Chess WC

[Graendals favourite]

There is a very exciting chess world championship match going on, between the defending champion Viswanathan Anand of India and Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. The match is best of 12 games, with tie-breaks in case of a tie. The prize fund is 1,5 million euros which will be split equally. Kramnik seeks to regain the title he lost in the world championship tournament last year, while Anand seeks to cement his place among the great by holding his title against his predecessor in a match, as this is the tradition. The line of chess world champions extends to 1886, the line running Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik and Anand. Also Botvinnik originally gained his title in a tournament, but naturally Anand will prefer to win against Kramnik.

 

At the moment, five games have been played, Anand leading by two wins. Spectacularly, he has gained his wins with the black pieces. It is very rare indeed that Kramnik has lost with the white pieces, his style being careful and even defensive. In the games, Anand managed to draw Kramnik into positions more suited to Anand's style, that is into a complicated unbalanced position. Game 1 would be more telling of the type of position Kramnik excels in, and also in game four Kramnik was about to get the better hand as black, though decided he didn't have enough to play for and offered draw (at this level, draw is only offered by the player with the advantage, to avoid rudeness). Kramnik committed mistakes in the games he lost, but the old wisdom is that the mistakes come more easily when you are put under strong pressure for a long time. Also, second time Kramnik went for the Meran variation of the Semi-Slav, and the second time Anand surprised him with a prepared new move which cost Kramnik an hour of thinking time at the board. Usually it is thought that one should not play again an opening one lost in in a match, for psychological reasons.

 

We can expect also an interesting latter half to the match. Anand is experienced enough to know that he must continue to do as he has, that is keep playing with a win in mind, and not start to play more cautiously, which might easily give Kramnik the respite to start dominating the games. Kramnik on the other hand must now abandon his safety-first approach if he is to equal the score in the remaining games: he will soon have to start playing for win also as black.

 

For those interested, during the games there are free annotations here and sometimes there, and there are also fuller reports later after games at the official site and chessbase. Tomorrow it will be interesting to see if Anand continues playing 1. d4 which is rare for him, he has obviously prepared this for the match, usually always he begins 1. e4, so this is where he has much more experience. Though Kramnik has very solid defenses against 1. e4, such as the Petrof and Berlin defenses, and must have spent more time preparing them than against 1. d4 which Anand had very seldom used before, so while Anand did not achieve any particular advantage in his first white games, it is not clear he has need to change this, leading by two points as he is.