October 2008 Archives

So far the rapid games haven't been very useful at all in Cap d'Agde (Link changed). Karpov and Caruana swapped black wins in the rapids, the other four were drawn. Karpov then knocked out Caruana after four blitz games, Ivanchuk took out Radjabov after two blitz games, and Nakamura beat Vachier Lagrave also in two blitz games. Fast hands for Karpov, who at 57 is nearly four times Caruana's age. Carlsen is currently battling for the fourth semifinal spot against Bu Xiangzhi. I believe the semis will be Nakamura-Karpov and Ivanchuk vs either Carlsen or Bu Xiangzhi. -- Nice breakthrough by Carlsen to win the second rapid game and go through to meet Ivanchuk.

[Preview: Once again it's do or die for Vladimir Kramnik. Down 6-4 in a 12-game match, he'll have to beat Anand with black for the first time ever and win with black for the first time period in two years to live to play game 12 on Friday. Of course he wasn't playing a world championship elimination game in all those other games with black. Benoni, as against Leko in 04 in a similar situation? Dutch? Kramnik's inexperience in various sharp lines against 1.d4 will be matched by Anand's since Vishy is normally a 1.e4 guy. Preparation means less than nerves in most of these cases.

Lasker, Kasparov, and Kramnik himself have won must-win final games in world championship matches, all with white. In 1958, Smyslov beat Botvinnik with black in an elimination game only to give up the clinching draw the next day. I think that was the only must-win world championship win with black in the modern era. Other potentially relevant stat: Karpov beat Kasparov three games in a row toward the end of their 1986 match.]

It's over! With a 24-move draw in a Najdorf Sicilian (!), Anand defeated Vladimir Kramnik 6.5-4.5 to retain his world championship title. In hindsight it's easy to say that it was brilliant of Anand to play 1.e4 and make sure such a critical game took place in positions he was far more comfortable with than Kramnik. (Who wasn't exactly going to play the Petroff.) The opposite would have occurred in, say, a Benoni.

Anand was never in any danger and after Kramnik's implausible 12..exf5 White was the one looking for advantage. Peter Svidler came on ICC Chess.FM to join me and Jan Gustafsson for a while, which was great. (He was scheduled to commentate for all of game 12, so it was nice to get him on today.) His dismal opinion of Kramnik's chances was soon confirmed on the board. Peter also let us know he had spicy tikka with, umm, buckwheat for dinner, which is a nice homage if it doesn't kill him.

Comments from Garry Kasparov

Game 11: "A difficult position for Kramnik to be in after 1.e4. Final games like this have their own logic so you cannot compare it to his attempts to play the Sicilian in 2004. 12..f5 was suspect, not something I would have considered. That's what can happen when you are in openings that aren't yours. You want to play by instinct but they are not used to these positions and this leads to poor decisions. After the Berlin and the Petroff, playing a Rauzer is a shock to the system. He looked very uncomfortable, but of course the match situation was close to impossible. The final position was unpleasant for Black and this Kramnik understands."

Match in general: "It was a very well-played match by Vishy. Except for the loss of concentration in the 10th game, he played consistently and managed to enforce his style. His choice to open with 1.d4 was excellent. He reached playable positions with life in them so he could make Kramnik work at the board. Anand outprepared Kramnik completely. In this way it reminded me of my match with Kramnik in London 2000. Like I was then, Kramnik may have been very well prepared for this match but we never saw it. I didn't expect the Berlin and ended up fighting on Kramnik's preferred terrain.

[In this match] Kramnik did not expect tough, sharp challenges with white and this was the key for Anand. He kicked some sand in Kramnik's face and hit Kramnik's weakness: his conservative approach to the game itself. Suddenly Kramnik had to fight in these sharp positions and he wasn't able to do it. This result ends the illusion that Kramnik is a great match player. London was a unique occurrence and I still stand with Leonid Yudasin as the only players Kramnik has ever beaten in a match! Kramnik now has some work to do. His overly-defensive play seems to represent a general decline in strength.

A great result for Anand and for chess. Vishy deserved the win in every way and I'm very happy for him. It will not be easy for the younger generation to push him aside."

Interesting about Kramnik's play, as Kramnik just had this to say in the press conference: "I am eager to improve. I will make serious changes to my preparation for tournaments and even to my play. It was a harsh lesson, but I will work." These top guys can just sense this stuff. As in, "not just outprepared, not just bad luck, but something is wrong." Anyway, great to hear Big Vlad rededicate right off the bat.

Of course we'd be calling Vishy a dunce for allowing a Sicilian had he somehow walked into a nice piece of Kramnik preparation, but the chances for that were very low since Anand doesn't usually play the Rauzer. Kasparov joked after the game that not only has 1.d4 taken over the world championship matches, but 1.e4 is now just used as a drawing weapon! The last person to play 1.e4 in a WCh match was Kramnik, who used it exclusively against Leko. The last Sicilian in a WCh match was, drumroll please, the 18th and final game of the Kasparov-Anand match in 1995! (And also in games 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, and 18 of that match. For some real trivia, the Sicilian's first world championship appearance was Lasker's use of it twice against Schlechter in 1910. Dragon and Pelikan!) Kramnik went for a sideline with 7..Qc7 to avoid any more nasty Anand prep. Kamsky is just one player who has recently gone for the 8.Bxf6 response, though 9.f5 is definitely a bit off the reservation. Radjabov just tried it against Grischuk in Sochi and Anand is much more likely to be up to date with the ins and outs of such positions than Kramnik, who doesn't play e4 or the Sicilian anymore.

Kramnik then used a good chunk of time to play the startling 12..exf5, which was condemned by Gustafsson and Svidler at the time and by Kasparov after the game. Keeping the tension and developing normally with 12..Bd7 was expected. As Kasparov put it, "that's what happens when you are in openings that aren't yours. You want to play by instinct but they are not used to these positions and this leads to poor decisions."

Anand spent a long time, over 20 minutes, on the curious response 13.Qe3. In my book that's saying it's good even if the point isn't clear. But it keeps the bishop on h6 unless Black plays ..h5 first, after which he can't castle kingside. Gustafsson and Svidler both decided they liked the move quite a bit after a while. It also invites complications after 13..Be6 14.Qb6 that look favorable for White. We spent a long time on that one, as did Kramnik, according to Dennis Monokroussos's summary of the press conference.

We were expecting 14.Nd2 but Anand went for the direct route with 14.Rd5. It appears 15..Rg8 is the only move to avoid serious trouble for Black, but it again disrupted Black's development. Anand then showed his typical fearlessness in optically scary lines by calmly swapping on c8 and playing 20.Kb1, tucking his king away nicely. Bishop sacs on b2 don't work at all and the black king is a mess. The game itself won't get much attention because the result was all-important, but looking at it again it really was a very well-handled affair by Vishy. Every little queen move had an annoying point and Black's pieces and king could never get organized. Of course playing with draw odds doesn't hurt!

Great match and great victory for Anand. Congratulations! Despite my recognition of Mexico 2007 as a de facto and de jure world championship, there was certainly an extra vibe with Kramnik as the last match champion. Having every WCh loose end wrapped up at long last (including Fischer's death for the real nutters) is a very good feeling.

I won't ruin the warm fuzzies with thoughts about Ilyumzhinov still being in charge and the matches still only being 12-games long and the elimination of the candidates matches. No word on Topalov-Kamsky other than that Topalov is now playing on the Bulgarian Olympiad team, something that would almost certainly not have happened were there any positive news about the match happening in November.

Anand and t-shirt photos from Macauley, in Bonn for ICC Chess.FM.

Finally found the results and standings for the Trophée CCAS Cap d'Agde rapid. The final round of the group stage is in progress, so the KO stage pairings aren't settled yet. At least not in Group A, where Cheparinov needs a win to have a chance of moving on. [Bu Xiangzhi and Vachier Lagrave just won so Cheparinov is out even if he beats Kosteniuk.] Group B had four clear favorites and they've already made it in with a round to spare. The three ladies, Koneru, Hou Yifan, and Skripchenko, and young French GM Feller are out. So there's nothing to play for in the final Group A round.

Still, Karpov-Nakamura might be good even if it's just for show. Naka usually likes scalps more than rest and I don't think he's ever faced the 12th world champion. [Indeed, Nakamura went on to win, though it turned out the result did matter for Karpov. Site had the standings wrong before.] So far Nakamura lost to Radjabov, had the better of a draw with Carlsen, and beat everybody else. Carlsen and Radjabov are the others already through from Group B. Fabiano Caruana (Brooklyn!) is making some noise in Group A. He beat Bu Xiangzhi, Vachier Lagrave, and drew with Ivanchuk and Cheparinov to take first in the group. He's from New York so couldn't he just represent Little Italy instead of Italy? I'll update with the KO pairings when the group phase finishes in an hour or two.

Karpov and Hou Yifan went to a blitz playoff for the 5th spot in Group B (the standings were given incorrectly earlier) and Karpov went through 3-1. Amusing to watch it live while on Skype with Kasparov, in Milan for a business speech, who was shouting out improvements and curses as various opportunities for both sides sped by in the 3'+2" blitz match. He misses the game a little, ya think? The KO section begins tomorrow. Here are the pairings:

Carlsen-Bu Xiangzhi, Caruana-Karpov, Ivanchuk-Radjabov, Nakamura-Vachier Lagrave.

Mixed blessing of having the final-worthy Ivanchuk-Radjabov matchup in the quarterfinals but it's nice to have it at all. One of the dangers of the KO format is an early upset and a lopsided path to victory for another favorite. But the way Caruana is playing it's hard to speak of favorites at all. The PGN file was incomplete with many obviously incorrect scores at first. It's better now but some of the scores are still garbage, such as Nakamura-Radjabov.

[Preview: It's win or go home for Big Vlad. He has the white pieces, which have been something of a disadvantage for him during the match thanks to Anand's superlative preparation. A win or a draw for Anand and he keeps his world championship title -- and/or takes Kramnik's, depending on how much of a match-tradition headcase you are. Kramnik has never been maniacally competitive like, say, Karpov, but you know he'd love to have a win in this match. Deep Thought: Will we find out who came up with the 14..Bb7 in the Meran that led to Anand's wins in games 3 and 5? If it wasn't Anand himself, does that guy get a serious chunk of bonus cash? Not saying Anand wouldn't have won without it, but I'd say you've got to give homeslice more than a pat on the back for that one.]

A big first win for Big Vlad to keep the match going. It was a Nimzo this time with a subtle tweak of a new move from Kramnik with Re1. White had a tiny pull but over the span of a few moves Anand had a complete breakdown in his sense of danger and suddenly it was just over. Kramnik's queenside invasion was terminal with the black knight exemplifying the old saying about how one bad piece ruins your entire position. It's now 6-4 and Anand needs just a draw in Wednesday's game 11 with white to clinch the match. More later.

Busy with other work for the next few days so hard to give this game much attention right now. But honestly I don't think having a lot more time would help. I don't understand what happened now and GM Kaidanov was pretty mystified at the time on Chess.FM. Anand either missed or dramatically underestimated the danger to his queenside posed by the white a-pawn. The black knight is tossed to a horrible square and the a and c-pawns are easy targets. Meanwhile, the black queen and bishop are chilling on the kingside. The piece path Bc8-a6-c4-e2-g4-e6 is incredibly slow even in a maneuvering game line this one. Ironically, during the game my database popped up with the fact that the position after 21.Bf4 had been reached before in GM play. The French teen GM Feller played it earlier this year except it was White to move! So even a full tempo up over a GM game Anand resigned eight moves later. Excellent play by Kramnik, no doubt, but clearly Anand took a mental trip to Jamaica in this one. Feeling the pressure?

Anand did seem to realize the need to get his pieces back to the queenside. His solution of ..f6 was very slow, however. At the time the move 22..Bg4 looked weird. Having taken the time to route the bishop over to eliminate the Bg2, shuffling it around in a big circle without achieving that goal seemed very strange. 22..Nc4 was the obvious move, but White gets an excellent endgame after 23.Qa6 Nxe3 24.Rxe2 Nxg2 25.Kxg2 even without his bishops. Perhaps leaving the the bishop on e2 for another move or two was best. White can eject it with h3, threatening g4, but that takes a tempo Black can use to get in ..f6 with the white bishop still on g2.

Meanwhile, all of Kramnik's moves had a clear purpose. He kept the bishops with the retreat 22.Be3, as usual trusting in pieces and squares instead of time (or material). 23.Qa6 is a star move, taking control of c4 and getting out of the way of the a-pawn. Qb5 was also playable, but that would take the pressure off the a7 pawn. Since we now know that Black is in serious trouble after 23..f6, what else? In the press conference, Kramnik suggested 23..Be6 directly instead, then 24.Bf1 Qf3. It's hard to see how that deals with the a4-a5 threat. Keeping the queen on the kingside adds a few options though, and skipping ..f6 entirely leaves that square open for the knight to evacuate with ..Nd7-f6. In short, 23..f6 was a dud for several reasons. Even the winning tactical themes with Qd6-Re7 were based on the bishop on e6 hanging with no protection from an f7 pawn.

It was still impressive how fast Black's house came tumbling down. The white rook and queen create threats everywhere and the black pieces have no safe squares. The ultimate defender, the computer, tries 24..Rc7 25.a5 Nd7 26.Rab1 with shameless silicon groveling to follow with moves like ..Qe8 and ..Rac8 to come. Petrosian, maybe, but Anand or anyone with a shred of hope, no. The last best hope was probably to challenge on the b-file with 26..Rab8, ditching the c-pawn after 27.Rb5 Nc4 28.Rxb8 (28.Reb1 may be even stronger) 28..Rxb8 29.Bxc5. Admittedly that looks pretty hopeless.

27..Nd7 loses the a-pawn after 28.Rb7 Qe8 (or Rd1) 29.Rxa7 and the white a-pawn is a monster. Anand surprised us a little with his prompt resignation, not bothering to let Kramnik show the spectators the various ways to win. The most common is getting two pieces for a rook. 29..Rd8 30.Qb4 Qc6 31.Re7 with Rxe6 next. If 31..Bf7 32.Ra1 picks up the dim knight.

This looks like a classic Kramnik win, if one against a 2500 in a league game. Anand now has a free day to recover from this pounding, clear his head, and come back needing only a draw with white to clinch the match. In a similar situation against Leko in 2004 Kramnik came out with the Benoni. Anand's at something of a disadvantage in this situation because, like Leko, he's not normally a 1.d4 player. No way in heck he would play into that Anti-Moscow Gambit again but Kramnik probably can't afford the Semi-Slav anyway since Anand could just chop on d5, play Bf4, and have around zero losing chances. GM Kaidanov recalled that the one time he faced Kramnik, long ago, it was a Leningrad Dutch...

The Anand-Kramnik match has sucked up all the attention most chess fans have, and most organizers avoid conflicting with such big events when possible. But there are a few other things going on. At the same time as game 9 is going in Bonn, Garry Kasparov is playing the most serious chess he's played since he retired in March 2005. He's giving a clock simul against the Corsican team at the Corsica chess festival . He showed me a sample copy of the event brochure but I don't find much about it online. Games will be relayed live on the ICC. Nakamura won the rapid open last year.

The Euro Club Championship just concluded in Greece and most of the world's top players were in action. URAL Sverdlovskaya won with big names Grischuk, Shirov, Radjabov, and Kamsky on the top boards. But Malakhov's 7/7 on board five and Dreev's 5/6 on board six certainly helped. Dreev on board 6? Yikes. Check out the end of Shirov-Fridman (below). No, the black queen isn't trapped at the end. After the queen moves Ne7+ and Qxa8!

The traditional Cap d'Agde rapid tournament, now Le Trophée CCAS, is underway in France. It's group play and then knock-out with the top four from each group moving on. Ivanchuk, Carlsen, and Radjabov are the big favorites, but Hikaru Nakamura is there and looking to make a move on the fastest player on Earth title. Six of the world's best women players are there, including Koneru, Hou Yifan, and new women's world champ Kosteniuk. Will any of them make it to the KO segment?

The Russian superfinal ended in a three-way tie for first. The playoff will begin on the 28th. It's a six-game double-round robin of 15'+10'' with Svidler, Alekseev, and Jakovenko.

Ivan Sokolov dominated the Essent Crown Group in Hoogeveen, Netherlands. He scored 5/6 in the double round-robin, finished 2.5 points ahead of Smeets, Adly, and Sebag.

The Dresden chess Olympiad begins November 12. The journos covering the Anand-Kramnik match were to be taken to Dresden for a tour on Wednesday Tuesday, but the junket will be canceled if the match doesn't last that long...

[Preview: First off, note that game 9 starts one hour later if you're in the US or anywhere else that doesn't go off Daylight Saving Time Sunday morning. Germany and the rest of the EU just did, so while the start time there is still 3pm local, that's now 10am in what is still EDT in the US.

By the way, in the press conference after game 8 both Anand and Kramnik sounded more pessimistic about Black's position than I would have imagined. Kramnik mentioned his 22nd move as probably being too slow. GM Christiansen kept asking for Rd1 and activating the other rook on the d-file before Anand could get his outcast Rg6 back into the game. Kramnik still could have activated his rook with 25.Rf3 later. As ever, you have to play perfectly to win with such tiny advantages and Kramnik is far from playing perfectly in this match.]

