Despite the extra queen, Howell was in trouble and when he missed a miracle defence Kramnik seized his chance
Kramnik-Howell, London Chess Classic 2011. Black to move.
This is the final position of the game we considered last week. Kramnik has just played his rook to c8 and Howell promptly resigned. Why?
RB Yes, why did Black resign? With two queens on the board you'd think he'd be fine. But what are his options here? I can see two. The first doesn't seem to help Black: 1…Rxc8 2 Qxc8+ Kh7 3 a8=Q when, with the threat of mate on h8, Black has to continue 3…Qxa8 and after the recapture White is a knight and a pawn up. The alternative is 1…Qxb8 2 axb8=Q Rxc8 3 Qxc8+ Kh7 4 Qf5+, when White is again a knight and pawn to the good. So two queens or not, Black is still going to lose.
DK This is all correct, but Howell, short of time and demoralised by Kramnik's powerful play, missed a miracle defence. 1...Qf1+ was the move, giving back the queen, but winning the rook on c8: 2 Kxf1 Qa6+ 3 Kg2, and now Black has a choice. 3...Qxc8 goes into an ending that should be winning for White: 4 Qxc8 Rxc8 5 Nd4 followed by Nb5, defending the a-pawn, then the king marches over. So 3...Rxc8 is best. To win, White needs to bring the knight into the game to either support the a-pawn or set up an attack on the king, so I would start with4 Nd4, then float into f5 and d6. All well and good, but Black will always have a chance to counter-attack the king once the knight goes wandering. I would still put money on a White victory, but it is by no means easy to force.
This isn't the first time that Kramnik has slipped up at the end of a game. At last year's London Chess Classic he failed to win with an extra piece against Magnus Carlsen; and in 2002 he resigned a drawn position against the computer Deep Fritz. This time he got away with it – and won the tournament.
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