Surya Shekhar Ganguly in conversation with Vladimir Kramnik

by ChessBase
10/2/2020 – In the latest episode of ‘In conversation with...’, Surya Shekhar Ganguly talked for an hour and a half with former world champion Vladimir Kramnik. The Russian star, who retired from classical chess almost two years ago, discusses some of his games, refers to the young Indian players he recently trained and shares a bit of the wealth of knowledge he gathered during his career. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

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Artist, teacher

Vladimir KramnikFittingly, Vladimir Kramnik starts the conversation talking about his approach to chess, heavily influenced by the fact that he had an artist and a music teacher as parents. The Russian goes even further and says:

I think most top players are artists in their own way, because I think you cannot really get into the very top just being a kind of point-making machine or money-cashing machine. 

The conversation then goes into the subject of competitiveness, with Kramnik noting that he is not a particularly competitive person, as winning “is not a dominant motivation”. He acknowledges that most sportsmen do not share this perspective, and reminisces on the period in which he tried to be more competitive:

I even tried it myself, as an experiment, to be, you know, very result-oriented, even angry, very aggressive — but it never worked. I just understood it’s not [my style]. Usually when I play I’m just fully concentrated on the game, on the board. I never have anything against my opponent at all, not a single negative feeling. [...] Like Robert James Fischer’s famous sentence — I don’t know if it was very sincere or more for the public — that his biggest pleasure was to see his opponent’s ego getting demolished. For me that’s totally alien.

Kramnik is known for having changed styles frequently during his career, experimenting with different openings and approaches despite having to face the strongest players in the world. The former world champion explained with a smile:

Something switched in my mind. I mean, somebody, not really me, kind of switched the settings in my brain. [...] It’s not really that I planned it, or it was connected with a certain clear goal. I was lucky that this switch that happened at the end of the 1990s happened just before my match with Kasparov — that was luck, because it was exactly what I needed to play against Kasparov, it was excellent timing.

 
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12...Re8 13.h4 Ncb4 14.h5 b6 15.Ne5 Bb7 16.a5 b5 17.h6 g6 18.Ne4 Nc7 19.Nc5 Bd5 20.Ra3 Nc6 21.Bxd5 Qxd5 22.Ncd7 Rad8 23.Nxc6 Rxd7 24.Nxe7+ Rexe7 25.Rc3 f6 26.Be3 Kf7 27.Rdc1 Qb7 28.Rc5 Nd5 29.Qf3 Nb4 30.Qe2 Rc7 31.Bf4 Rxc5 32.dxc5 e5 33.Qd2 Nc6 34.Qd5+ Kf8 35.Be3 Qd7 36.Qf3 Kf7 37.Rd1 e4 38.Qe2 Qf5 39.Rd6 Re6 40.Rd7+ Re7 41.Rd6 Re6 42.Qd1 g5 43.Qh5+ Ke7 44.Qd1 Kf7 45.Rd7+ Kg6 46.Rg7+ Kxh6 47.Qd7 Re5 48.Qf7 Rd5 49.Kh1 Nd8 50.Rxh7+ Qxh7 51.Qxd5 Kg6+ 52.Kg1 Qc7 53.Qg8+ Kf5 54.Qd5+ Kg6 55.Qxe4+ Kg7 56.Qa8 Qd7 57.Kh2 Qd3 58.g3 Nf7 59.Qb7 Kg6 60.Qxa6 Ne5 61.Qa8 Ng4+ 62.Kh3 Qf5 63.Qg8+ Kh6 64.Qh8+ Kg6 65.Qe8+ Kh6 66.Qh8+
½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Kramnik,V2770Kasparov,G2849½–½2000D27World-ch Kramnik-Kasparov +2-0=136

Undoubtedly, Kramnik’s most successful tournament was the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund, an event he remarkably won ten times. Ganguly brought up the position he had against Nigel Short in 1995, the first time he won the event. Kramnik commented:

Somehow everything was going so smoothly in this event. Everything that I wanted was working. You know, these happy events in which, whatever you do, it works. And also Nigel Short was an extremely strong player at the time, and I beat him very easily and quickly, and it was quite surprising for me. 