Whew! Anyone who thought this match was just too easy for Anand saw him earn it big time today. We got the sharpest and hottest line in modern chess, the Anti-Moscow Gambit of the Semi-Slav, but with Anand on the white side instead of the other way around as we might have predicted before the match. This time it was Kramnik with the new idea and Anand was put on the defensive early. From the pace it looks like Kramnik was booked at least up to the startling 14..0-0. Anand defended well and as in game 8, Kramnik kept up the pressure, although a few times it seemed he again didn't make the most of his chances. (17..f5 looked very interesting.) The champ's speedy play when both players were down to 10 minutes with 7-8 moves to play put extra pressure on the challenger. Kramnik eventually got the queens off to reach the pawn-up bishops of opposite color endgame he was shooting for.

33..f5 was classic Kramnik, trying to get the queens off the board while everyone else was looking at attacking variations. A few moves later Anand had the pretty shot 35.Bxf5!, which seems to force a draw very quickly. Anand played 35.Qb7 rather quickly, however, so we'll have to see if he even considered it. GM de Firmian on ICC Chess.FM thought Anand missed a clearer draw on the last move of time control with 40.Rd1 followed by Kg2, but what he got was good enough to hold without requiring total precision. Kramnik found a few tricks to keep hope alive to the bitter end before offering the draw on move 45.

A real world championship heavyweight slugfest from start to finish. Despite facing insurmountable odds Kramnik played an excellent game to really make Anand sweat with the white pieces. Anand deserves credit and perhaps a psyche evaluation for playing into this wild line needing only a draw. As fans we can only thank them both. Anand needs just half a point from the final three games to clinch the match. He has black in tomorrow's game ten. Some analysis notes later.

The more you look at this game the deeper it gets, as with many games in this insane opening. Anand's 10.Qc2 took the games out of the popular lines of 10.e5 and 10.h4, 10.0-0 and the alternatives 10.Ne5 and 10.e5, which have all been played by many top players lately. The modern forefather is probably Kasparov-Tal, 1982, although Garry's 10.e5 has never been in vogue. Mamedyarov tried it out a few times this year against Gelfand and Karjakin. There aren't really any quiet channels for White to steer into at this point. 10.Qc2 can hardly be the real test of this line and basically looked like a way of dodging the meat of Kramnik's preparation. Big Vlad has games with both colors in just about every line and sideline though, so it was pretty ballsy of Anand to go into this in the first place. Vishy felt no need to play a tame exchange variation when he has a great score in these lines (with black, of course) and has been outplaying Kramnik in complications.

More the better for the fans! The game transposed into a van Wely game from 2000 that wasn't anything special. Both players were moving fairly quickly, using a minute or two on each move and making it hard to tell who was in book and who wasn't. Then Kramnik used just a few more minutes to play the optically alarming 14..0-0, putting his king on the drafty kingside when White can open lines quickly with f4 and h4. To me that seemed like a signal he was still in preparation, at least by analog. GM de Firmian was also a bit surprised, although Kramnik's judgment was soon borne out. Anand took a long think before chopping on f6 and we wondered if the desire to simply toward a draw was beginning to work on Anand's mind. But ..Nd7 is going to come and the bishop will lose its lovely outpost. Instead Anand went for time and a central pawn phalanx.

Kramnik started chewing time as well, giving Nick a while to contemplate 17..f5. Black has to do something about the threat of Ne4 and this move also fights for the f-file. After 17..f5 18.exf6 Qxf6 19.fxg5 Qxg5 Black has a menacing position. After 20.Bf3 White looks safe enough, however, and the bishop on b7 is neutralized. It was interesting to note that Kramnik had finally gotten his beloved bishop pair. No coincidence it was also his best effort of the match. He started opening lines for the bishops with 17..c5, giving back the gambit pawn. Anand accepted the challenge with his usual fearlessness in complications, taking both pawns and subjecting both his king and queen to harassment. It was around this point that I felt Anand was in his element, defending against tactical threats. It was impressive how Kramnik seemed to sense this as well and as soon as he could he tried to trade down into a technical advantage.

According to comments on the press conference, Anand missed that after 21..Bc5 he can play 22.Qa4, but Kramnik noticed it and so avoided the strong bishop move. Rybka prefers the odd leap of faith 22.Qd7 with 22..Bc6 23.Qd3. There was a definite feeling that the worst was over for Anand after 22..Ba6, at least as far as king safety was concerned. Kramnik was just getting started though, seeking out his favorite endgame edge. Still, we couldn't see then and I can't see now why 23..Qg5 isn't fine and annoying to deal with. Anand was happy to get rid of the black bishop pair at the cost of a pawn, reaching a very tricky oppo-bishop position with attacking chances for both sides. Anand now started to play very quickly, pushing Kramnik on the clock as they passed move 30. Kramnik sunk below 10 minutes and Anand continued to make accurate defensive moves one after another. It looked like Kramnik was just hoping to keep control of things until the time control was reached so he could work out a plan for progress.

Kramnik's lunge with 33..f5 was quintessential Kramnik, trying to force a technical position with an extra passed pawn in the center. Anand, with a few more minutes than Kramnik, decided to keep the queens on the board until he got a better offer a few moves later. On the way to that, however, both players missed a wonderful shot for White. 35.Bxf5!! forces a draw thanks to several great lines. 35.Bxf5!! exf5 (forced) 36.Qxh6+ Kg8 37.Qg6+ Qg7 38.Qe6+ Qf7 39.Qxf7+ Rf7 40.Rd8+ Rf8 41.Rxf8+ Kxf8 42.Rxf5+ a triumph of geometry! 42..Kg7 43.Rxa5= Or 38..Kh8 39.Rxf5 with enough to force a draw. Then Kramnik returned the favor, anxiously proffering the queen again with his clock down under five minutes. Instead, 35..Bc7 sets the wandering white queen a number of problems. ..Rb8 is threatened and it looks like White has to bail out with 36.Qb5, dropping another pawn.

After the queen swap we couldn't find a way for Black to make progress, although Kramnik was admirably creative in making Anand work for the draw. White had the most direct draw with 40.Kg2 (or 40.Rd1 with Kg2 next) 40..b2 41.Rd1 and Black can't prevent Rdd7 with a perpetual. Anand made things a little harder on himself with the last move of time control, but things were still well in hand. Kramnik then spent 20 minutes ripping the board apart in his mind on his 41st move, no doubt realizing better than anyone that the win was gone. White can always reach either a pawn-down rook endgame or a position with B vs R with g+h vs h, both trivially drawn. 41..h5 was as good as anything, creating several cute traps Anand spent little time in avoiding.

Kramnik is just now starting to get his positions and show his strength; a pity the match between these titans can't continue for another ten games like a proper world championship. Anand continues to play nearly error-free chess. Kramnik has white in Monday's game 10 needing a win to continue the match.

[Preview: Make or break time for Kramnik. If he doesn't win today his leveling the match goes from being an extreme outside chance to being only a mathematical possibility. Meran or no Meran? Sticking with the plan that got you here or adapting to the situation and playing some risk control? That is, in that Meran it might be 45% chance of a win for White, 40% chance of a win for Black, with almost no chance of a draw. Even if you want to give more credit to Anand's deeper prep in that line and flip those numbers, or more, it's still a very risky line. And Kramnik and his team have now had a week to work on it. If you can play something more solid with, say, a 15% chance of white win, and a 1% chance of black win, in this match situation that probably makes more sense. That is, draws are almost as good as wins for Anand at this point so reducing losing chances is the key. On the other hand, he's had success by taking Kramnik out of his comfort zone of squeeze play, so good cases for both methods. Kasparov kept playing the Sicilian despite a big lead over Short, for example.

Theories abounding that Anand missed a win in game 7. Scary. Certainly he could have played on with chances at several moments. I assume he saw that but decided there was no reason to risk at all if he couldn't be 100% sure. 33.Rc2 was basically a draw offer. Kd1 or Kd3 would have continued the game with better chances for White. Kasparov looked at 30.Kd2 with chances as well, though it seems to boil down to a draw after some difficult moves by Black. What percentage of this result so far is Anand good vs Kramnik bad? 70-30?]

Kramnik finally got some pressure on Anand, but it wasn't nearly enough. Kramnik's methodical patience went beyond the point of virtue in this one, it seemed. Instead of the Meran from games 3 and 5 (told ya), we got a line of the QG that Kramnik and Anand have battled in several times before. Just about every top player of the past 20 years has played these 4..dxc4 5.e4 Bb4 6.Bg5 c5 Ragozin lines, often with both colors. Kramnik declined to head into the wild 7.e5 lines, which have been doing well for Black lately. There's even a game from this year by one of Anand's seconds, Wojtaszek. Kramnik went for 9.Bb5+ instead of Bb2 or Bxf6. This gave Anand the chance to bust out yet another novelty, 10..Bxb5, played immediately, which sank Kramnik into a 30 minute think on his next two moves.

