Chess

Vladimir Kramnik gave an almost perfect display of the art of winning a tournament when he took first place at Dortmund earlier this week. He drew all his games with Black and conceded only one draw with White. He has an impressively versatile style. As White, he normally opens 1.Nf3, most often transposing into aggressive main lines of queen's pawn games, but he is equally at home in the delicate positional manoeuvring of the English or Reti Openings that his first move sometimes leads to. As Black he may play either hair-raisingly complex tactical lines or solid positional games; in both cases his blend of combinational genius and subtle judgement enable him to steer safe paths along the most severe precipices.

Today's game is the one that got away in Dortmund - Kramnik's sole draw with White - but even here we see some typically imaginative play.

White looked better from the opening, particularly when Black seemed to lose a move with 15...Rf6 and 16...Rf7, but Topalov knew what he was doing. The pawn sacrifice with 17.c5 and 18.Bc3 would have been far stronger if Black had left his rook on f6. As the game went, White had problems defending both e4 and a5 after 23...Rxg7.

Kramnik solved them with a well-calculated piece sacrifice. After 28.Re1, Black cannot play Rxa1 because of Qxd8+, or Qxd1 because of Rxa8+, while any move of his attacked knight is met by e7. So the combination beginning with 24.Nxc5! was simply a neat way to force a drawn endgame.

White: Vladimir Kramnik

Black: Veselin Topalov

1 Nf3 Nf6 19 Bxe4 Nf5

2 c4 g6 20 Nc4 Nd6

3 Nc3 Bg7 21 Nxe5 Nxe5

4 e4 d6 22 Bxe5+ Bg7

5 d4 0-0 23 Bxg7+ Rxg7

6 Be2 e5 24 Nxc5 b6

7 0-0 Nc6 25 Ne6 Bxe6

8 d5 Ne7 26 dxe6 Nxe4

9 b4 a5 27 axb6 cxb6

10 Ba3 axb4 28 Re1 Nc3

11 bxb4 Nd7 29 e7 Nxd1

12 a4 Bh6 30 Bxd8 Rxd8

13 a5 f5 31 Rexd1 Rxd1+

14 Nd2 Kh8 32 Rxd1 Rb7

15 Bd3 Rf6 33 Kf1 b5

16 Na4 Rf7 34 Rb1 Kg7

17 c5 dxc5 35 Ke2 Kf6

18 Bc3 fxe4 36 Kd3 draw