Hooray for the underdog

From the final round of the World Teams Championship comes the following game. On paper Vladimir Kramnik should have had no trouble beating Egyptian IM Mohamed Ezat, but as the game was not played on paper, it turned out quite different. Ezat, who is well known to Canberra players after playing in the 2000 Australian Open, even tried a speculative queen sacrifice out of the opening. It was a sacrifice in the true sense of the word, as he never recovered the queen, although he eventually ended up with enough material to more than make up for it. After a very long battle the game ended in a draw, which turned out to be significant for tournament standings, as it gave Russia the half point needed to secure outright first place (they beat Egypt 2.5-1.5).
Russia finished with 15 match points, one ahead of China, with Ukraine in third place.


Kramnik,Vladimir (2793) - Ezat,Mohamed (2454) [A14]
World Teams Antalya TUR (9.1), 05.12.2013

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. g3 d5 3. Bg2 e6 4. O-O Be7 5. c4 O-O 6. b3 c5 7. Bb2 Nc6 8. e3 b6 9. Nc3 Bb7 10. cxd5 Nxd5 11. Nxd5 Qxd5 12. d4 Rad8 13. Ne5 Qxg2+ 14. Kxg2 Nxe5+ 15. f3 cxd4 16. exd4 Nc6 17. Rc1 Rd7 18. a3 Rfd8 19. Qe2 Bf6 20. b4 e5 21. d5 Rxd5 22. Rfd1 Nd4 23. Bxd4 exd4 24. Rc7 Bc8 25. Rxa7 d3 26. Qe4 Be6 27. a4 d2 28. Qe2 Rd4 29. Qe3 h6 30. a5 bxa5 31. bxa5 Rd3 32. Qe2 Bb3 33. Ra8 Bxd1 34. Qxd3 Rxa8 35. Qxd2 Rd8 36. Qe3 Ba4 37. a6 Bc6 38. a7 Ba8 39. Qf4 Bg5 40. Qb8 g6 41. Qe5 Rf8 42. h4 Bd8 43. h5 gxh5 44. Qxh5 Bg5 45. Kh3 Kg7 46. f4 Bf6 47. Qg4+ Kh8 48. Qf5 Kg7 49. g4 Rd8 50. Kg3 Re8 51. Qc5 Rd8 52. Qb5 Rc8 53. g5 hxg5 54. fxg5 Ba1 55. g6 Bf6 56. gxf7 Rc3+ 57. Kg4 Kxf7 58. Qd7+ Kf8 59. Kh5 Rc6 60. Qd2 Ke7 61. Qb4+ Kd7 62. Qb5 Be7 63. Qd5+ Bd6 64. Qg8 Rc8 65. Qf7+ Kc6 66. Qc4+ Kb7 67. Qb5+ Kc7 68. Qa5+ Kc6 69. Qa6+ Kd7 70. Kg5 Bc6 71. Qb6 Rf8 72. Kg6 Ra8 73. Kf6 Rf8+ 74. Kg7 Rc8 75. Kf6 Re8 76. Kf7 Bd5+ 77. Kg6 Re6+ 78. Kf5 Re5+ 79. Kf6 Re6+ 80. Kf5 Be4+ 81. Kg4 Rg6+ 82. Kh5 Rg8 83. Qb5+ Ke6 84. Qe2 Kf5 85. Qf2+ Ke6 86. Qe3 Kf5 87. Qh3+ Kf6 88. Qh4+ Kf5 89. Qh3+ Kf6 90. Qh4+ Ke5 1/2-1/2