Interestingly, Kramnik eschewed what GM Christiansen on Chess.FM thought was the natural reply, 11.Nb3. Perhaps Kramnik simply wanted to avoid the heart of Anand's prep. Someone on the ICC suggested the remarkable 11..Ba4 as a possible reply. Kramnik didn't get much with what he did play, however. As in the Meran games, Anand got the open g-file for his rook and his king stuck in the center. Kramnik looked to be building up patiently with moves like Kh1 and g3 and we expected him to swap off and play in the center while Anand's rook was out of the picture on g6. Instead of Rf3-d3 White dawdled with Nc3 and Kg2, giving Black time to get his rook back into the game. Larry showed us some interesting lines in which White tries to play for mate by pushing his h-pawn or even walking his king up to h6, but it was always too slow. Lunging with g4 wouldn't have changed much either. The white king is more vulnerable than Black's. If Black has a moment he plays ..Rd3 and ..Nd4 with a check on c6 coming.

The score is 5.5-2.5 and Anand can end the match with a white win on Sunday. I rather expect he'll play for a tiny edge and offer a draw the moment it looks at all dangerous for him. For Kramnik's part, he obviously has to throw the sink, the fridge, and the coffeepot at Anand from here on out if he has any hope at all. But I don't really expect him to go crazy. He did play the Benoni against Leko with his back against the wall in 2004, but losing Sunday to finish -4 would surely feel worse than drawing out peacefully.

Kramnik's second in London and Brissago, Evgeny Bareev, is in Bonn this week to work on an article for New In Chess. He came on Chess.FM to talk with us and Macauley Peterson, who is there for the ICC. Interesting stuff. He said it was over in no uncertain terms, adding that Kramnik's prep looked inferior and agreeing with me that it was foolhardy to go back into the Meran in game 5 without a killer blow up his sleeve. I believe ICC members will be able to listen to the replay of it. Is nobody slapping up same day raw press conference audio anymore? I know ChessVibes puts up video later, which is handy, and Macauley has all sorts of good video stuff at the ICC site. But for a while you could get the audio right after the presser.

[Preview: The second half begins today in Bonn with a score no one could have predicted, at least no one in his right mind. But sometimes you have to be crazy to keep up with reality. It's 4.5-1.5 and Anand needs just two points from the final six games to successfully defend his title against Vladimir Kramnik. He has white in today's 7th game. Before game six I wondered if Kramnik would play something sharp with black and instead he went right into Anand's favorite line in the Nimzo. If there's no Plan B Kramnik had better make one up quick because he's way behind. Hmm, it might be time for him to accuse Anand of hanging around with Bill Ayers ten years ago. As for Vishy, there is a school of thought that you don't repeat even your successful openings in a match too many times, but testing out 1.e4 now and allowing a Sicilian, which Kramnik used to play quite successfully, would be insane. He's certainly not going to be scared of another Nimzo.

Any suggestions for an answer to 1.d4 that doesn't include an exchange variation? Leningrad Dutch, as GM Christiansen mentioned? Kramnik doesn't just not win with black against Anand, but he hardly wins with black ever, so conservative is his black philosophy. You have to go back two years to his 2006 WCh match with Topalov, game two, for a black Kramnik win in classical chess. Including that match, that's 42 games (+1 =35 -5), an astounding stat for someone as strong as he is. (For context, over the same period for Leko: +5 =41 -7; for Anand: +12 =30 -5.) There is more than his repertoire at work, of course. If he fought out all of his black games he would surely have more wins than losses. But his philosophy has always been that a draw with black is fine against anyone. It has served him pretty well, mind you, but it's going to make it even harder to shift into Genghis Khan mode in Bonn.]

That's one solid draw for an Indian, one giant leap closer to retaining the world championship title. Anand played it safe in game seven, no mystery there. Today's draw brought the score to 5-2, just 1.5 points away from ending the match. As I expected, there weren't any fireworks from Kramnik's side with black either. He quite reasonably declined to accept the well-known gambit 10..Bxc3, in which White has a tremendous score at the top level. But after that there's really not a lot Black can do to sharpen the game. This Slav followed two games from the Kramnik-Topalov 2006 WCh match until Kramnik went for a harmless change on move 15. Anand didn't mind trading pieces and interest only picked up when it looked like White had winning chances in the endgame. Before that, Kramnik offered a draw after 21..Qxe3. Anand decided he could play on risk-free and declined.

Kramnik went for his only chance at play with 28..Rc4. Anand responded correctly by capturing and hunting down the c-pawn. We can assume that Kramnik, who took several long thinks, had already realized he could blockade the N vs B position even down a pawn. Anand acknowledged this immediately as well and the draw was agreed on move 36. On ICC Chess.FM GM Ronen Har-Zvi found an interesting try at a zugzwang with the bishop on e3, and there are a few other close calls earlier with bishop sacs against the queenside pawns. But Kramnik saw it all, from what we could tell. Nicely done.

Will Kramnik go back to the wild Meran? Anand would be a little crazy to allow that, considering the score. By the way, thanks to this dominating performance Anand is currently back atop the live rating list, which would just be the coconut sauce on the idli. Ivanchuk is making quite a showing in the Euro Club Cup, too. And if you haven't seen Aronian-Volokitin from round six yet, it has the excitement of around 20 of today's WCh games combined. But it looks like URAL Sverdlovskaya is the winner, with Radjabov, Shirov, Kamsky, and Grischuk.

A world blitz championship in Almaty on November 7? What was wrong with the last blitz championship? Wait, that wasn't one? Looked stronger to me... Anyway, this press release just came in and I'm a sucker for any website from the .kz domain. The text reads like it was run through Google Translate set to "Borat." The creative spellings of well-known players' names are particularly nice. Anyway, this was announced by FIDE a few weeks ago and, unlike the press release the organizers sent out, they included the list of players.

Amin Bassem (Egypt)
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan)
Krishnan Sasikiran (India)
Gata Kamsky (USA)
Alexander Morozevich (Russia)
Lenier Dominguez Perez (Cuba)
Rafael Vaganian (Armenia)
Sergey Rublevsky (Russia)
Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan)
Vlad Tkachiev (France)
Peter Svidler (Russia)
Alexander Grischuk (Russia)
Boris Gelfand (Israel)
Judit Polgar (Hungary)
Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine)
Murtas Kazhgaleev (Kazakhstan)

World Blitz Championship promises to become one of the most important events in Kazakhstan's sport life in 2008. The greatest 16 chess-players of the world, arbiters and masters of chess will take part in the championship. FIDE president, the head of Kalmikia Kirsan Ilumzhinov will take part in the Championship as official person.

The goal of the Championship is to develop Kazakhstan's chess, to advance Kazakhstan's chess-players to the first-class level and also to form positive image of Republic of Kazakhstan as the developing and stable state at the international scene.
Organizers of the tournament are the Chess Federation of RK, FIDE and Noncommercial Charitable Seimar Social Fund. Prize fund - 350 000 Swiss francs is granted by Kazakhstan's Chess federation with the support of Noncommercial Charitable Seimar Social Fund and JSC "Alliance Bank".

World Blitz Championship is one of the most important and prestigious events in sport. As usual, the greatest chess-players from all over the world take part in championships.

Chess Blitz - is blazing game, where an extremely short time control is used - 5 minutes to each one on the whole game of chess. Loses this one, who exceed a time limit first or take mate. The World Championship will be conducted by Swiss system. Results will be counted by international FIDE system. Games of chess on the tournament will be played by classical time control - 5 minutes to each player during the whole game, without excess.

We have no doubts, that future championship will give a lot of memorizing, perfect, designing moments to all chess fancies not only in Kazakhstan, but in the whole world. It will be possible to watch the events on 8 chess-boards on-line and live.

Wait, there are still banks somewhere offering to guarantee things? Hot damn, how do I open an account in Kazakhstan? I hope all of you chess fancies are excited about this. Tee-hee. Later in the release we learn about Nijdorf, Bronshtain, Michail Tal, and, inevitably, Robert James Fisher and Harry Kasparov. All sic. But the history section does perform the service of reminding us all of the winner of the blitz world championship in St. John (or "Jhon"), Canada, in 1988. Kasparov and Karpov were there but the winner was Mikhail Tal. I still remember that cover of Inside Chess.

Grischuk won this title in 2006 and Ivanchuk in 2007. This is a strong field, but only three members of the top ten are there: Morozevich (2), Ivanchuk (3), and Radjabov (8). Brooklyn's finest, Gata Kamsky -- no insult to Irina Krush and Pascal Charbonneau -- is going to be there too. Speaking of Kamsky, he's hanging tough at the #16 spot between Karjakin and Svidler. Anybody heard anything about his match with Topalov lately?

[The usual preview and live discussion item. Update post-game. You know the drill. Kasparov doesn't think Kramnik plays to win with black in game six. Says he should just worry about surviving tomorrow after such a blunder in game five, then decide on a game plan for the final six games. Sounds like pretty good advice since the chances of going too far and losing with black when in bad shape must be much greater than pulling off your first ever win with black against Anand. He also figures Anand should stick with 1.d4 since he doesn't want to run into any surprises and playing for two results suits his match situation. Deep Thought Dept: Is it unethical to root for Kramnik now because I'll lose a day's pay at Chess.FM if the match ends early?]

Hmm, apparently Vishy Anand doesn't care about my losing work. The world champion beat Kramnik again, burying the Russian's chances in the match and at the same time burying his own reputation for lacking a killer instinct. Instead of coasting with his lead he played a sharp new kingside push with h3 and g4. As in the other two games Anand won, Kramnik got through the opening fine, but went slowly downhill. The difference in game six was that this wasn't one of the razor-sharp tactical positions Kramnik lost in games 3 and 5. Here Anand won on Kramnik's home turf, a dynamic maneuvering position with queens off the board.

Kramnik's time handling was curious at times. He wasn't in bad time trouble but played a few key moves very quickly, as if they were obvious only moves. From what we could tell on the ICC, 33..a4 was one (33..Re8!?) and 37..Nxb2 was another of these, when 37..Nxe4!? was certainly worth a look. But GM Larry Christiansen was already saying Black's position was probably beyond salvation by that point.

As I did after game five I ask, is it over? I would say so. The score is bad enough, but how they are playing says much more. Kramnik has been outprepared, he's blundered in tactics, and he's lost a defensible endgame. He hasn't had real chances in any of the six games. Anand has played superlatively in every phase of the game. (Lest we pile too much scorn on Kramnik's doorstep.) Momentum might not count for much, but unless Kramnik comes out for game seven wearing a cape it's going to be the same two guys for the second half. That spells victory for Anand even if he doesn't win another game. The big lead going to his head and messing with his concentration is the only real pitfall remaining.

Of course that's just my practical side speaking. The fan in me wants to see Kramnik go down swinging, trying with ever fiber to win three games from six. We could have some sensational chess even if the match turns out to be far shorter than its scheduled short 12 games. But it's more likely that desperation would lead to further losses and Kramnik knows that. He's not the desperation type. He'll go out and play his game ("a painter paints") and either win quietly or lose quietly. I don't see a KID or Benoni from Kramnik, but Larry suggested the Leningrad Dutch as a way to get a sharp game against 1.d4. Other suggestions? The way the preparation has gone so far, Kramnik might be willing to boot his seconds and listen! 9.h3 was surely more home cooking today.

As I mentioned yesterday, both Korchnoi (against Karpov in 78) and Karpov (against Kasparov in 86) made up a three-point difference in fewer than six games in WCh matches. (Coincidentally both lost in the end.) So not only is a mathematically possible, it's been done more than once. The difference in those cases and now was that both of those comeback streaks came very late in very long matches. Hard to see Vishy tiring or losing focus in this sprint.

The match is only halfway over, and we all know Kramnik is capable of winning three games. Maybe it's not to late for him to invite Gata Kamsky over to be his new second. Or at least he can rustle up a "Sanghi Nagar" t-shirt for game seven? (In 1994 Anand led Kamsky by two games with three to go in a candidates match held in that Indian city. Kamsky won twice and then won the playoff.) If Kramnik does come back to win I'll happily make him a shirt with this item's headline as a "Dewey Defeats Truman" souvenir!

Just so you know, my new G1 (aka Google phone) arrived today. We'll be off spending some quality time together for a while. It's so shiny and cute, while my three-month old daughter is already old news around here. And does she have built-in GPS? I think not. The precious, the precious...

On the other hand, I get a lot more female attention in the street when I'm carrying the baby.

[Kramnik is down one with his third of six whites. He lost his last one to Anand's brilliant preparation and play. Time to see what Vlady's got up his long sleeves. Or he could just "play chess" as the saying goes, get a little +/= going and squeeze. Deep Thought Dept: How much will Obama pay Foidos to interrupt the world championship broadcast with his 30-minute commercial? Post-game update...]

Wow. What, doesn't Kramnik want his friend Peter Svidler coming on ICC Chess.FM to commentate game 12 as scheduled? If things keep up this way there won't be a game 12. Or 11. World Champion Vishy Anand again beat Kramnik in the same incredibly sharp line of the Meran they played in game three to go up 3.5-1.5 with seven games to play. Hardly an insurmountable lead, but the how of these losses more notable than the what. Today Kramnik compounded his preparation woes with a losing blunder, allowing a very pretty winning combination that Anand saw coming a mile away. In the press conference both players evaluated the position before the 29.Nxd4 blunder as okay for Black. ("Complicated and pretty good for Black," quoth Kramnik.) Kramnik stated the obvious, that he simply missed the shot 34..Ne3!, which GMs Speelman and Har-Zvi had shown everyone on the ICC earlier. He didn't take on d4 earlier simply because he didn't see what else Black could do to improve, not because he saw and forgot the combination Anand eventually used to win.

I'm surprised to see Kramnik go head-to-head with Anand's preparation like this so soon. Trying to refute in days what your opponent and his team have worked on for months is almost always suicide. Kasparov tried it against Kramnik in 2000 and paid the price, but at least against the Berlin you don't lose when things don't work out for you. After this game Kasparov briefly opined something along the lines of what he said about game three, that Kramnik has been in his comfort zone by successfully avoiding sharp play for too long. He's just not at his best in these complications. (To these losses I'd add his brutal loss to Morozevich at the Tal Memorial. That was another king-safety blindside.) But Kramnik made his motive clear in the press conference, saying he figured he was at -1 and in these lines he's definitely going to have a chance to play for a win in a sharp position. A fair point, though giving up choice of battlefield is starting at a serious disadvantage, even apart from these being the sort of positions Anand likes and Kramnik typically avoids.

Press conference question: "Is the situation critical for you now?" Kramnik got a laugh with his physical reaction and "I think so," along with his response, "it could have been better." He continued: "No, it's still okay. There are still a few games to go and okay, minus two is a difficult situation, but not totally hopeless. I'm going still to fight, of course."

Anand varied first, a bad sign for Kramnik, playing 15..Rg8 and allowing the white bishop to come to f4 and then g3 to block the g-file. Anand then followed with the subtle-like-an-axe-to-the-forehead 17..f5!, showing that the bishop on g3 had troubles of its own. Kramnik was content with his 18.Rfc1. In the press conference he called it "a very interesting move," which is about as effusive as Big Vlad ever gets. Kramnik said he felt White should be better after that but couldn't see a way to a big advantage. He gave 22.Bxd7 Kxd7 23.Qh5 as an alternative, or 22.Qh5 directly, though he didn't see a followup after 22..Qd6. My old buddy Rob Huntington asked if Speelman's suggestion on the ICC, 23.Rd1, might not have been stronger. Kramnik agreed that 23.Rd1 is probably better than his 23.Rxc8, but that he was already getting low on time and wanted to simplify. With more time, he said he might have gone for 23.Rd1. He had already lost the thread by the time he played 27.Re1, which was based on the variations leading up to the blunder.

Anand also did battle on the stating the obvious front, saying that these Meran lines are sharp. He didn't see how White could attack without the dark-squared bishops, and combined with the central pawn mass he thought he would be okay. He saw the winning shot as early as when Kramnik played 27.Re1. He knew Nxd4 was losing, but thought he would be fine after 29.Bxd7 Bxf3 30.gxf3 Kxd7. A question to Vishy asked about lifting the rook to g5 instead of challenging on the c-file with 22..Rac8. Anand (and Kramnik earlier) emphasized the importance of the c-file.

One interesting line was given as a response to a question from GM Robert Huebner, who offered 22.b4. Kramnik said he wasn't sure if 22..Rxg2+ was then working. It looks pretty good for Black. 23.Nxg2 Rg8 24.f3 d3+ 25.Qf2 Bxf3 26.Qxb6 Rxg2+ 27.Kf1 Bxb6 is an entirely irrational position with chances of everything except a draw.

So, is it over? Coming back from -2 in seven games, and just three whites, against the world champion is no small task. Several have come close. Karpov won three in a row against Kasparov to equalize near the end of their 86 match. In 1978 Korchnoi came close to a heroic comeback against Karpov, winning games 28, 29, and 31 to tie things up before Karpov got the sixth win in game 32 to end the match. In 1954 Smyslov scored 3.5/5 at the end to draw even but then ran out of track and Botvinnik retained his title. In Bonn there are no draw odds, however.

One big question will be answered tomorrow, and that's whether or not Kramnik feels he has to start playing to win with black already. Having a repertoire dedicated to slight disadvantages and queen exchanges instead of counterplay is here a liability. Of course going for broke could lead to a fatal third loss, so they may deem it early to hit the panic button. So really the question is does Kramnik have a Plan B now that Plan A is down the, umm, toilet?

The latest scientific confirmation that my brain is melting.

Men's Reactions Peak at Age 39

This explains everything.

Scientists asked 72 men, ranging in age from 23 to 80, to tap their index fingers as fast as they could for 10 seconds. The researchers also did brain scans to measure in each subject the amount of myelin - a fatty sheath of insulation that coats nerve axons and allows for signaling bursts in our brains.

Both the tapping speed and the amount of myelin was found to decline "with an accelerating trajectory" after age 39.

The rest of the article here. I turned 39 in June. Anand will in December. It doesn't connect this to things that affect mental disciplines, but it should account at least for a drop-off in blitz reflexes. Shouldn't there be a pill for this by now? Melatonin? Gingko biloba? But of course we have Viagra and its ilk in abundance. Typical - worried more about failing below the belt than above the neck. There are probably far more scientists working on solving baldness than on preventing what's inside our skulls from falling apart as we age. Ah vanity, the quicksand of reason.

Get your thread on. Consolidate with caution or go for the kill? Kramnik has never beaten Anand with black. Chat and predictions in the message boards. Cheap Shot Dept.: Did Kramnik forget to click the link on the left before game three?

Game four drawn with no hits, no runs, and no errors. Anand again opened with 1.d4 and it looked as though he was trying to rest up from yesterday's excitement. Kramnik didn't shy away from his usual stuff this time and though he avoided the Slav he played an IQP position he's been happy to play before, including in a blitz game against Kasparov in 2001. GM Nick de Firmian tried to make it interesting on ICC Chess.FM, but the game conspired against his best efforts. Anand did get a few tiny threats on the queenside but Kramnik reacted in plenty of time. He spent a while triple-checking 24..g5! (a move Shirov and Moro would play in three seconds) before deciding there was nothing Anand could do to punish the pawn pushes before ..d4 swapped everything off the board. As usual, the pushing of the IQP led to equality and they agreed the draw a few moves later on move 29.

An acceptable result for both players. Anand apparently didn't want to try too hard to kick Kramnik while he was down, instead choosing to play for two results and psychologically consolidate after his big win. The 5.Bf4 system has been played by Ivanchuk, Topalov, and Carlsen recently so it's stodgy reputation is a little unfair. Still, as with the colors reversed in game 1, it's hard to imagine Kramnik losing this sort of position. He prudently dodged any Anand surprises in the main line with 11..Bf6 (which he played against Kasparov) with 11..Bf5. Anand tried to get something going with his queen on the queenside, but there wasn't anything there. Kramnik's fine ..h5, ..g5, ..g4 plan allowed him to get in ..d4 with a fire sale and a draw. The champ's 23.Bh3 looks strange, but Nick showed how the bishop can run into trouble on f3 in some lines. Still, it's worth a second look since Black drew easily in the game.

Overly cautious from Vishy? I don't think so. The game doesn't look like much but this line has been fairly popular lately with aggressive players going for a win. Kramnik simply responded well to neutralize the threats and a draw was the natural result. The match is 1/3 over and Anand leads 2.5-1.5 heading into the second rest day. Kramnik comes back with white on Monday with some problems to solve after he was bitten hard by Vishy's Meran prep in game three. Official site.

More soon, just wanted to get a g3 thread going. What a game! Tremendous preparation by Vishy, great fight by Kramnik despite being out of book and down on time, then a king hunt in mutual time trouble. Looks like Kramnik missed a draw by giving up his queen. Anand missed a forced mate but he had already figured out a win with another move, so only a misdemeanor.

Update #1: A condensed version of some on-the-fly comments from Garry Kasparov: "Great choice by Vishy! [With 8..a6] he dragged Kramnik into this nightmare instead of allowing him to play slowly. It was good preparation and also good psychology to kick some sand in Kramnik's face and show him he wasn't afraid. I didn't see the whole thing, but when I came back from a meeting and saw the position after 22..Rg7 I thought Kramnik had had it. At first glance it looks like the game was well played by both players. Just looking at it I'm not sure why Kramnik couldn't play 33.Kb3. Maybe he can give up his queen and still draw with the a-pawn."

Update #2: Garry's glances are usually pretty accurate and here he scores 50%, it seems. It was very well played but Black has a long and complicated win (or close to it) after 33.Kb3. The thousands of brains and processor cores that make up the global Borg of chess analysts in the 21st century have come to some necessarily tentative conclusions about the thrilling third match game. That it was a sensational piece of preparation was never really in doubt. Anand played his moves very quickly until a deep think on 19..h5. Perhaps Kramnik's capturing on d4 with the knight instead of the more natural-looking rook finally took him out of his preparation. That prep started with 14..Bb7, breathing new life into a complicated line that was considered superior for White. This is why it was such a nice piece of work. White really can't back down from the craziness after 8..a6. Black scores very nicely after the lines with a4-b4 instead of 9.e4. And the 10.d5 (instead of e5) lines haven't been popular since Karpov was having mixed results with them in the mid-90's. After White plays the desperado Nxb5 he's basically along for the ride until the point at which Anand sprung his novelty.

It was quite a good ride for White against the usual moves that dealt with the threat to the b-pawn, 14..b4 and the ugly 14..Ba6. Few top players had ventured this far for a long time. Shirov played it in the 90's and Karjakin trotted it out a few times three years ago. Kramnik surely wouldn't have minded playing those lines. Anand's aggressive new move (the move is but the position isn't, technically speaking, since it transposes into a few unknown games, two from 1946) is classic stuff, giving the pawn back for development. Black's pressure against the white kingside gets a jumpstart and the white bishop on b5 can hang in various lines. There are many spectacular variations on just about every move from 15 to the end of the game on move 41. Quite a few of them must have been analyzed by Anand and his team (and their computers) because otherwise it just looks too slow for Black.

Kramnik invested a lot of time meeting the challenge and he did so in very impressive fashion. He pressurized the d-file with an x-ray on the pinned Nd7 and took aim at the centralized black king. From the "strange computer suggestion" department comes 17.a4, which GM Jan Gustafsson could scarcely believe during our live broadcast on ICC Chess.FM. Handing Black a tempo in such a sharp position to anchor the bishop just can't be right. Kramnik kept playing logical, strong moves, as Anand bashed through his prep. Just how sharp it must have been, and how tough for Kramnik to deal with at the board, is illustrated by the move 17..Rg4! This simply looks losing to 18.Nd2 at first, threatening the rook and Nc4. But the computer shows that the rook, and then the Nd7, can be ignored! 18.Nd2 Ke7! 19.Bxd7 Rag8! insane. The threats of ..d3 and sacrifices on g3 are enough for Black to earn at least a perpetual check. In several lines he has queen and bishop plus dangerous passed center pawns against a hodgepodge of poorly coordinated white pieces and an open white king. Wonderful stuff.

Kramnik instead found the sensational piece sacrifice 18.Bf4! and the game started to take on a faint odor of immortality. Instead of defending White goes on the attack in the center at the cost of a bishop. Anand took his first think of the game before taking the bishop. We looked at the speculative 18..Rxf4 for a moment but Vishy played too quickly to allow for a deeper look. It looks like White is okay after 19.gxf4 Ke7. Kramnik surprised again by taking on d4 with the knight, playing for sacrifices on e6 that can't be avoided. The "normal" 19.Rxd4 also looked interesting for White. 19..0-0-0 20.Rad1 must be unpleasant for Black and 19..Kf8 20.Bxd7 Rd8 21.Rad1 looks solid.

Now it was the world champion's turn to burn his clock. After building up an advantage of well over an hour, he used nearly all of it over the next few moves. 19..h5, 19..Rg6 was the likely alternative, looked like it allowed a more dangerous White attack after the unavoidable knight sac on e6. But Anand saw that he was still playing for a win after 22..Rg7! Black can bail out in search of a perpetual with 22..Bxg3 23.hxg3 h4 when 24.Qh7 loses to 24..Rxg3+! Back in the game, at first the computers were quite cheery with the two extra connected passed pawns on the queenside. But White's king is in a great deal of danger. If Kramnik has a weakness it's when his king is under fire (not anyone's idea of fun, but he has defended such positions relatively poorly on several notable occasions) and here he made several dubious moves to put himself in a critical position.

