He scored 7/9 (+5 -0 =4) for a performance rating of 2923. Very well done, but who could have predicted that?

http://chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211/...us-040813.aspx

Strange decision by Kramnik to play a quick draw in last round vs Adams...

from the link:

Adams, Michael - Kramnik, Vladimir ½-½
Kramnik showed that he was in a fighting spirit today, not only opening with a Sicilian but following it up with a potentially hyper-accelerated dragon. Adams was in no mood for such foolishness and he used a clever move order to force Kramnik into a little known c3 Sicilian. As soon as move ten Adams was able to force Kramnik to repeat moves or lose the game, and with that Adams takes the tournament.


i didnt analyze the game using stockfish or chessbomb, but sounds like kramnik didnt have a choice?

I'm not sure how could Kramnik be surprised into "unknown" at move 11? I think every top GMs opening preparation is at least 15-20 moves deep. It looks to me (maybe I'm wrong) that he willingly went for a draw (which is also strange ).

Nobody has "15-20 move preparation". Play 1. h4 and basically 100% of GM's are out of book on move 1. Kramnik tried to take the game into unexplored waters. He succeeded in doing that and then got effectively outplayed given that a draw and a loss were effectively the same result.

Kramnik seems to be struggling lately in that he has a very classical draw with black, win with white approach. His preparation and entire style of play is based around that. Recently he's found himself in a couple of must-win situations with black and the results have been abyssmal. Both times he's tried to take the games off the beaten path quickly and the results so far have been one brutal loss and now a 10 move draw. I think it's a sure fire bet we'll be seeing a Kramnik much more prepared to play to win with black in more normal variations the next time it comes up.

They were both using a fair bit of time, they were definitely not in their preparation. If Kramnik doesn't want to allow the repetition, he must play n6d7 instead, and then he has to deal with ng5.

Congrats to Mickey. He's always been one of my favorite players.

Yes, GMs opening prep can be 15-20 moves deep, but that's really only in the very heavily studied lines, such as Marshall Gambit, Semi-Slav Botvinnik, King's Indian, the Dragon, etc.

Here, Kramnik played a Sicilian with 2.. g6 and 3.. Nf6 and had already taken the game into a very obscure opening (which was what he wanted). It was an attempt to get winning chances as Black. Unfortunately for him, Adams found a line which basically forces a draw (if Black declines the repetition he is clearly worse)