Game 12
Game 12
In game 12 Leko, who had the black pieces, changed his defense and played the Caro Kann. Kramnik came up with an interesting 18.Qh7 and managed to create a lot of pressure. Leko decided to let White exchange on f6 and get double pawns. The black position looked almost lost, but the challenger defended vigorously, using all chances to create counterplay. Kramnik tried to activate his knight and to bring it to c6. Meanwhile Leko collected two pawns on the kingside. Suddenly the position didn’t look so good for White anymore. Leko suggested an exchange of the queens and offered a draw at the same time.
Game 13
Game 13
The most exciting and nerve-tingling game ended after six hours and 65 moves. Vladimir Kramnik took a lot of risks, playing a very complicated opening. He surprised Peter Leko with his plan f7-f5, and reached a promising position. Leko managed to simplify the position and went into a rook endgame. But he was also in time trouble and missed some important moves. Soon his position was considered completely lost by all expert, but under enormous pressure, Leko played his best chess and found a miracle defence to save the game.
Game 14
Game 14
In a Caro-Kann defense, Kramnik chose a sharp variation and got an advantage out of the opening. Leko defended well and was able to neutralize some threats and to reach the endgame, which looked only slightly better for the World Champion. But here Kramnik started to play really impressive chess. With a positional pawn sacrifice he managed to break into the black position. Suddenly his pieces became coordinated ideally. When he pushed his f-pawn, Black’s defense started to collapse. Facing inevitable checkmate in two moves, Leko resigned the game.
With a final result of 7 to 7 points Kramnik as titleholder remains the World Champion. “I had to give everything, especially at the end, to win against such an opponent. Peter Leko is an incredible defender. For me it was more difficult than my match against Kasparov in the year 2000”, said Kramnik after the game. His 25 year old challenger from Hungary said: “It was a very hard fight. In the end it was not enough for me to win the title. I’m disappointed, but I’m looking forward to the future. I’m 25 years old, and I hope to get a new chance to become world champion.”
He of course was disappointed to come so close to winning the match. He pointed out he lost the first and last games of the match. The first game he probably tried to play to the crowd too much and he drew the lesson that you should play for yourself and the match strategy and the final game was very difficult psychologically with Kramnik having to hope for a win he had a clearer objective than Leko. He nevertheless believe he had given his maximum throughout the match.
Leko said that Kramnik was incredibly well prepared in the opening throughout the match. He thanked his seconds who he said worked “day and night”. Nevertheless he thought that no-one even comes close to Kramnik in terms of preparation, its like a factory and so strong. It was impossible to get out of his preparation. He said he wasn’t ready to play the Sveshnikov against Kramnik as he was likely to run into at least a months preparation. He however claimed that Kramnik was the only player in the World against whom he would have opening problems. Their strategy was not to fight him in the openings. He was determined to make himself mentally and physically fit.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Total | |
| Kramnik, V | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 7 |
| Leko, P | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 7 |