LaviChess

Kramnik vs. Lékó, Game 14

Before the last game, Péter Lékó leads 7–6. A draw is enough to make him world champion. Vladimir Kramnik has to win, and he does it by marching his king all the way into Black's position.

  • WhiteVladimir Kramnik
  • BlackPéter Lékó
  • WhereBrissago, Switzerland
  • WhenOctober 18, 2004
  • Event2004 Classical World Championship match, game 14
  • Result1–0, White won
  • OpeningCaro-Kann Defense, Advance Variation (B12)
  • Length41 moves

In 2004 there were two world champions. FIDE had its own, and Vladimir Kramnik held the classical title, which he had taken from Garry Kasparov in 2000. That fall he defended it against the Hungarian Péter Lékó in Brissago, Switzerland, in a fourteen-game match.

Kramnik won the first game, but Lékó won the fifth and the eighth and took the lead. Before the last game, on October 18, Lékó led 7–6. Kramnik needed to win to level the match at 7–7 and keep his title. For Lékó, a draw was enough.

Kramnik had the white pieces. He chose a rare line and played a novelty as early as move 6.

The players

Vladimir Kramnik (born 1975) went to Mikhail Botvinnik's chess school as a boy. In 2000 he took the title from Garry Kasparov without losing a single game. He played solidly and was very hard to beat.

Péter Lékó (born 1979) from Hungary became the world's youngest grandmaster up to then in 1994, at 14. He had qualified for the match by winning the Candidates Tournament in Dortmund in 2002. After the match, Kramnik praised his astonishing defensive skill.

Read more about Vladimir Kramnik among the great chess players.

The game move by move

Step through with the arrows or tap a move. Moves with a dot have a comment.

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Vladimir Kramnik has the white pieces, Péter Lékó the black.

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Guess the moves Kramnik played, one at a time. The move from the game earns two points, and a move Lavi thinks is about as good earns one. The other side's moves and the game's notes come as you go.

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The moments that decided it

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After 25.b6: “I was happy when I played b6,” said Kramnik.
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After 39.Kf6: the white king has walked from e1 to f6.
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After 41.Nf7+: mate in two more moves cannot be stopped, and Lékó resigns.

The end

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The final position after 41.Nf7+. Black resigned after 41.Nf7+.

Why the game is famous

With the win Kramnik leveled the match at 7–7 and kept his title. Lékó said afterwards that the last game had been very hard psychologically, because Kramnik had a clearer goal: he had to win. Two years later Kramnik won a match against FIDE's world champion Veselin Topalov, and since then there has once again been a single world champion.

The game is also an instructive endgame. The queens came off as early as move 16, and Kramnik won on small advantages: a fixed queenside, a rook on the seventh rank and a king that dared to walk forward. At the closing ceremony he said that Lékó was at that moment a more difficult opponent than Kasparov, and that he had needed some luck to level the match.

The whole game with notes, as text

1. e4 c6 The Caro-Kann Defense. Lékó said afterwards that the choice was risky, but that he only had a limited number of defenses to choose from. 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. h4 A rare line, in which White pushes his kingside pawns at once. 4… h6 5. g4 Bd7 6. Nd2 A novelty that Kramnik had prepared at home. 6… c5 7. dxc5 e6 8. Nb3 Bxc5 9. Nxc5 Qa5+ 10. c3 Qxc5 11. Nf3 Ne7 12. Bd3 Nbc6 13. Be3 Qa5 14. Qd2 Ng6 15. Bd4 Lékó had not taken the move seriously, and it came as a nasty shock to him. Kramnik offers an endgame in which Black is left with a bad bishop, and Lékó goes along with it. 15… Nxd4 16. cxd4 Qxd2+ 17. Kxd2 The queens are gone. White's advantage is small, and with the right defense Black should hold, but the endgame is not easy for Lékó. 17… Nf4 18. Rac1 h5 Lékó said afterwards that he stood by the move: he wanted to defend actively, as he had done all match. 19. Rhg1 Bc6 20. gxh5 Nxh5 21. b4 a6 22. a4 Kd8 23. Ng5 Be8 24. b5 White advances on the queenside. 24… Nf4 With what we know today, 24…axb5 was Black's best chance, even though White would have been clearly better then too. Now the white pawn gets through to b6. 25. b6 “I was happy when I played b6,” said Kramnik afterwards. The pawn on b6 fixes Black's queenside pawns in place. 25… Nxd3 26. Kxd3 Now Black is in serious trouble. 26… Rc8 27. Rxc8+ Kxc8 28. Rc1+ Bc6 29. Nxf7 The knight takes the pawn on f7. Soon White breaks through to the seventh rank. 29… Rxh4 30. Nd6+ Kd8 31. Rg1 Rh3+ 32. Ke2 Ra3 33. Rxg7 The rook is on the seventh rank, and the black king is shut in on the back rank. 33… Rxa4 34. f4 The pawn is heading for f5, and the white king follows behind. 34… Ra2+ 35. Kf3 Ra3+ 36. Kg4 The king marches forward, in an endgame with rooks still on the board. 36… Rd3 37. f5 Rxd4+ 38. Kg5 exf5 39. Kf6 The king has walked all the way from e1 to f6, right into Black's position. 39… Rg4 40. Rc7 Rh4 Now it is mate in three. Grandmaster Peter Svidler whispered it, with a sigh of relief, to a reporter who was following the game. 41. Nf7+ Lékó resigned, because mate cannot be stopped, for example 41…Ke8 42.Rc8+ Kd7 43.Rd8#.

PGN – the game as text for other chess programs
[Event "2004 Classical World Championship match, game 14"]
[Site "Brissago, Switzerland"]
[Date "2004.10.18"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Vladimir Kramnik"]
[Black "Péter Lékó"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B12"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. h4 h6 5. g4 Bd7 6. Nd2 c5 7. dxc5 e6 8. Nb3 Bxc5 9. Nxc5 Qa5+ 10. c3 Qxc5 11. Nf3 Ne7 12. Bd3 Nbc6 13. Be3 Qa5 14. Qd2 Ng6 15. Bd4 Nxd4 16. cxd4 Qxd2+ 17. Kxd2 Nf4 18. Rac1 h5 19. Rhg1 Bc6 20. gxh5 Nxh5 21. b4 a6 22. a4 Kd8 23. Ng5 Be8 24. b5 Nf4 25. b6 Nxd3 26. Kxd3 Rc8 27. Rxc8+ Kxc8 28. Rc1+ Bc6 29. Nxf7 Rxh4 30. Nd6+ Kd8 31. Rg1 Rh3+ 32. Ke2 Ra3 33. Rxg7 Rxa4 34. f4 Ra2+ 35. Kf3 Ra3+ 36. Kg4 Rd3 37. f5 Rxd4+ 38. Kg5 exf5 39. Kf6 Rg4 40. Rc7 Rh4 41. Nf7+ 1-0

Download .pgn

Sources

  • The Week in Chess: Kramnik vs Leko, Round 14 Report (Mark Crowther, archived)
  • PGN Mentor, Kramnik.pgn
  • Wikipedia: Classical World Chess Championship 2004
  • Wikipedia: Peter Leko

The moves compared in two sources (The Week in Chess, PGN Mentor): identical, 81 half-moves. Lékó resigned after 41.Nf7+. The date from both. The match score before the game is counted from PGN Mentor's file of all the match games. Every move has also been replayed by computer and checked against the rules of chess.

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Updated November 14, 2026