Kramnik misses second chance

By Our Chess Correspondent

CHENNAI, OCT. 19. Challenger and World No. 2 Vladimir Kramnik missed his second successive chance with white to stretch his lead in game six by making a draw with title holder Garry Kasparov in a fully fought exhaustive encounter at London on Tuesday.

The extended defensive resources of Kasparov which were seen in game four repeated itself after Kramnik relaxed in a superior position to surrender a draw in 66 moves. Kramnik leads this $2 million Braingames World chess championship match by 3.5- 2.5 with ten games still to go. Wednesday is a free day. Games are played on Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays and Tuesdays.

Missed chances are becoming a way of life for Kramnik in the match while resourceful draws are becoming familiar for Kasparov. Kasparov, the 37-year-old champion who is possibly out- prepared by 25-year-old Muscovite Kramnik, is relying on middlegame opportunities to pull off Houdini acts at the tape.

Kramnik's positiveness in play and surprises in the opening and strength in opening theory has indirectly tied Kasparov from revealing his main strength which is opening preparation.

The middle game that emerged from the queen's gambit accepted in game six was a gritty battle with white aiming to attack black's king side and black denying white several chances which include the queen and bishop battery on the b1-h7 diagonal. Attacking Kasparov through the wing pawn, Kramnik even weakned his own attack with a pawn thrust on move 17. A queen move 17.Qf3 would have built up perfect pressure on his opponent.

Later in the game, Kramnik manoeuvred his knights in the heart of black's position. Kasparov was unusually fully defensive and could never throw a punch. Watching out for possible sacrifices, Kasparov lost control of the queen bishop file earlier and later the only open queen file. At the end of the first time control Kramnik had the option to take a draw by repetition of moves at move 41.

He punched in a powerful queen move and by move 51 he was already in a winning position. The white queen, rook and bad bishop were all more powerful than their counterparts. After Kasparov accepted white's king rook pawn, Kramnik boxed the black king but could not checkmate.

He used this advantageous position to gather material on the queen side and overlooked that Kasparov could produce a perpetual check combining his queen and knight. It was Kasparov's only chance to troop in his queen for counterplay and he got what he wanted. Kramnik himself checked the black king with his queen and offered the draw which Kasparov accepted after more than six hours of play.

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