Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Kramnik’s Last Mistake

Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (born in 1975, July 25th) is a Russian chess GM. He was World Chess Champion in the period 2006-2007.

Kramnik defeated Garry Kasparov in the year 2000 becoming Classical World Chess Champion. By that time the world of chess was split in PCA (Professional Chess Association) and FIDE. Kasparov and Nigel Short promoted PCA complaining about corruption within FIDE.

PCA and FIDE both held their championship cycle. FIDE’s champion was Veselin Topalov while PCA’s champion was Kasparov.
After defeating Kasparov, Kramnik defeated Topalov in a match held in 2006, becoming the undisputed and unified World Chess Champion.

Kramnik lost the title against Viswanathan Anand in 2007.

Kramnik has been an active chess player until he publically announced his retirement as a professional chess player in January-2019. Probably he took that decision because of the bad result in the prestigious tournament Tata Steel that year.

In the last round of that tournament, facing American GM Shankland, Kramnik made an awkward mistake in the following position. This position appeared after Shankland played 49…b2

Kramnik dismissed an easy draw with 50.Bxa6. Instead, he played 50.Ba2 and found himself in a lost endgame soon after.

Poor Kramnik lost six games in Tata Steel —possibly a record for him.

The 2019 Nairobi Chess Club Open Championship has been announced for August 23-25.
For the first time, we are trying some crowdfunding to help pay for the venue, tables, prize fund, and so forth.
If you can help out, please do so “here”.