I was taking a look at the game between Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik in the 2013 Zurich Chess Challenge which can be found here: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1711735. A few things sparked my interest, one being that I have been practicing the Ruy Lopez, so it was nice to see it played and to put it nicely, Kramnik got spanked, so I was trying to do some analysis on my own, but I am not sure that my analysis is correct and there were some moves that were not immediately clear to me. Here is the complete game with my analysis questions below:
[FEN ""]
[White "Viswanathan Anand"]
[Black "Vladimir Kramnik"]
[Result "1-0"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. Bxc6 dxc6 6. Nbd2 O-O 7. O-O Re8
8. Nc4 Nd7 9. Kh1 a5 10. a4 b6 11. Be3 Bb4 12. Nfd2 b5 13. axb5 cxb5 14. c3 bxc4
15. cxb4 cxd3 16. bxa5 Ba6 17. Qb3 Nf6 18. h3 Nh5 19. Rfc1 Nf4 20. Rc6 Ne2 21. Qd5 Qb8
22. Rxa6 Rxa6 23. Qxd3 Qxb2 24. Rb1 Rd6 25. Qxe2 Qa2 26. Qb5 c6 27. Qb2
- Why was
5.Bxc6
played? Was the c6 Knight strong at this point and would this be an even trade? Basically, why did Anand trade his light-squared Bishop? - I always hear that you should capture toward the center, so was
there a reason why Kramnik played
5..dxc6
instead of5...bxc6
? I know5...dxc6
opens up the file for the black Queen, but that is all I see. - Is the point of
6. Nbd2
to develop a piece and to add another defender to the e4 square? - On move 9, Anand played
9. Kh1
, but I did not see his King in immediate danger. I only saw that his f2 pawn was pinned by the bishop, so is it common practice to move your King away from pins or similar situations even if they are not in immediate danger? - I don't see the point of
9...a5
. I see that it prevents10. b4
. Anand followed up with10. a4
and I see this prevents10...b5
, but couldn't have Kramnik just played9...b5
initially? - Apparently Anand sees his dark squared bishop not as strong and
wants to trade it with Kramnik's dark-squared bishop with the move
11. Be3
, but Kramnik wants no part of this and rejects the trade with11...Bb4
. Can someone elaborate on why Anand wants to trade bishops here and if it was good or bad for Kramnik to reject the trade? - I don't get the move
12. Nfd2
except that it adds a defender to c4 and e4? 22. Rxa6
surprised me as a beginner. To me it looks like Anand is just giving away his Rook for a Bishop? The only thing I see is that if Kramnik captures which I believe he did with22...Rxa6
, it removes the guard of the d3 pawn allowing Anand to make a skewer (is that what this is called?) with23. Qxd3
. Was my analysis correct?26. Qb5
threatens mate, but Kramnik stops this withc6
. Anand follows up with27. Qb2
and Kramnik resigned, but it is not immediately apparent to me why he resigned? It still looks like it could have been a draw if Kramnik decided to fight it out. What is the continuation that I am not seeing?
Disclaimer: I am a beginner and all answers on this are very much appreciated, so my analysis might not be correct, hence my reason for asking. In particular, my last question about why Kramnik resigned is one that may be apparent to some, but to beginner's it is not, so an answer such as "Black knew he was losing" is not sufficient. I only mention this because I have asked a similar question before and that is the response I got. All I am asking for on the last question is a possible continuation.