Historic triumph for Anand

By Arvind Aaron

MAINZ, JULY 1. Viswanathan Anand won the battle between the two `World champions' defeating Vladimir Kramnik of Russia 5-5, 1.5- 0.5 in the tie-break of the LRP Landesbank Rheinland-Pfalz chess match which concluded here on Sunday.

Anand produced the magic with speed, clarity in thinking and kept Kramnik out of contention from the very start in both tie-break games. The prize money for this match has not been officially announced as it is part of the Mainz Chess Classic.

The blitz tie-break was triggered after the regular rapid games were tied at 5-5 after the best of ten games finished, with Kramnik winning game three and Anand winning game five.

In the first tie-break game, Anand was his best and he gave a scintillating display defeating the Sicilian Defence of Kramnik with pawn sacrifice. Tearing through black's king side, Anand invested in more than a minute on the deadly 21st move which swept Kramnik's defences off balance.

Kramnik sat there chewing his nails and shook his head in disbelief as time ran into the last few seconds. The 25th move by Anand was a beauty and it banked on a queen sacrifice leading to mate on the black king. On the 28th move he forced Kramnik to resign when he threatened to mate black with Qc4 check.

In their reverse blitz game, Anand accepted the queen's gambit as black and Kramnik made a hasty mistake on the 14th turn and had to pay for it till the end with lack of development. Clamping white's queen side pieces, in what looked like a traffic jam, Kramnik took time to extricate from the mess he created from the opening.

Just when white seemed to have recovered, Anand's brilliance shone when he offered a bishop for a promising attack. This attack should have give him victory but Anand took perpetual checks, as it was enough to win this prestigious match.

Earlier, Kramnik who missed two chances on Saturday to reestablish lead, arrived just on time as Anand waited for the Russian to arrive. The game began swiftly with Kramnik opting for the queen's gambit for the fifth time in the match and Anand responded by accepting the gambit for as many times.

The opening turned out into an isolated queen pawn. Kramnik sacrificed the central pawn for attack and greater board room for his pieces. They followed Kasparov's game against Anand from Wijk aan Zee 1999 which also ended in a quick draw. Kramnik improved on the 18th move with a novelty but it did not alter the even course the game has been taking.

After 22 moves, Kramnik sat a little uneasily since the opening advantage for white had aparently vanished. The talk of draw dominated spectator chat. About 400 spectators had come for the final day, nothing close to the 500 plus capacity audience witnessed last year. Chess is increasingly followed online with several sites covering live or semi-live news from the table.

After 25 moves, Kramnik's only advantage was on the clock and it started to dissipate as he looked for tricks. With almost no weaknesses to play for on either Kramnik offered a draw along with his 26th move which Anand accepted.

At the end of the game Kramnik thought it was his own invention while he was told that it was Kasparov's recommendation (18.a4) which white followed. It was a fight for a trivial advantage in the central squares and black had total control in stopping white's king's side attack.

The final rapid game started with Anand playing white and still preferring his king pawn for the fifth time. Kramnik chose the Petroff's defence, his pet variation but for the first time in the match. He had played the Berlin variation of the Ruy Lopez twice, the Arkhangelsk variation once and an obscure variation of the Sicilian defence with 4...Qb6 once. His strategy for this match has been to ``jump'' openings unlike what he did in the match against Kasparov at London last year.

Here, Anand as white sacrificed a pawn which was part of theory and Kramnik played a new 16th move improving over 16...Nd5 which was played by his trainer Miguel Illescas as black against GM Magem Badals from the French league last year. The improvement brought the game close to equality and after Anand made his 18th move, he could not stop black from equalising completely. By exchanging queens on the 19th turn Anand proposed a draw which Kramnik accepted.

In both rapid games Anand took longer time and looked less tense he was in the earlier days of this contest. The 5-5 rapid score came as a result of low quality games from both sides and the match was marred by tension on the players. It looked as if both players had invested most of their time on preparing with the black pieces that none of the white players won a single game of the ten.

