked in a remote corner

These points weigh heavily in the human mind than for a computer engine which will calculate brutally and arrive at a conclusion and whisper that..."the position is still equal".....

But.....for human player, the position is already untenable!  

Yet, it is not easy for Black either....as White's Queen is active and the d-pawn is still one move away from becoming ominous!

54.Qc8 Qe1; 55.Kh2 Qe5; 56.Kh1 Qd6; 57.Qe8 Kc5!?!

An audacious King walk; which draws its incorrigible optimism from the strength of the d-passer.....the price which he gives for it....the a-pawn is worth a try.  

For, you will not get anything by holding on to everything!

58.Qb5 Kd4! 59.Qa5 Kd3! 60.Qb5 Kc3; 61.Qa5 Kc2

How majestic is this Black King and compare this with White's!?

62.Qe1

Of course, 62.b4? makes a freeway for the Black's d-pawn to d1=Q!

62....d4; 63.Qe2 Kb3; 64.Qd1 Kb4; 65.Qb1 Ka4; 66.Qb7?

The final blunder.  

In Queen endings, first one needs to see if checking the opponent king perpetually is possible and only after discovering that it can hide effectively from the checks, such grabbings or other moves to be tried.

It is a common knowledge that perpetual check is the only drawing mechanism in the absence of active options, but how many time we see that 'common knowledge' is the most uncommon in this world!  

On most occasions we find that a game is lost by one move but that one move arrive too late!

66.....d3; 67.Qb2 d2; 68.Qa2 Kb5; 69.Qb2 Qb4; 70.Qc2 Qd4; 71.Qb3 Kc5; 72.Qc2 Kb4; 73.Qd1 Qb2 Resigned


This game is worth deep study along with the game which I would be dealing in my next post; for under the simple facade, they contain great concept and dynamism which had butterfly effect on the outcome!

As the Social Scientist Michael Polanyi said, "....repeated frustrations in solving a harassing problem can destroy the problem solver's emotional balance" and precisely this is what happened in this game.  White was posed with simple, very normal questions which appeared to him as harassing and as a result, he slowly and imperceptibly drifted.....until that.....

.....final blunder.....on which normally everybody fix the blame and close the file; like they do in most of the murder cases where they could not track, trace the real culprit! 


.....to be continued