Test Position: Karjakin-Kramnik (analysis)

[zullil]

Karjakin won a spectacular game that started with a knight offer on g5. Kramnik did not take but the question remained whether he could. He could but it would have been extremely delicate. Here is one line that would go bad on him, though engines take a long time just seeing some of the continuations, so it may not be findable in a reasonable time.

[D]r3r1k1/pp1qbpp1/2pp2b1/4n1P1/2P3P1/4BP2/PPPQB3/1K1R3R w - - 0 18

The engines I used choose 18.Rdg1 but this leads to nothing. 18.Bd4! is the move.

Stockfish-1.9.1 (8 threads) opts for Bd4, but with a score of 0 at depth 34:

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info depth 34 score cp 0 time 3022607 nodes 26956990086 nps 8918456 pv e3d4 f7f6 g5f6 e7f6 g4g5 f6d8 f3f4 g6f5 d4e5 d6e5 d2d7 f5d7 d1d7 e5f4 e2g4 d8g5 d7b7 e8e3 g4d7 f4f3 d7c6 a8d8 b7b3 f3f2 b3e3 g5e3 c6d5 g8f8 c2c3 d8d6 h1f1 d6g6 d5f3 g6d6 f3d5 

[Albert Silver]

Karjakin won a spectacular game that started with a knight offer on g5. Kramnik did not take but the question remained whether he could. He could but it would have been extremely delicate. Here is one line that would go bad on him, though engines take a long time just seeing some of the continuations, so it may not be findable in a reasonable time.

[D]r3r1k1/pp1qbpp1/2pp2b1/4n1P1/2P3P1/4BP2/PPPQB3/1K1R3R w - - 0 18

The engines I used choose 18.Rdg1 but this leads to nothing. 18.Bd4! is the move.

Stockfish-1.9.1 (8 threads) opts for Bd4, but with a score of 0 at depth 34:

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info depth 34 score cp 0 time 3022607 nodes 26956990086 nps 8918456 pv e3d4 f7f6 g5f6 e7f6 g4g5 f6d8 f3f4 g6f5 d4e5 d6e5 d2d7 f5d7 d1d7 e5f4 e2g4 d8g5 d7b7 e8e3 g4d7 f4f3 d7c6 a8d8 b7b3 f3f2 b3e3 g5e3 c6d5 g8f8 c2c3 d8d6 h1f1 d6g6 d5f3 g6d6 f3d5 

Understandable. The line that leads to a significant edge is outside its horizon still. After Bf5, the correct continuation is fxe5 dxe5 Bd3.

[zullil]

Understandable. The line that leads to a significant edge is outside its horizon still. After Bf5, the correct continuation is fxe5 dxe5 Bd3.

Now SF sees a small advantage:

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36     +0.69 2:19:30   76411M Bd4 f6 gxf6 Bxf6 g5 Bd8 f4 Bf5 fxe5 dxe5 Bd3 exd4 
                              Qh2 Bxg5 Bxf5 Qxf5 Rdf1 Qxf1+ Rxf1 Re6 a4 Bf6 Ka2 
                              Rae8 Qc7 R6e7 Qg3 Kf7 Qb3 Rh8 c5+ Ke8 a5 Be5 

[Robert Flesher]

I think f4 ?! is also a very interesting move (risky), however, it may transpose into the main line. Although I do not believe it will. After sonme analysis I think black survives f4. Bd4! very nice!