Kramnik vs Anand Las Palmas, 1996

Kramnik went into the head to head lead by beating Anand again in 1996. The game was played at Las Palmas and the opening was a Symmetrical English Double Fianchetto Hedgehog.

A fascinating game, but one riddled with major errors, where Kramnik applied tremendous pressure without his Queen.



Anand played aggressively right from the word go despite having the black pieces. From move 18, Kramnik embarked on a sequence where he eventually sacrificed his Queen. He was counting on his active pieces and the advancing d pawn.

Kramnik played the continuation accurately until Anand blundered with 26 ... Qc4. His previous move 25 .... Rd8 was already a mistake.

Kramnik exchanged to position where he had a Rook and Bishop for a Queen. Not enough, except that he had a pawn on the sixth rank.

Kramnik blundered on move 30 with Rd3 thus giving Anand a chance where he had to play the simple Kf8. But Anand probably wanted to do some damage to the pieces first or see if he could attack King and so he went 30 .... Qe4. It was all over and just a matter of time. The only challenge for Kramnik was to muster courage to get his King out even while approaching the 40th move. He eventually did move the King out of the safety net of the pawns. Anand resigned a few moves later when it is clear that the King can safely hide and the pawn can be Queened.