Kasparov, Garry – Kramnik, Vladimir

2838 2001 · Draw

Kasparov (2838) and Kramnik (2802) met in 2001 in an English Opening that quickly turned into a familiar queen’s pawn structure. The queens came off early with 13.Qd4 Qxd4 14.Nxd4, and from there the game became a technical exercise: the rooks were traded on the c-file with 22.Rxc8 Rxc8, leaving little to fight over. The engine flags no turning point at all — neither side swung the evaluation, and both scored 90% of moves rated good or better. The draw was agreed after 24...Bf5. The takeaway is plain: a sound symmetrical structure plus clean exchanges can neutralise anyone, even when there is no mistake to punish.