Chess: The lessons of Botvinnik

Kramnik-Howell, London 2011. White to play. The former world champion Vladimir Kramnik powered into the lead at the London Chess Classic with two late victories. How did he gain a big advantage in this game? RB White's position looks solid, but with his last move, Howell threatens the a-pawn. Defending it with 1 b3 looks horrible – Black will sooner or later make the push …c5-c4 and White will have to be careful if he's to keep his queenside together. But do I have to defend the a-pawn? Whenever one of your rooks is standing on the same file as the enemy queen, even a semi-open file, you should always look for tactics – and here I think I've found something nice. The c5-pawn is defended by the bishop on e7, but we can get rid of that at a stroke with 1 Bg5. I think this could be a good move. Black has to take – 1…Bxg5, and now 2 Rxc5. What would Black do now? Possibly 2…Bf6, possibly 2…Be7, possibly 2…Bh6. But it doesn't matter where he puts the bishop. White is suddenly very active. DK Kramnik was one of the last pupils of the famed school of Mikhail Botvinnik , the patriarch of Soviet chess, and the orthodox, classical style that he learned there is evident in this position. His pieces are beautifully centralised, he has just broken up Black's queenside pawns, and now with remorseless logic he sets about destroying the weak pawn on c5. Ronan's 1 Bg5 was indeed played, deflecting Black's bishop. After 1...Bxg5 2 Rxc5 is the crucial move. For a moment White is a piece down, but Black has a bishop and knight en prise, and don't forget the bishop on c6 caught in a nasty pin. If 2...Nb7 3 Rxc6, threatening the queen and then the a-pawn drops; and 2...Qc7 3 Nxg5 is also poor. Howell managed to save one of the pieces with 2...Bf6, but after 3 Rxa5 he was just a pawn down and Kramnik converted efficiently. [email protected]