Both players were under 20 minutes by move 25 and Kramnik's 25.Qe2 is one of those moves that just looks fishy even if it's hard to prove. It blocks the white king's escape route and the hit on the h5 pawn is defended by a move Black wants to make anyway to open the g-file. Such curiosities are often meaningless, but for some reason I find it meaningful that the white queen never moved again for the rest of the game as the white king was chased pillar to post. Qb3 looked like a safer bet, though Black is still calling the shots. Anand continued the play with tremendous precision, although his clock handling had us worried as both players sank under 10 minutes. 28..Bh3! was pointed out by GM Jon Speelman and it's very hard to handle. The computer wants to play 29.Rd1, offering the exchange. After 29.Rd1 Bg4 30.Qe3 Qxe3+ 31.fxe3 Bxd1 32.Kxd1 Rg2 33.Kc1 it's a difficult race with all three results in play. Black can instead opt to keep the attack going with 29..Bf5 or the tricky 29..Rg1+ 30.Kd2 Rg2.

Kramnik played 29.Ra3, after which it appears there is no way to survive. All three black pieces coordinate in the attack on the king. With both players dipping under five minutes, White could have gone for the computer recommendation of giving up the exchange by playing 32.Rd3 Bf5 33.Kb3, but this is much harder for White with the queens still on the board. What happened next was remarkable. Kramnik blocked the check with 33.Bd3, which loses instantly to 33.Bxd3 34.Rxd3 Qc4+ and either the white queen is lost or it's mate in one on c1. Anand ignored the mate and instantly replied 33..Bh3, a clear example of sticking with a winning plan instead of looking around for a better one when in time trouble. Kramnik desperately gave up his queen and ran his a-pawn but it wasn't nearly enough to stop him from losing the house to checks. He resigned after reaching the time control.

A magnificent game worthy of the world championship and a win worthy of the world champion. Anand combined preparation, aggression, and precision into a lethal package. Kramnik gave as good as he got, holding the balance against Anand's preparation with sacrificial flair. The discussion around Kasparov's suggestion (a little unfair to pin it to him since he didn't do any analysis) of 33.Kb3 seems to have moved conclusively to a win for Black, but it's a sharp and long series of checks that even the computers need a while to figure out. With my silicon running on just one core during the game it thought Kb3 was okay for White, at least not immediately losing. At first the comps need a minute to see that 33.Kb3 Rc1 34.a5 Rc2 35.Qxc2 Bxc2+ 36.Kxc2 Qc5+ 37.Kb1 Qxb5 38.a6 is a draw.

That sends them back to find something better and eventually they work out a long sequence starting with 34..Qd5+ that looks close to winning for Black. Still, for a human to reproduce it, especially with a minute or two on the clock, would have been nearly impossible. And the White a-pawn is dangerous, making a perpetual a perpetual temptation. The main line according to my four cores: 35.Bc4 Qb7+ 36.Bb5 Rc5 (36..Rc2 seems even stronger, but also very hard) 37.Kb4 Rc2 38.Qe3 Rxb2+ 39.Rb3 Qe7+ 40.Kc4 Qc7+ and Black has gotten one pawn back while keeping a very dangerous attack into the second time control. But it's notable that even at 10 million nodes per second the comp can't find a forced win of material here, so it's still a game. The a-pawn always offers drawing chances even with rook vs queen. Also note that if Black plays one move differently at just about any point in that line it's a draw or worse. Objectively we can't say 33.Kb3 would saved White's bacon, although it was definitely the best try. I wouldn't go as far as saying the 33.Bd3 blunder ruined the game though.

Many analysis links in the comments, including GM Miguel Illescas's typically excellent work on the official site. He probably didn't have time to look at the 34..Qd5+ winning attempt.

Whew! Will Anand kick Kramnik while he's down or get cautious with nine games still remaining? Knowing Vishy, he's just going to go out and play chess, sticking to whatever plan he had at the start. The early win by Anand is quite different than an early win by Kramnik. As the more solid player in general, Kramnik may soon be forced to give up catenaccio and go with three strikers. But not yet. This isn't the first time he's trailed in a world championship match and he can take heart that both times previously (04 against Leko and 06 against Topalov) he's fought back to even the score.

Ironically, or just presciently, my first trivia question of the day on Chess.FM, written the night before, was "Who was he last player to defeat Kramnik with black in a classical game?" That one's not too hard. But to name the player who did it before that you have to go back to 2006.

[Just a temporary title for a game 2 discussion thread. Garry called it: 1.d4!]

Yes, Vishy eschewed his usual 1.e4, Kramnik played a Nimzo, Anand went for the f3 variation (in his rare recent 1.d4 forays Anand has only played 4.Nf3), and Kramnik delved into the history books with ..f5. Black came out fine and though he had to sac his h-pawn he got good compensation and the white bishop pair was kept under wraps. The players agreed to a draw on move 32 in mutual time trouble. A dynamic and interesting game, just the sort of thing Anand must be hoping for. And surely the sort of thing he needs to play out, since it's so hard to get active, unbalanced positions against Kramnik.

And that's the problem. Nobody is qualified to say they should have gone against their best instincts and played on. But I really must count this as a knock on Anand for letting a chance to mix it up turn into a draw by mutual fear. Kramnik is so solid, so well prepared, and so good at turning White's first move into sterile equality that you have to press hard whenever you get the chance. I can easily imagine several of Anand's whites turning to dust against Kramnik's preparation, so a chance like this can't be squandered.

Of course Vishy knows all this and must have thought he was borderline worse, or at least with the more difficult position with just minutes on both clocks. And Sofia rules would be draconian considering the subtleties of match strategy, etc. Still, as I believe Russianbear put it in the shoutbox, this one could come back to haunt Anand. It's very early and if you aren't going to take chances with ten games left, when will you? But okay, Kramnik practically took a pass with his first white and the match is still even, just shorter. And I think most would agree Anand would have the advantage in rapid tiebreaks, nerves notwithstanding. Kramnik has said as much himself.

I must say it was nice just to see these guys slugging it out. Finally, Kramnik versus Anand! We've been waiting for this for a long time and this was a good game. Kramnik, a master of the bishop pair himself, was very instructive in neutralizing Anand's. Right out of the Nimzo primers. He confidently trotted out 8..f5, which was played by Tal, Petrosian, and Korchnoi 50 years ago and few luminaries since. Anand, Leko, Topalov, and many other current top players have played the more common 8..Qa5 in recent years. Karpov has played both, however, and it's anything Karpov plays cannot be called anti-positional almost by definition.

Black's play with 14..Ba6 continued along classical strictures, forcing White to either give up the bishop pair or limit the bishops' mobility. After 16..Ng4 White never got a chance to catch up in development. When he threatened to, Kramnik found a nice plan to sac his h-pawn to keep White bottled up. It forced the swap of knights and allowed the black pawn to get to e5, jamming the bishops. Anand was only able to move his rooks toward the end of the game and the ended up on squares that exemplified how uncoordinated his pieces were. But he did still have an extra pawn in the final position and if the bishops had already endured 30 moves of suffering why not eight more? It doesn't look like Black is crashing through after the ugly 33.c5 Nf4 34.Re3 Rh6 35.Kh2. Not the sort of moves you want to make in time pressure, but it's still up to Black to prove compensation. White's threatening Bc3 and it's not easy to keep the bishops under control while blitzing. Again, Anand's the champ so you don't fault his judgment, but it does look like he blinked here. Heck, just his being in time trouble is news.

Now Kramnik's team has to work on 1.d4 too. The Nimzo was a good solid choice here against someone who doesn't play d4 often. Still, you'd think Kramnik would go back to his Slav if Anand continues with d4. He knows it better and must have lots of goodies stored up. As for game three, no way in hell it's another Exchange Slav. It's time to take the gloves off and it's time to break out the Catalan or see if Vishy is up to putting the Slav up to Kramnik's scrutiny. They even danced in the hot ultra-sharp Semi-Slav in Mexico City last year and it would be spectacular to see that again. A commentator can dream, can't he?

[Thank goodness this isn't in Munich. What rhymes with Munich? Punic? Eunuch in Munich?]

Kramnik used the Exchange Slav to warm up a bit and get a risk-free position with his first white. Anand was never in any danger after simplifications and Kramnik soon agreed there was nothing to play for. It was the sort of position Kramnik adores, but there just wasn't enough meat on the bones for a meal even for him, at least not against Anand. 21.Re2 is one of the few suggestions for this one other than "don't play the Exchange Slav."

Kramnik might win such bland positions 1/10 against average GMs, but against Vishy it would probably be closer to 1/30. But the ice has been broken, swords have been crossed, and the nerves and opening jitters have been released. Now let's hope we can get down to business. Will Kramnik walk right into Anand's Petroff preparation or does he have some surprises in store to gain time? Kasparov has another theory, mentioned at the bottom.

