Kramnik-Leko 2004 Match Game 12

Match Game 12 – 10/14/2004
Kramnik (2760) - Leko (2743)
Caro-Kann Defense [B19]

Here's the game with some slight commentary by IM Wegerle. Unattributed comments are my own. Additional analysis was added on 12/13/2004 after reading Peter Leko's analysis in New In Chess 2004/8.

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. h4 h6 7. Nf3 Nd7 8. h5 Bh7 9. Bd3 Bxd3 10. Qxd3 e6 [10. ... Qc7] 11. Bf4 [11. Bd2] Qa5+ [11. ... Ngf6] 12. Bd2 Qc7 [This position is usually reached a move earlier because the intermediate Bf4 and ...Qa5+ are not played.] 13. O-O-O Ngf6 14. Ne4 O-O-O 15. g3 Nxe4 16. Qxe4 Bd6 [16. ... Nf6, Tal-Hübner, Montreal, 1979] 17. Kb1 [17. c4, Matanovic-Marovic, 1967] Rhe8 [17. ... Nf6, Agopov-Grischuk, ECC 2004] 18. Qh7 [TN; 18. Qe2, Belov-Burmakin, St Petersburg 2003] Rg8 19. c4 c5 20. d5! [The logical follow-up to the previous moves. - Leko] Nf6 [20. ... exd5 – Wegerle] 21. Qc2 exd5 22. cxd5 Qd7 [22. ... Be7 – Fritz] 23. Bc3! Rde8! [White has a slight edge in this position.] 24. Bxf6 gxf6 25. Qd3 [25. Nd2 Rg5 – Wegerle; a strange-looking but very interesting move, since 25. Nh4 Rg5! - Leko] f5 26. Nd2 b5! [Leko prevents Nc4 but weakens his pawn struture on the queenside. – Wegerle; A very committal move which I would have liked to avoid, but Black can't live without this move. - Leko] 27. Rhe1 Kb8! 28. Qc3 Rxe1! 29. Rxe1 c4! [White has missed the best continutation somwhere; this position is now perfectly OK for black.] 30. Nf3! [The correct approach. - Leko] f4! 31. g4!? [In retrospect, this move might be a little more than the postion can stand, 31. gxf4? Qf5+! – Wegerle; Wegerle suggested 31. Ne5 but Leko pointed out that after 31. ... Qf5 32. Ka1 Bxe5 33. Rxe5 Qd3 Black has nothing to worry about.] Bc7! [This move was probably missed by Kramnik, who had most probably expected 31. ... Qg4? - Leko] 32. Qd4 Qxg4 33. Qe4?! [Kramnik goes for all or nothing – Wegerle; 33. Qc5!?; 33. d6!; A mistake, but to me it looked more or less logical and still in the spirit of initiative at any price. - Leko] Qxh5 34. Nd4 Qg6! [Here Leko offered a draw, which Kramnik accepted after 4 minutes thought (at the time of the offer offer both players had 7 minutes on their clocks.)] 1/2-1/2

Leko leads 6.5-5.5 with two games to go; the next game is Saturday 10/16/2004 at 3:00 pm Brissago time (9:00 am Eastern Time). Kramnik can only allow half a point in the next two games, so I think Saturday's game will be exciting. Today's game was not bad at all; I just think they agreed to a draw too quickly.