 
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11...Nd7 12.h4 Qe7 13.a3 Bg7 14.Ba2 b6 15.Bb1 h5 16.0-0 Bb7 17.Ng5 Rfd8 18.Ba2 Nf6 19.e4 Ng4 20.e5 Rd7 21.Ne2 Rad8 22.Bxe6 fxe6 23.Qxg6 Nxe5 24.Qh7+ Kf8 25.Nf4
1–0
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Kramnik,V2730Short,N26451–01995D53Dortmund SuperGM 23rd5

After going over another game from Dortmund, but from 2011, against Giri, Ganguly reminds Kramnik of a game he played against Ivan Sokolov in Wijk aan Zee 2005. The position was memorable for the host, because he was both at the venue and during the analysis session, when Kramnik declared that he had seen the eventual mating net that appeared on the board after 28.a4 in the following position:

 
Kramnik vs. Sokolov - Corus, 2005
Position after 27...Rc3

White went on to use the open g-file to create a deadly attack against Black’s king. This sequence reminded Kramnik of a similar idea he used in a rapid game against Levon Aronian from 2015.

 
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27...Rc3 28.a4 Rxb3 29.axb5 axb5 30.Kh2 Kg7 31.Rg1+ Kh6 32.Rg4 Nc6 33.Rag1 Kh5 34.Rg7 h6 35.Ne4 Rxf3 36.R1g4
1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Kramnik,V2754Sokolov,I26851–02005C99Corus4
Kramnik,V2783Aronian,L27771–02015D38Zuerich Chess Challenge Rapid 4th3

A discussion about endgames then began, with Kramnik explaining:

I liked endgames from the beginning. That was one of the reasons Botvinnik liked me a lot, because even at the age of 12 I always used the chance to go to an endgame. He was extremely happy when during one of the sessions I was showing some game — at that time I knew absolutely no theory since I never had a trainer — so I was always playing 1.e4 c5 2.f4 [...] and at some point I decided that after 2...d5 I can play 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.Bxd7 Qxd7 5.d3 and 5...dxe4 6.dxe4 Qxd1 7.Kxd1. I showed the game where I won this endgame, and Botvinnik was so happy.

At the Qatar Masters 2014, ‘Big Vlad’ demonstrated how strong he had become in handling endgames since his childhood, in this case in a rook and knight endgame against Salem Saleh.

 
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30.Ra8 Kf6 31.Ra7 Kg6 32.Na2 Nd8 33.Ke1 Kh5 34.Nc1 Kh4 35.Nb3 Kh3 36.Nd4 f4 37.Ra8 Kxh2 38.Nf5 Rf6 39.e4 Nc6 40.Rxa6 Rg6 41.Kf1 Ne5 42.Ra5 Nxf3 43.Rxb5 g4 44.Rd5 h5 45.Ng3 h4 46.Ne2 g3 47.fxg3 fxg3 48.b5 Rf6 49.Rf5 Rxf5 50.exf5 g2+ 51.Kf2 Nd4 52.Ng1 Nxb5 53.a4 Nc3 54.Nf3+ Kh1 55.a5 h3
0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Salem,A2586Kramnik,V27600–12014D63Qatar Masters op8

Of course, the former world champion also excelled in calculation and, to prove that he was still going strong even in the last years of his career, Ganguly set up the board with a position Kramnik had against Magnus Carlsen at the 2017 Norway Chess Tournament, when the Russian went for an astounding attack that started with a bishop sacrifice on h6.

Kramnik noted that this was the last decisive classical game against Carlsen, and said:

It was a memorable game. Actually it was the last decisive classical chess game between me and Magnus and it ended in my victory — it might not mean much, but still it’s nice (smiles).

It was a remarkably precise tactical sequence.

 
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22...Qc7 23.Bxh6 cxb4 24.Bxg7 Qxc2 25.Qxf6 Qxf2+ 26.Kh2 Bd8 27.Qxd6 Nh4 28.Nxh4 Bxh4 29.Nh5 Bxh3 30.Rg1 Bg5 31.Bf6 Bg4 32.Bxg5 Bxh5 33.Qh6 Rxe4 34.Qxh5 Qf5 35.Qh6 b3 36.Bf6 Qf4+ 37.Qxf4 Rxf4 38.d6 Rxf6 39.Rd1 Rh6+ 40.Kg1
1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Kramnik,V2808Carlsen,M28321–02017C54Norway Chess 5th7

The amiable conversation continued, with Ganguly and Kramnik going over other greatest hits of the Russian’s career — and a couple of missed opportunities. Of course, they also remembered how ‘Big Vlad’ had wished for both Russia and India to win this year’s Online Olympiad, and how his wish had been granted!


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