zenpawn's chessblog » Viswanathan Anand

Anand Retains The Title

zenpawn — Wed, 12 May 2010 15:53:51 +0000

Viswanathan Anand (Vishy for short) pulled out a stunning victory after Veselin Topalov blundered in the final game of their World Chess Championship match thus retaining his title.

It made for some really pretty stuff, but it’s unclear what Topalov could have possibly seen when choosing the ultra-risky 32.fxe4. Alas, in such a short match (only 12 games these days), it was a relief not to see it tarnished by a rapid tie-break.

On the other hand, some would say that such a system just brings in another aspect of chess and that a world champion should be well-versed in all. Please do share your thoughts in the comments.

World Chess Championship Still Tied

zenpawn — Sat, 08 May 2010 16:56:57 +0000

After a marathon, six hour, 83-move game and another tough battle yesterday, both draws, the match is all tied up yet, with only two games remaining. The spectacle of a series of rapid (and, heaven forbid, blitz) tie-breaker games is seeming more and more likely every day. Sure, that would be exciting to watch, but it’s no way to decide the highest title in the land.

Topalov Ties It Up

zenpawn — Wed, 05 May 2010 20:58:59 +0000

After holding Anand to two consecutive draws with the black pieces — the second being a real slugfest with a piece sac and all — Topalov slowly ground out the win in Tuesday’s game as white. Anand had just about proved the opposite colored bishop endgame a draw before blundering as Topalov made his final attempt at the full point. Here are those two games, the seventh and eighth. Only four remain in the now-tied match. It’s going to be a sprint to the finish. (Sure wish there wasn’t a game on Mother’s Day though! Probably have to miss the live action on the ICC on Sunday.)

Anand-Topalov Game 6

zenpawn — Sat, 01 May 2010 22:16:34 +0000

An interesting game. Just when it looked like Anand had acquired perhaps a small advantage, it turned out the extra pawn came at the price of having to defend an attack against his king, confined to the back rank. Topalov regained the pawn and Anand liquidated with some cute tactics.

The score is now 3.5-2.5 in Anand’s favor going in to the second half of the match. Tomorrow is a rest day. Monday it’s back to the same colors as today.

Anand-Topalov Game 5

zenpawn — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:38:42 +0000

Game 5 of the World Chess Championship saw Anand repeating the Slav of game 3 as Black. He was the first to vary with 15…h5 versus the more modest …h6 of the third game.

It looked as though Anand was tempting and provoking Topalov to overpress the position, and he nearly succeeded before white was forced to take a draw by three-fold repetition. Overall a solid game by both combatants.

Tomorrow is the mid-way point of the match, and a little color shuffle now has Topalov facing two black’s in a row a point down.