The moves: GM V. Anand-GM V. Kramnik, tie-break (five minute plus five seconds per move), game one, Sicilian Defence, B33: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6 5.Nb3 Nf6 6.Nc3 e6 7.Qe2 Bb4 8.Bd2 0-0 9.a3 Be7 10.0-0-0 d6 11.g4 a6 12.g5 Nd7 13.h4 Qc7 14.f4 b5 15.Kb1 b4 16.axb4 Nxb4 17.f5 Rb8 18.Bf4 exf5 19.exf5 Ne5 20.Bh3 Re8 21.g6 hxg6 22.Bxe5 dxe5 23. fxg6 fxg6 24.h5 Bf5 25.hxg6 Bxh3 26.Rxh3 Bg5 27.Ne4 Bf4 28.Nbc5 1-0.

GM V. Kramnik-GM V. Anand, tie-break, game two, queen's gambit, D27: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 e6 4.e3 Nf6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.0-0 a6 7.Bb3 Nbd7 8.Qe2 b5 9.e4 Bb7 10.d5 c4 11.dxe6 fxe6 12.Bc2 Bd6 13.b3 Ne5 14.Nbd2 c3 15.Nb1 Nxf3+ 16.Qxf3 b4 17.a3 a5 18.Qh3 e5 19.axb4 axb4 20.Rxa8 Bxa8 21.Qe6+ Qe7 22.Qc8+ Qd8 23.Qa6 0-0 24.Rd1 Ng4 25.Qxd6 Qh4 26.Qc5 Qxh2+ 27.Kf1 Rxf2+ 28.Qxf2 Nxf2 29.Kxf2 Qh4+ 30.Kf3 Qh5+ 31.Ke3 Qg5+ 32.Kf2 Qh4+ 33.Kf3 h5 34.Rf1 Qg4+ 35.Ke3 Qxg2 36.Bd3 Qg3+ 37.Ke2 Qg4+ 38.Ke3 Qg3+ Draw agreed. Time left: 0.15/2.37.

GM V. Kramnik-GM V. Anand, rapid match, game nine, queen's gambit accepted, D27: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 e6 4.e3 Nf6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.0- 0 a6 7.Bb3 cxd4 8.exd4 Nc6 9.Nc3 Be7 10.Re1 0-0 11.Bf4 Na5 12.Bc2 b5 13.d5 exd5 14.Qd3 Nc6 15.Bc7 Qd7 16.Ne5 Nxe5 17.Bxe5 g6 18.a4 Bb7 19. axb5 axb5 20.Qxb5 Qxb5 21.Nxb5 Rxa1 22.Rxa1 Rc8 23.Bd3 Nd7 24.Bc3 Nc5 25.Bf1 Ba6 26.Nd4 Draw. Time left: 08.10/07.35.

GM V. Anand-GM V. Kramnik, rapid match, game ten, Petroff's defence, C42: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.0-0 Be7 8.Re1 Bg4 9.c4 Nf6 10.Nc3 Bxf3 11.Qxf3 Nxd4 12.Qd1 Ne6 13.Bf5 dxc4 14.Qa4+ c6 15.Bxe6 fxe6 16.Qxc4 0-0 17.Qxe6+ Rf7 18.Be3 Qd6 19.Qxd6 Draw. Time left: 14.48/16.45.

Adams, Leko post wins

MAINZ, JULY 1. Pocket Fritz failed to live up to the expectations of Fritz, when it lost both the Chess Base matches to Michael Adams of England and Peter Leko of Hungary in Saturday's rapid chess matches.

The moves: GM M.Adams-Pocket Fritz, rapid game, match game one, Sicilian defence, B50: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 e6 4.d3 Nf6 5.0-0 a6 6.Bb3 Be7 7.Re1 Nc6 8.c3 0-0 9.Nbd2 Bd7 10.Nf1 Qb6 11.Rb1 Na5 12.Bc2 Rad8 13.Bg5 h6 14.Bh4 Nc6 15.Ne3 Qc7 16.Rc1 b5 17.Bb1 a5 18.d4 Qb6 19.e5 dxe5 20.dxe5 Nd5 21.Nxd5 exd5 22.Qc2 g6 23.e6 Bxh4 24.Nxh4 Bxe6 25.Rxe6 1-0.

- Our Chess Correspondent

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