Anand Makes It Third Time
By Arvind Aaron

Viswanathan Anand is the king of World Chess and there is no doubt now. He drew the eleventh game in 24 moves with the white pieces to take the Bonn match 6.5-4.5 with a round to spare.

Anand, 1969-born NIIT Brand Ambassador laid to rest all speculation of who the best player in the world is today by winning games 3, 5, 6. Kramnik won the tenth game. Games 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9 and 11 were drawn. Game 12 was not necessary.

Rs.1,21,701 Per Move!

Anand earned 750,000 Euros or Rs. 4.72 Crores from this match. He earned about Rs.121,701 per move made for statistics sake! Evonik Industries A.G. was the sponsor for this match.

Anand became world champion first in 2000 at Tehran when he defeated Shirov in the FIDE Title match. In Mexico 2007 he won the tournament format of the World
Championship. In the return match, he won with a comfort of a game to spare to keep the title. Anand will face the winner of the Topalov v Kamsky match in
the end of 2009.

Chennai born Anand is a modest sporting star who is a role model to many in and outside the chess field. He lives in Chennai and also in Madrid or Frankfurt if he is not playing a tournament.

Anand has achieved all a chess player can. The future challenge will be younger and Anand can find ways to overcome them. Anand enjoys chess playing and will be following the Korchnoi way of playing longer and not retiring like Kasparov.

Anand should probably be awarded the Bharat Ratna for not excellence but domination of the chess world for long. He had won the second highest civilian award of Padma Vibushan already. Anand has been the most consistent player at the top for atleast 15 years.

In the chess field, Anand's popularity is large and this victory will make things better. In terms of popularity Anand should be close to Fischer and Kasparov. There is nothing much in chess for Anand. His chess success has generated a huge wave of players in India.

Anand's approach to the match was unique and that helped him to surprise Kramnik in the openings. Openings and defence was Kramnik's forte. Anand's preparation as black except for game ten was startling. It also gave him two wins and that put the pressure on Kramnik. Anand selected the tactical or sharper positions when possible and it gave him the match.

Anand anticipated a close and nervous match in his pre-match interview. Kramnik approached the match with some nervousness at the start and Anand was a bit nervous at the end. It was a short, yet, fighting match.

Anand is here to stay as champion much longer. And he is fit to win more matches and break many records. Since he had planned to play 1.d4 in the match, we know why his results in Bilbao were not comparable to any of his previous tournament results. He had hid the main surprise, 1.d4. Anand worked hard and long for this match from April of this year.

Game Eleven

In his sixth turn with the white pieces, Anand played his favourite first move 1.e4 for the first time in the match. Responding to the match situation, Kramnik chose the Sicilian Najdorf, the most logical way to stay in the fight. The Petroff's defence is the worst for playing for a win.

After selecting a rare seventh move Qc7, Kramnik went for one of the side variations and had come prepared for this atleast during the last free day if not before the match. Anand was seen taking time for his alternatives and sacrificed a pawn in an attempt to wrest the initiative out of black's early lodging of the queen in the centre of the board.

Needing a draw for a win, Anand looked aggressive, the best way to make a draw. His move 13 was very practical in the sense that his queen was aiming to take control of the key black squares of c7 and b6 with Qb6.

The Russian camp looked more tense during the day, said Vijay Kumar of Delhi from Bonn. He produces Television programmes for the AICF and Doordarshan. For the first 15 moves, the players had already used up their first 60 minutes on their clocks. Kramnik had lost the castling right on the king side.

The game was in balance and when the queens were exchanged off, Kramnik offered a draw along with his 24th move which was accepted by the Indian. One would have expected any other player to try on for another 20 moves but Kramnik was gentle and played true to the position.

The moves:

Viswanathan Anand-Vladimir Kramnik
Match Game 11, Sicilian Najdorf, B96
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Qc7 8. Bxf6 gxf6 9. f5 Qc5 10. Qd3 Nc6 11. Nb3 Qe5 12. O-O-O exf5 13. Qe3 Bg7 14. Rd5 Qe7
15. Qg3 Rg8 16. Qf4 fxe4 17. Nxe4 f5 18. Nxd6+ Kf8 19. Nxc8 Rxc8 20. Kb1 Qe1+ 21. Nc1 Ne7 22. Qd2 Qxd2 23. Rxd2 Bh6 24. Rf2 Be3 1/2-1/2.

 

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