Match Kramnik - Martinez ('Clash of Blames')

Very attracting event (and controversial too) which I was particularly interested this August was match between Vladimir Kramnik and Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantra, known as 'Clash of Blames', organized by World Chess.

Two Grandmasters played 36 games (18 online, 18 OTB) with a tempo 3+2, and as already much have been written about clash(es) of these two, I was mainly interested in what was going on over the board.

Games download at Chess.com at this link.

Course of the match 

We have seen good start of Martinez, initially took the lead by 7:5 but  Kramnik started to play well, overtook the leading role and had +4 lead (18:14) close to the end. Then Martinez scored 3/3 and came just to -1 (18:17). In dramatic last game, Martinez missed chance to go for a win in rook endgame and lost. Final score was 19:17 for Vladimir Kramnik.

 

 

Image source: https://en.chessbase.com/post/clash-of-claims-2024-d1

 

Theoretical side of the match 

Amazing to see, all 36 games were played with first move 1.e4. All his games with black pieces, Kramnik started with Sicilian while on the other side, Martinez mostly responded with 1...e5 and just in two games he tried Sicilian (he lost both games).

Blitz chess 'issues'

As it may be seen from multiple games played in this match, the standard chess (where players have reasonable time for their moves) and rapid (blitz) chess are not same category at all. And what we have witnessed that even top world players are not immune on 'cheap' mistakes. It is clear that when time on clock is exhausted that game result is strongly dependent on just a glance, inspiration, but certainly not on knowledge, experience etc. So it is not even surprise that low rated players in standard chess show stunning performances when playing fast chess games against much stronger pool of players and vice versa.

The following highlights some most exciting and dramatic moments during the match:

 

Game 1: Kramnik - Martinez, 1-0

Kramnik scored first at the start of the match;

30. g6! Rxg6 31. Rdxf7   black resigned, 1-0.  Rook on f8 was hanging and black could not go with  32...Rxf7 33. Bxf7+  and black is loosing Rg6. Or, 32... Rg8 33. Rd7+  and black is again loosing a rook due to check by the Bb3.

Game 2; Martinez - Kramnik, 1-0

Next position clearly describes differences between standard chess and blitz;

Under normal circumstances black should resign due to 60. Rh7 and black is loosing one pawn (60... Rb6? 61. Nc4+!  or  60...Rh4 61. Rxh6 Rxh6 62. Ng4+), but with just about 10 seconds on the clock, such simple winning move can be dropped even by strongest GM. White played 60. Ra5+ and game continued for about 20 moves ahead.

Game 5; Kramnik - Martinez, 0-1

At the following position, white decided to go for a checkmate threat on h7;

27. Be5  (With immediate checkmate threat by Qh7#) 27...dxe5! (Black correctly takes the bishop! The fact is that white first has to eliminate another knight, at h5, and only then taking knight on f6 would become real threat, but now there is no more time for such plan.) 28. dxe5 Qc5! (In case of some neutral move white would have time for g2-g4 thus making threat against Nh5, which defends Nf6. But now, black has strong threat Qxf2+.) 30. Rf1 Qxd5 30. Qf5? (Perhaps white should consider 30.exf6 Qxd3 31. Bxd3 Nxf6. In resulting endgame white would be clear pawn down but with chances to save half point.) 30... g4! 31. Bb3 Qe4   After position settled down, black was ahead for a complete piece. 0-1.

Game 6; Martinez - Kramnik, 0-1

In the following position, by means of piece sacrifice, black demonstrated power of free central pawns supported by own pieces.

18...Bxd5! 19. exd5 Nxd5 20. Ra3 (Capturing one more pawn, c3, would be completely devastating for white; advancing of black central pawn would be unstoppable.) 20... f5! 21. Nf1 (Otherwise f5-f4 might follow, black could return back one piece with a advantage of one pawn.)  21... e4 22. Nd4 Ne5 23. Nd2? (White correctly moved knight at move 21 in order to make retreat path for the Be3, now he returns back the same knight to the d2?!) 23...Nd3 (23...f4 was good too) 24. Bxd3 cxd3 25. Nf1 Qf7 26. Bd2 f4

White ended up in bad position, from which he managed to found way out but with certain positional drawbacks which resulted with lost endgame. 0-1.

Game 8; Martinez - Kramnik, 0-1

35. Bd3? Qxe3+ 36. Qxe3 fxe3 37. Be4 Bb4. White pair of bishops wasn't enough to support the white e6 pawn. Black won the game after few more moves.  However, white could go with 35. Qxf4 keeping up the balance, despite exchange down, two most dangerous (at first glance) moves for black don't work;
34...Qc4?   White would win by 35. Qf7+ Kh6 36. Bg7+ Kg5 38. Qf6#
34...Rf8?! 35. Qe4!   Black can't make progress (by Bf2+ or Rf2) due to weak 7th rank when white by Qb7+ can start strong attack against black kin as shown in previous line.
 

Game 9 Kramnik - Martinez, 0-1

One position of this game clearly shows which kind of game blitz is;

35. f4?   