Your might think that because of those initial nerves the first game of a world championship is special mostly for historic reasons, not chess reasons. But we do get action and drama with surprising regularity. There is a relatively high percentage of decisive first games. An amazing 25 of 38 game ones were decisive! That's 65.7% compared to 44.6% decisive for non-first games.

1886 Zukertort-Steinitz. The eventual match winner takes the first game only to lose the next four in a row. Hmm, something I never noticed before: Steinitz trailed at one point in all five of his world championship matches. Even his rout of Chigorin in 1889 wasn't a rout. He trailed the Russian three separate times in the first half of the match.

Lasker won game one of his first four WCh matches (Steinitz twice, Marshall, Tarrasch). Of course Schlechter broke that streak, which Lasker resumed when he flattened Janowski in 1910.

Alekhine put Capablanca on notice with a blistering win in game one. He wouldn't win again for another three weeks. The shortest decisive game one was Alekhine's demolition of his favorite client Bogoljubov in their first match in 1929. Black was getting mated with his king on d7 after 26 moves. Against Euwe, Alekhine won the first game in the match he lost and lost the first game in the match he won.

Botvinnik and Smylov reversed that trend in their three matches. All three first games were decisive and all three were won by the eventual winner of the match. Or, in the case of the 1954 match, by the player who kept his title by virtue of draw odds. Tal famously took out Botvinnik's French in their first match and went on to win. Botvinnik returned the favor a year later, winning game one and the match. The Patriarch also beat Petrosian in game one in 1963, but could score only one more victory and lost his title.

That mirrored how Petrosian lost the crown to Spassky six years later, winning the first game with black but losing the match. Of course the most famous game one of all, one of the most analyzed games in chess history, was Fischer's loss to Spassky. Pawn grab blunder or calculated risk? Only game two from that match was analyzed more. So three new champions in a row lost the first game.

Game one of Korchnoi-Karpov 1978 was the shortest first game ever, an 18-move draw. Three years later Karpov won the first two games and then three out of four. He also started strongly against Kasparov in 1984, though they drew the first two contests. The famous Marathon Match looked more like it would be but a short sprint at the start as Karpov won four and drew five to start. But then...

Kasparov needed 32 games to score his first win over Karpov in their first match in 84. He only needed one game in their second. He did trail in the match after five games, however, and didn't take the lead for good until the 16th game. (Ahh, feels so good to write "16th game." This 12-game stuff is for sissies. 20 ought to be a legal minimum.) The two K's drew the first game in each of their subsequent three matches.

One of the most dramatic first games ever was Kasparov's win over Nigel Short in 1993 -- on time in what had gone from a winning position to a difficult one in time trouble. Short failed to exploit a superior position in game two, lost games three and four and the match was over. Anand and Kasparov 1995 started out with eight consecutive draws, still a record. Anand drew first blood in the 9th game but then, as he put it, had a tiger by the tail and couldn't hold on. Kasparov won four of the next five to make the final score look a lot worse for Anand than the match really was.

Kramnik unveiled the now-legendary Berlin Defense against Kasparov in the very first game of their 2000 match in London. Perhaps even more critically for the eventual result, he demolished Kasparov's choice for black, the Grunfeld, in game two with a strong novelty. Feeling at sea at the board after just two games Kasparov alternately flailed and faltered, not winning a single game from fifteen. Kramnik again started off well in 2004, beating an over-pressing Peter Leko on the black side with some deep preparation in the Petroff. Remarkably, Kramnik's only wins in the match were the first game and the last, which he had to win to tie the match and retain his title.

Against Topalov in 2006, Kramnik jumped out to an early lead again, though more thanks to his opponent than in the earlier matches. Like Leko in 04, Topalov pressed for a win in game one and ended up with a loss. It was even worse for the Bulgarian in the second game, when he had a clear forced win missed by both players and went on to lose again.

In light of all that, today's Exchange Slav looks even tamer. Kasparov wondered if Anand might not try to rub Kramnik the wrong way in game two by opening with something other than his habitual 1.e4. "Leko switched to d4 against Kramnik and had success. Anand could try the same thing." This makes me wonder if the world would be a different place today had Kasparov more quickly come to that conclusion himself in 2000!

Here's the official site, but there's nothing there I can see yet. Post your links to analysis, photos, and other coverage. Joel Benjamin and I had fun on ICC Chess.FM goofing off with listeners and playing their calls on the air. Also giving away a lot of stuff. Need to kill some time with a game like this one, though newly proud papa Joel did a great job of making it interesting and educational, as always.

The excellent "From London to Elista" by Evgeny Bareev and Ilya Levitov has won the only chess book award anybody knows or cares about, the English Chess Federation 2008 Book of the Year Award. Published by my buddies over at New In Chess, it is that rarest of things, an open accounting that wears its prejudices on its sleeve, making it insightful and revealing instead of the usual pap of false modesty and sarcastic pseudo-objectivity. The judges' report is here (pdf); its heading: "The judges this year had no difficulty choosing a book which gives a remarkable inside view of match play chess at the highest level."

Any other good recent chess books? I honestly don't bother with much beyond the occasional game collection by someone I know and/or like. We could start having guest reviews on occasion if there's interest.

This is it! Tomorrow is game one of the 2008 world championship match between incumbent Vishy Anand and incumbent-to-some Vlady Kramnik. The game begins at 1500 local time in Bonn, Germany and 9am EDT. Note that Germany ends Daylight Saving Time on Sunday the 26th and the US doesn't, so starting with game nine the games begin at 10am EDT. The schedule is two games, rest, two games, rest until the end, when there is a rest day on October 30 between games 11 and 12. If necessary, the four tiebreak rapid games will take place on November 2. The time control is my favorite: classical with no increment until the third control after move 60. (40/2, 20/1, g/15'+30".) Kramnik has white in games 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12.

The results of our poll to pick the winner were as close as could be. It was 52-48 Kramnik until the last day or two when it edged a bit toward a dead heat, ending at 51-49 Kramnik after 1267 votes. Coincidentally, Garry Kasparov stated a few weeks ago that it was very even and that if he had to give an opinion it would be 52-48 for Kramnik. Kasparov and several other experts I've spoken with have mentioned what they call Kramnik's off the board advantage since he is very close with the organizers and sponsors and can expect to feel a little home-field advantage. Anand tends to hope for the best and not fuss over such things until they actually come to pass, by which point it's too late to do much about them. Let's hope all the fighting is on the board this time around.

Live coverage isn't as simple as should be in this event. The official site barely makes mention of the existence of an official live broadcaster, called FOIDOSchess, that is promising live multi-camera video and commentary on a pay-per-view basis. (9 euros/13 dollars per round). It's my understanding that all other broadcasts must be delayed by 30 minutes, although how they plan to enforce this is unclear. (Don't get me started on move copyrights for the zillionth time.) By mutual agreement, I suppose. I can't find anything else on the official site about a broadcast, delayed or not. Weird. We'll see what appears tomorrow. It would be sad if you couldn't even follow the bare moves without a delay without paying money. It's hard to believe the organizers think that 30 minutes will make the difference between paying to watch and not paying. Either you have a quality broadcast service worth paying for or you don't. Getting the ICC and others to delay by 30' isn't going to lead their members to buy your service if it's not excellent anyway. Unless fans are more desperate than I thought.

I'll be on ICC Chess.FM with GM Joel Benjamin one way or another, live or live-ish, depending, and Macauley Peterson is in Bonn for the ICC for on-site coverage and video. We also have New In Chess prizes for trivia during the live show, House of Staunton chess sets each round for Game of the Day trivia prizes, and Kasparov-signed books for best listener call in each day, sponsored by Everyman Chess. If you're an ICC member and have Skype, you can call in with your thoughts on the World Championship and maybe your call will be played on the air. Just Skype 'iccchessfm' and give your ICC member name at the start.

Opening press conference reports at ChessBase and ChessVibes. If this is where we'll be getting our photos let's hope one or both of them learn to use the white balance setting on their digital cameras before the games begin. (Hint: not "auto".) Or at least the 'set white point' in Photoshop. Jaundice has a cure... See what I mean?

I may have missed this coming out during the last Kasparov hurricane to hit New York. Info on the players' teams. Anand: Peter Heine Nielsen, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Radoslaw Wojtaszek. Kramnik: Peter Leko, Sergei Rublevsky, Laurent Fressinet. An interesting cast, especially the choice of fellow top-tenner Leko. This continues Kramnik's habit of working with super-elite players as well as the usual young and creative hard-workers. Leko, an e4 player like Anand, drew a WCh match with Kramnik in 2004. And of course there is the off-stage cast as well. No doubt both players have contracted theoretical work from any number of GM contributors. [New interview with Kramnik just posted on ChessBase. He lists the same three players