Very solid, methodical play typical from Kramnik. For a 2700 player, indeed it seemed like white was extremely aggressive but just charging against something like the Petroff is certainly not going to work against someone like Kramnik!
...Bd6 is indeed interesting. I certainly don't know the official theory on it, but by allowing the pawn to go to c6 and defend d5 and thus e4 (a nice little chain reaction!), black is trying to maintain his e4 knight and is hoping the d6 bishop will create some latent pressure on the kingside.
10 Nc3 seemed much more logical to me, as by maintaining the tension he's keeping up the pressure on d5 and also keeping black guessing of what white will do with his pawns; perhaps he could try advancing his queenside without c5 with b4-b5, trying to attack c6.
That almost reminds me of the QGD exchange: black has stuff on the kingside but has to prove he has quite enough to justify his potential structural weakness on the queenside; and of course with the knight on e4 giving white an iso with ...dxc4 is extremely risky.
It's good to have you back!
My last post discussed the basics of the Petroff Defense. Though this defense is commonly employed by Black to create very drawish positions, it still has a lot of dynamic potential. In fact, the player it is named after, Alexandr Petroff was one of the most aggressive chess players of all time. In this game, Kramnik develops a beautiful attack and quickly defeats his opponent, Niaditsch. I am unclear on the details of the tournament, but White plays very much like he can't afford anything less than a win. Let's take a look: