LONDON, OCTOBER 11: Vladimir Kramnik of Russia posted a stunning 40-move win over defending champion Garry Kasparov in the second round of their 16-round World Chess Championship match here.Challenger Kramnik chose a sharp opening and won a pawn and Kasparov counter played well to keep trouble at bay.The chess wizard, however, fell behind on the clock, played a couple of panicky moves and suddenly collapsed as Kramnik enjoyed serving the first blow to the defending champion yesterday.Kramnik now leads the race 1.5-0.5 with next round scheduled for Thursday.Playing white, Kramnik opened with a pawn in `d' flank allowing Kasparov to choose his favourite Grunfeld Defence though this opening has never been successful in the World Championships. Kramnik immediately wrested the opportunity with a dominating pawn centre forcing black to strugle under flank pressure.Startled with his countryman's tactics, Kasparov offered a gambit, which no White player ever previously had courage to accept. Kramnik used his rook to kill Kasparov's pawn Rxb7 and Kasparov answered with an exchange Bxf3, using his bishop. This exchange gave Kasparov a good chance to defuse white's fury as the two Grandmasters got locked in a critical decision of whether to exchange queens or not.Kramnik had the luxury of owning a pair of bishop and started out another kill. Kasparov avoided the trap laid down by Kramnik playing a good move to exchange off white's active rook.Further frenzied Queen moves let Kasparov into belief that this liquidation should lead to an easy draw but he confessed to having overlooked Kramnik's next move, which retained his pawn advantage.Despite the presence of opposite-coloured bishops, Kasparov headed into an endgame certain to lose the `a' pawn and white was very active. Riding on the pawn advantage, Kramnik made Kasparov's life miserable and the defending champion's frantic efforts to get his bishop to e3, his rook on the fifth rank and his `h' pawn to h5 remained a dream.Had Kasparov achieved the position, he would have effectively denied white King's access to g4, but in the process black's pieces got entangled. Kasparov intended to force exchange of rooks, but Kramnik played 36.Bc6 to make his stay on the board further strong.On a rook advance by Kramnik on the 39th move, Kasparov answered with knight a final blunder by the champion which allowed white a sudden winning coup.Sensing victory, Kramnik moved his bishop Bd5 to `d' flank with black sitting hopelessly. Kasparov had no go and resigned on the 40th move.
