I thought it was a pretty good attempt, myself.

I was recently playing over those 5(!) Black(!) Sicilian wins by Kasparov at Linares 1999 against the world's wlite and the contrast with this pretty pathetic attempt by Kramnik to win a Black Sicilian game is just shocking.

<His misplaying later on is not a coincidence and closely related with this fact.> this is just speculation on your part. it seems to me like he was trying to "over consolidate" his position and messed up in doing so.

Black didn't have any useful pawn breakthroughs in the game especially in this position which all the white pieces (both of the rooks, queen, both of the bishops. Look at the position after the black 24th move for instance) are altogether directed against the king's side harmoniously without weakening its queen's side. What was the strategical aim of black after the opening. He has a pawn majority in the center but he just can't mobilize them as it requires immense calculation because of the dynamics I have explained above. He has an open b file but he can't concentrate his forces to this one point as this would weaken his king's side as white pieces are deployed more flexibly to attack on the king's side and to defend on the queen's side. If there were clear strategical goals Kramik wouldn't have missed them. He's just buried into variations as he didn't want to make any committed moves without calculating till to the end.

<He has a pawn majority in the center but he just can't mobilize them as it requires immense calculation because of the dynamics I have explained above.> but thats called playing chess. you cant just decide that kramnik is unable to mobilize his pawns because its a difficult position. even if he is temporarily unable to make anything happen with his central majority he could've at least tried to do a better job of holding on to the central squares, which could allow him to do something later on.

<If there were clear strategical goals Kramik wouldn't have missed them.> what do you base this on? as much as i admire kramnik i dont think that he never misses strategical ideas/plans. i could be wrong, but it strikes me as a logical fallacy that you just declare that there were no strategical goals because if there had been kramnik wouldnt have missed them. im not sure why you think that constitutes a legitimate argument. i guess your use of the word 'clear' is sort of relative though. whats clear to kramnik may not be clear to you and i.

The move c4 doesn't change the essential dynamics of the position in the first place as the bishop has no future on b3 and it will go to c2 anyway. Besides, by playing c4 you shut your own bishop on a6.

In my opinion putting the bishop to a6 by playing a5 was the faulty plan in the first place. In this way he develops his bishop by gaining a tempo by attacking the queen on e2, and it could be ideal if the white rook was on the first rank not third. This plan only helped black to harmoniously develop his pieces on the king's side. IMO e5 instead of a5 and developing the bishop on e6 instead of a6 was the proper plan in this position. When black makes e5 in similar positions white usually counters this by playing f4 with the intention of opening file for the rook on f1. But as in this position the rook of f1 is transfered to g3 playing f4 plan wouldn't be as effective as in similar positions, and moreover he manages to exchange an attacking bishop with a defending bishop, and eases his position a little bit. This plan is good in order to try to mobilize his pawn majority in the center by playing d5 as well.

<What are the strategical aims of black in this position in which he can't exchange pieces, he can't concentrate on b file and he can't mobilize his pawns?> well, it seems like he can place his pieces more actively. what can white do besides try and organize his pieces more effectively? anyway, i think all you've done is prove that kramnik equalized out of the opening. white had nothing.

I don't think the plan with 13..a5 and then ...Ba6 was best. It might be the B isn't very well placed on a6 and it looks like it will need constant attention.

13...Nd7 looks interesting but would seem to need nerves of steel to leave the Kside open with most of White aiming at the cornered King. I could see how Kramnik didn't want to risk being mated at move 20 or something.

As for the move ...Nd7 requiring nerves of steel, one way to acquire an appearance of nerves of steel is to gain practice playing such a position against a trainer or a computer.