Anand Establishes Three Point Lead
By Arvind Aaron
 

World champion Viswanathan Anand is playing chess at his best. In a recent interview Anand said, "my best years were the last three." Challenge from the likes of Magnus Carlsen are real, but, Anand is enjoying and also playing at a great new level.

In game six, Anand repeated the queen pawn he did earlier in the match and came across the Nimzo-Indian defence from Kramnik. In a Classical variation, Anand got a bishop against knight advantage from a middlegame without queens. Rather than defend, Kramnik went for an aggressive 18th move and it cost him a pawn.

Thereafter, Kramnik played like a rookie gambler. He kept pressure on white but it came at the cost of more pawns. When he had lost two pawns, Anand was in the driver seat. It was clear that Kramnik was under the pressure of a two point deficit and he added more trouble by losing the ending in 47 moves to go three down.

Anand deserved every bit of the success so far. His preparation with black has been spot on. He cashed the opportunity that game in game six and his white games in games two and four were secure draws. The scoreline reads 4.5-1.5 in favour of the Indian and Anand should be home soon. Kramnik gets a welcome break on Oct 22 which is a free day.

Anand made some deft knight and king moves. Many of them can be comparable to the moves he made against Shirov at Tehran 2000 when he became world champion for the first time. If he wins this match, Anand will be champion for the third time, which very few have achieved in chess history.

Chess aficionados would have realised that in each of the three games that Anand won, he did not castle. Is that the new mantra for winning? In four of the six games he did not castle in the match and we have only seen half the match so far. The organisers are sure to receive a major setback as ticket sales at Bonn are sure to nosedive at this stage.

It is difficult to predict for a player who has lost the last three of his four games in a match. Perhaps the experts were right, the Russian challenge is over at this stage. Anand needs 2/6 or four draws from the last six games to keep his title. The players had already agreed to share the 1.5 million Euro prize money put up by The Evonik Industries A.G. The match is played for the title.

The moves:

Viswanathan Anand-Vladimir Kramnik
Game 6, Nimzo-Indian Defence, Classical E34
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 d5 5. cxd5 Qxd5 6. Nf3 Qf5 7. Qb3 Nc6 8. Bd2 O-O 9. h3 b6 10. g4 Qa5 11. Rc1 Bb7 12. a3 Bxc3 13. Bxc3 Qd5 14. Qxd5 Nxd5 15. Bd2 Nf6 16. Rg1 Rac8 17. Bg2 Ne7 18. Bb4 c5 19. dxc5 Rfd8 20. Ne5 Bxg2 21. Rxg2 bxc5 22. Rxc5 Ne4 23. Rxc8 Rxc8 24. Nd3 Nd5 25. Bd2 Rc2 26. Bc1 f5 27. Kd1 Rc8 28. f3 Nd6 29. Ke1 a5 30. e3 e5 31. gxf5 e4 32. fxe4 Nxe4 33. Bd2 a4 34. Nf2 Nd6 35. Rg4 Nc4 36. e4 Nf6 37. Rg3 Nxb2 38. e5 Nd5 39. f6 Kf7 40. Ne4 Nc4 41. fxg7 Kg8 42. Rd3 Ndb6 43. Bh6 Nxe5 44. Nf6+ Kf7 45. Rc3 Rxc3 46. g8=Q+ Kxf6 47. Bg7+ 1-0.
 

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