Needless. With 12 seconds on clock, ex. world champion drops clear piece (Be3) in just one move. White in next moves managed to use a-file and 8th rank to make some threats with his rook, but once black had managed to defend his weak points, he was left with pure piece up in the endgame. 0-1.

Game 12; Martinez - Kramnik, 1-0

After 34. Qxf7, there was one more thrilling position which often happens in blitz games. Kramnik was complete queen up but in at the end he lost the game!

Black decided to keep the queen on board by 34...Qa7 move. It followed: 35. Qxg6 Kg8 36. Ng4 Kf8 37. Re6 and white managed to create strong counter attack.

If black decided to play 'natural' move 34...Nd5 (Centralization of knight and defense of weak point g6) white could not have any means to endanger black king. He would have choice, for example, to capture excess black queen by 35. Rxa1 but after 35...Rxa1 black would threat to bring another rook on 1st rank (Rc3-c1) followed by capturing Bf1. White could direct knight from e5 to d2 (Ne5-f3-d2) but in resulting position white would have extra rook and there would be no any compensation in view of counter play for white.

Position after 37. Re6; black takes on d4, but with wrong queen; 37...Qaxd4?! 38. Nxf6  and white directed the game towards full point for him. If black played 37...Qdxd4, he would still be able to play for a win; white would have to find continuation (if any) of his attack and defense of Qxf2 threat, in one single move. But, just defensive move Re1-e2 would give black just enough time to complete consolidation of his king by Qa7-f7, thus keeping up decisive advantage.

It is worth to mention that Kramnik, from his 34th move, played with less than 20 seconds on clock, and when he couldn't manage keep up this position, it should not be weird seeing similar (or worse) mistakes which often occur in games of low rated players during blitzing.

Game 17; Kramnik - Martinez, 0-1

Shock for Kramnik, again with just few seconds on clock;

 

 

First what goes on one's mind when playing endgame against rook+knight is to stay away from any of corners with the king, but to proceed into the open space. Due to some reason Kramnik set his king on h-file. In position on diagram it was followed: 53. Kh4?? 54. Nf3+  and white resigned. There was no defense from Rxh2#. 0-1.

Game 24; Martinez - Kramnik, 1-0

One more endgame and one more shock for Kramnik;

69...Qb6+?? 

Black was forcing queen exchange. One of unwritten laws for endgames says that the one should never accept entering into pawn endgames unless all consequences have been 100% clear. With queens on board, black would easily lead this game towards draw.

Position after 74. Kxh5.  1-0.

If 74...Kf6 75.g4 and white would win; 75...Kg7 76.Kg5  or  75...Kf7 76.Kh6 etc. 1-0. 

Game 25; Kramnik - Martinez, 1-0

Despite material balance in this position, black resigned because there was no suitable defense from advancing g pawn towards the g6 square! 

Game 27, Kramnik - Martinez, 1-0

In this position we can also see classic problem of blitz where noticing of 'cheap' tactical motives is of primary importance. Black lost the game with extra piece.

Just a glance on game notation says that black used 2 seconds for next move, totally he had 12 seconds on his clock.

52...Nf4+?  (Just simple 52...Rd8 would be enough to support the structure and to keep advantage) 53. Rxf7+!! (Classic when we are talking about knight endgames. Black at move no. 52 didn't spot geometry over d6 square.) 53...Kxf7 54. Nd6+  black resigned due to incoming loss of  rook on c8. 1-0. 

 

 

I must say that resignation of black here was in manner of gentleman. Some club blitz experts would not agree with such approach considering that black still has enough resources (knight) in order to make problems to the white in the continuation of this endgame.

Game 29, Kramnik - Martinez, 1-0

We have seen classic bishop sacrifice on h7;

 

21. Bxh7+! Kh8 22. Bg5 g6  (Of course, black couldn't take rook on a1 due to Qd1-h5) 23. Re7! (Threat Nxf7) 23...Bg7 24. Rxf7 Qe8 25. Bxg6  black resigned. 1-0.

Game 36, Martinez - Kramnik, 0-1

It seemed that Martinez was coming back from -4 at the last phase of the match and that we'll see final score as equal, but again there was 'time factor' and 36th game entered into shocking end where white lost what should be impossible to loose;

Above is position after 42. move.  White was 2 pawn up and he should be playing for a win here...

 

...but the black managed to transfer his rooks into the background of his opponent (Position after 48...Rc3+) by which he managed to create some threats against white king side pawns, hence white couldn't dare to go with his king towards the middle of board (d4, f4), he decided to remain on 2nd rank instead.

 

White played 52. Rb7? and missed last chance to go with his king towards g2, g3 (in case of Rxf2+) and f4 further on where for some time he would be safe from black rooks. Martinez decided to stay on 1st rank, perhaps he considered that black still could not go for a perpetual check because white king may go to the e1 (as it was followed in the game); e2 was defended by Re4.

53. Ke1??  Again, it tells us that even strongest Grandmasters are not immune to basic mistakes. White had just 5 seconds on his clock and if he would go 53. Kg1, black could just go for a draw by perpetual check on 2nd rank. 53...Rh2    There was no defense from Rh1#. White resigned. 0-1.

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Final score: Kramnik - Martinez 19:17