Kramnik wins first game with Black and takes the lead

Brissago, September 26, 2004. On Saturday Vladimir Kramnik won the first game of the Classical World Chess Championship at CENTRO DANNEMANN (Brissago/Switzerland). The titleholder from Russia defeated his challenger Peter Leko (Hungary) after 65 moves. The first move of the World Chess Championship was made by guest of honor and former Champion Anatoly Karpov (Russia).

Kramnik played Russian defence. His move Sa5 is a new idea, which leads to an interesting situation: White becomes a queen for a rook, a bishop and a pawn. The position seems to be in a balance, but black gets a dangerous passed pawn. Leko also tries to play for a win but loses some time. Still, after the exchange sacrifise on c3, the position looks like a draw. The endgame Queen versus two rooks is rather rare. At first Leko defends well, but later he misses the trick h7-h6 (Queen f4 ? is decisive mistake, otherwise the position should be drawn) and now Kramnik sees his chance. He plays presisly and wins a first game with black pieces.