Anand has won the Chess World Championships again. He drew the last game against Vladimir Kramnik and won the championship.
Some links to the stories
http://www.rediff.com/sports/2008/oct/29father.htm
http://www.rediff.com/sports/2008/oct/29anand.htm
Anand is very close to winning the Chess World Championship. With Kramnik nearly 3 points behind and Anand to play 4 games with White, it could be all but curtains for Vladimir Kramnik.
The Indian ace, who started the 12-game match with black pieces, will play with white pieces in the seventh game and it all looks effectively over for Kramnik at the halfway stage itself with the score reading 4.5-1.5 in favour of Anand.
In the news conference after the sixth game that he lost, Kramnik admitted that the world match title could be heading to India yet again.
Losing his third game out of last four, the Russian’s expressions said it all if not his words. Kramnik perfectly realised that the 3-point deficit would probably be too great to overcome.
When asked about his chances, Kramnik deflected the question, saying “I just have to try to show good chess, to try to play better and win a game. If I do this maybe I could get some chances at the end of the match…” with his voice trailing off at the end of the sentence.
The customary quote of the Russian “I will fight”, also went missing for the first time.
The sixth game was opened by legendary world champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia who made the first move on behalf of Anand. It was only a coincidence that Anand won the sixth game in true-Karpov style: confusing Kramnik, probing his defences and finally making him suffer a great deal before the Russian finally resigned.
Looking back, it is easy to say that Kramnik was simply not himself coming into this match and Anand was the better player. The stage was set in the third game that the Indian ace won with consummate ease and another victory in the fifth game as black sealed Kramnik’s hopes.
Going by history, only Boris Spassky was able to produce some excellent chess after trailing by a huge margin against Robert (Bobby) Fischer in the famous 1972 match. In recent years, the top players are not known for doing this in big competitions.
Just before the match, Anand did not try much to improve his last spot at the Bilbao Grand Slam while Kramnik’s show in the Tal Memorial and at Dortmund were also forgettable.
It looks like party time for Anand and Co. already. As things stand, it will be a miracle if Kramnik can last till the final game.
Anand scored a facile victory against Vladimir Kramnik, in the 5th game of the World Chess Championship. Playing black, Anand did an encore and defeated Vladimir in 35 moves. With seven rounds still to come it’s probably not all-over for Kramnik, but the Russian will have to strike back very quickly in order to stay in the match. As things stand, Anand has four white games remaining out of sevens and some experts say that the Indian is all set to retain the World Championship crown.
Here is a report on Anand’s preparation for the World Chess Championships.
Indian ace Viswanathan Anand named former World champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov as one of his seconds for the high-profile World Championship match against Russian Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik , which gets underway in Bonn, Germany , on Tuesday.
Apart from Kasimdzhanov, Anand will also utilize the services of his trusted partner Peter Heine Nielsen of Denmark, Radoslav Wojtaszek of Poland and Indian national champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly.
The championship, to be played over 12 classical games and then — in the event of a tied result — over games of shorter duration, carries a total prize pool of Euro 1.5 million, which will be equally split between the players.
After Kramnik’s announcement of having Hungarian Peter Leko in his camp, there was much speculation on Anand’s team composition for the historical match. The Indian showed he indeed had an ace up his sleeves in the form of Kasimdzhanov, a former World champion in the knock-out format.
Apart from Leko, Kramnik’s two other seconds are Sergey Rublevskyi (Russia ) and Laurent Fressinet (France ).
Meanwhile, Kasimdzhanov’s appointment also ended speculation over Magnus Carlsen’s possible presence in Anand’s team. The Norwegian wonder-kid will be playing the European Club Cup in Greece during the World Championship.
Going by track record, Kramnik holds a slight edge as he had beaten now-retired Garry Kasparov in the year 2000.
Besides, the Russian also was clearly the better player in the last such match when he beat Veselin Topalov.
Anand, on the other hand, has had some fine victories in the past but the big handicap that the Indian faces now is lack of big match practice in the recent past.
Anand and Kramnik have already inspected the playing venue. Both were not comfortable with their chairs, so they had to be replaced. Rest rooms were checked next.
The match consists of 12 games, played under classical time controls — 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds per move, starting from move 61.
Vishy Anand is having a poor run at the stakes nowadays. He has lost his top position in the latest ranking that has been announced by the world ranking body FIDE. So much so, Anand has always been in the top 3 for over a decade now and this is probably the first time that he has dropped beyond the top 3 and hopefully for the last time.
As if by co-incidence Vishy will be facing Kramnik in his World Title defence . Kramnik is just below Anand at raking 6. Topolev holds the top spot. Here are the top 10 rankings
| Rank | Name | Title | Country | Rating | Games | B-Year |
| 1 | Topalov, Veselin | g | BUL | 2791 | 10 | 1975 |
| 2 | Morozevich, Alexander | g | RUS | 2787 | 9 | 1977 |
| 3 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | g | UKR | 2786 | 50 | 1969 |
| 4 | Carlsen, Magnus | g | NOR | 2786 | 31 | 1990 |
| 5 | Anand, Viswanathan | g | IND | 2783 | 10 | 1969 |
| 6 | Kramnik, Vladimir | g | RUS | 2772 | 16 | 1975 |
| 7 | Aronian, Levon | g | ARM | 2757 | 23 | 1982 |
| 8 | Radjabov, Teimour | g | AZE | 2751 | 23 | 1987 |
| 9 | Leko, Peter | g | HUN | 2747 | 16 | 1979 |
| 10 | Jakovenko, Dmitry | g | RUS | 2737 | 39 | 1983 |
FIDE has announced the Top 100. There are a total of 3 Indians in the Top 100. Vishy Anand at 5, Krishnan Sasikiran at 35 , Harikrisha P at 62.
Vishwanathan Anand beat Kramnik in the rapid game in the first round of Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament being held in Nice, France. After drawing with Vladimir Kramnik in the opening blindfold game, world champion Viswanathan Anand [ defeated the Russian in their rapid match in the first round of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament in Nice, France [
Anand emerged as a joint leader in the rapid and combined standings after beating Kramnik.
In the rapid, the Indian is joined by Armenia’s Levon Aronian while in the combined standings it is a five-way lead between, Anand, Aronian, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Ukrainians Vassily Ivanchuk and Sergey Karjakin.
It was in the return game that the Indian ace proved superior to Kramnik after the latter slipped from a position of strength.
It was a Queen’s Indian defense where Anand played black and Kramnik looked in control when the middle game commenced.
The Indian ace had to find counteractive measures on the king side amidst wild complexities when Kramnik missed the thread of the position and found his king in a checkmate web.
It was a picturesque finish as Anand sacrificed his queen to force matters. The game lasted 43 moves.
Earlier, playing the white side of a Petroff defense in the first game of the tournament, Anand followed the variation he had played against Kramnik some time back but the Russian, who is also the defending champion here, was adequately prepared and drew without much ado.
The event is being played on a round-robin basis between 12 players. Each players plays against the other twice in blindfold and then in rapid and the combined score is taken to decide the winner
