Kasparov and Kramnik played Ruy Lopez (Spanish Opening) Berlin defense in game 3 of Classical World Championship in chess held in London in 2000 year. It's one of few games when they used this opening. Kramnik used it to pull out draw by exchanging Queens in early stage of game preventing dangerous attacking play by Kasparov. Here is entire 53 move long game. Kasparov was white and Kramnik was black.
1.e4 e5, 2.Nf3 Nc6, 3.Bb5 Nf6, 4.O-O Nxe4, 5.d4 Nd6
As we already know this first 5 moves start "Berlin defense" variation of Ruy Lopez opening which some people call also "Spanish opening".
6.Bxc6 dxc6, 7.dxe5 Nf5, 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8, 9.Nc3 Bd7, 10.b3 h6
Players exchanged Queens, black had one more pawn on left side, but his Pawns are doubled on c line. White has one more pawn on right side. They aren't doubled, but Pawn is a little bit over advanced and hard to defend. Black has also Bishop pair, but has no right to do castle any more.
11.Bb2 Kc8, 12.Rad1 b6, 13.Ne2 c5, 14.c4 Bc6, 15.Nf4 Kb7
Kramnik's black King escaped to safety opening his a Rook and Kasparov moved Knight closer to castle. White's dark Bishop is on the longest diagonal. What I see here is opportunity for black to remove Knight on f3 and to destroy castle by doubling white Pawns on f. White blocked that with other Knight.
16.Nd5 Ne7, 17.Rfe1 Rg8, 18.Nf4 g5, 19.Nh5 Rg6, 20.Nf6 Bg7
Black tried to increase pressure on white Knight, while white moved Rooks to the center. Kramnik moved Rook to g8 threatening covered attack against white King. After a while white Knight ended on nice square f6.
21.Rd3 Bxf3, 22.Rxf3 Bxf6, 23.exf6 Nc6, 24.Rd3 Rf8, 25.Re4 Kc8
Black doubled attack on Knight, but that gave white little time to avoid doubling pawns by protecting other Knight with Rook. Now Kasparov has Bishop against Knight, but his right pawns are doubled just like Kramnik's on left side.
26.f4 gxf4, 27.Rxf4 Re8, 28.Bc3 Re2, 29.Rf2 Re4,30.Rh3 a5
Players moved Rooks to this positin and Kramnik desided to push a Pawn.
31.Rh5 a4, 32.bxa4 Rxc4, 33.Bd2 Rxa4, 34.Rxh6 Rg8, 35.Rh7 Rxa2
After few exchanges Kramnik had clear advantage on left, while Kasparov dominated right flank.
36.Rxf7 Ne5, 37.Rg7 Rf8, 38.h3 c4, 39.Re7 Nd3, 40.f7 Nxf2
Kramnik made some Knight attack but Kasparov pushed f pawn to 7th line very close to promotion. Kasparov of course did check here and got Kramnik's Rook, but was unable to promote his f Pawn.
41.Re8+ Kd7, 42.Rxf8 Ke7, 43.Rc8 Kxf7, 44.Rxc7+ Ke6, 45.Be3 Nd1
46.Bxb6 c3, 47.h4 Ra6, 48.Bd4 Ra4, 49.Bxc3 Nxc3, 50.Rxc3 Rxh4
Kasparov had extra Pawn here, Kramnik tried to promote his c Pawn. Soon they made exchange after which white had one Pawn more.
51.Rf3 Rh5, 52.Kf2 Rg5, 53.Rf8 Ke5
After few more moves it was clear that white can't promote his Pawn and that this game is going to be draw. Players agreed draw at this point. I guess problem was fact that white King is not in front of Pawn and far away from 6th line which would probably guarantee promotion. With King so low on table after any Rook exchange game would end up in steal mate at the end.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed reading this. If you want to see entire game move by move you can do it here.
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