ChessBase Magazine 127

In his introductory video to this issue, our Hamburg grandmaster Karsten Müller shows you a little bit of all this. The decisive moment in the WCh match, an appetiser for the European Cup, two exciting openings reports (a surprise weapon against the Queen’s Gambit and the London System from White’s point of view), and even an introduction to Rainer Knaak’s trap – naturally without giving away the secret. You must take a look!

In hisretrospective, Dorian Rogozenco reviews the important tournaments of the month of October. He goes from the WCh match, over which he casts an eye in two extensive videos below, to the Russian individual championships, from the European Club Cup to the Essent tournament in the Netherlands. With the range of high class games on offer, it was not difficult for him to discover a whole series of new opening ideas and tactical finesses that you absolutely must not miss.

Vishy Anand defeated Vladimir Kramnik 6.5:4.5 to defend in majestic fashion his title as world champion. The opening two games in Bonn were rather quiet affairs and served above all as reconnaissance missions to find out what variations each participant might have. What attracted most interest was Anand’s opening move in the second game: 1.d4. In game three, which Anand annotates extensively from the first to the last move in three audio clips and to which he has provided a lot of variations, the World Champion first played in the Meran Variation of the Queen’s Gambit the rarer move 8...a6 and then an innovation for top level chess: 14...Bb7. As Anand explains in his comments, in preparation he had analysed the position extensively with his team, especially Rustam Kasimdzhanov. After Anand’s 17...Rg4 Kramnik devoted almost an hour to his next move and found the best reply with 18.Bf4. Anand meticulously explains the moves which followed up till the critical position after Kramnik’s error 29.Ra3 and on the way gives a whole series of breathtaking variations.

The key move of the WCh: Anand’s 14...Bb7
Anand annotates
Game 3 - Part 1

Anand annotates
Game 3 - Part 2

The second audio clip continues in the critical phase of the game from move 31, at which point both players had only approximately 10 minutes' thinking time left. Anand explains why his move 31...Bg4 was a mistake and how Kramnik could have saved the draw by sacrificing the exchange, thanks to his queenside passed pawn in conjunction with the open black king position. But in time trouble Kramnik too went wrong and let himself be tempted into 32.f3 – a move which decisively weakens the second rank.

But the game was still not yet absolutely over. When, two moves later, Anand missed a clear winning continuation, his seconds almost fainted according to Anand himself. But as he demonstrates in his detailed analysis, after 33...Bh3 Black is still clearly winning. After Kramnik’s counter 34.a5 the game was decided, Anand won the white queen and blockaded the a-pawn the only remaining hope for White. Against Kramnik in particular, who had got off to a good start in all his previous WCh matches (against Kasparov, Leko and Topalov), it was an exhilarating feeling for Anand to take the lead in round 3 – even more so with such a convincing game with the black pieces.

Anand annotates
Game 3 - Part 3

Anand annotates
Game 5 - Part 1

The fifth game turned out in the long run to be almost a complete duplicate of the third one. As Anand points out in his audio commentary, it was in the nature of things that the same variation as in game three would appear on the board. This was because he had counted on the fact that Kramnik would have prepared an improvement for White and because he himself still had full confidence in the positions after 14...Bb7. However, so that he did not run straight into Kramnik’s preparation, it was Anand who deviated from the previous game with 15...Rg8. In his analysis of the opening phase, Anand explains in great detail the numerous ideas and sharp tactical motifs in this position. And in contrast to Kramnik, who was soon having to work out his moves over the board again, the World Champion was able to follow his team’s preparation all the way to move 21. According to Anand, Kramnik’s next move (22.Ra3) is an inaccuracy - the same move which also contributed in no inconsiderable fashion to Kramnik’s defeat in the third game.

The disadvantage of 22.Ra3 is that the rook is not really doing anything on the third rank and that with 22...Rac8 Black can take control of the open c-file and force White to retreat his rook to a1. After this, Anand manoeuvred his queen via c5 and e5 to f6, so that the position opposite appeared. Remarkably, both sides were quite pleased with this same position; Kramnik had aimed for the position just like Anand. Here, however, the challenger had to recognise that taking the d4-pawn (followed by Rd1) fails to moves such as Ne5 then f3 or the rook manoeuvre Rc5-g5. But, shortly after this, something strange occurred: Anand had always had in mind that White could not play Nxd4, but as he looked at his opponent after his 28^th move, he had the feeling that Kramnik would commit exactly that decisive mistake. What had to happen happened, and Anand played the following moves at blitz tempo, secure in the knowledge that 34...Ne3 wins the game.

Anand annotates
Game 5 - Part 2

During the match itself GM Dorian Rogozenco was already annotating all the games for Spiegel-Online. On this DVD he spends more than an hour characterising the course of the match in video format and putting the critical moments under the microscope. In the first videohe deals with games 1 to 3, with game three, Anand’s first victory, taking up most of the space.

Video on game
1 to 3

In the seventh game our participants followed a variation of the Slav, which Kramnik had already employed frequently in his match against Topalov, with the difference that on the previous occasions he had had the white pieces. After the exchange of queens, Kramnik offered a draw, but the World Champion declined. The position may actually have been quite balanced, but Black had to play very precisely so as not to lose the path to a draw. Karsten Müller has studied the ending in detail. In his video analysis he explains Kramnik’s clever setting up of a fortress and how Anand could have set his opponent further practical problems.

Endgame analysis
of the 7^th game

Kramnik - Anand (10)
Position after 18.Re1

For the first time in the entire match, Kramnik achieved a minimal advantage in the 8th game, but both here and in the following game it did not suffice to put Anand in any serious danger. When in round 10 Kramnik for the first time seized an initiative after an opening innovation (18.Re1 see diagram) and went on to defeat the World Champion in a relatively short game as the result of powerful play, it was probably too late.
Anand avoided all confusion and with the white pieces he safely steered the eleventh game to a draw, thus defending his title as World Champion in impressive fashion.
 

What was the key to this surprisingly clear-cut success for the "Tiger from Madras"? Rogozenco devotes his final videoon the WCh to this question. On the one hand, it is impossible to overestimate the significance of preparation in a WCh match. When you get down to it, each of the four victories was won by the side which was able to come up with an innovation. Anand’s strategy came up trumps here. But also – as  Rogozenco insightfully points out – in almost every game of the match, the World Champion demonstrated an enormously fine-tuned instinct for his king.

It was not only in his two victories, but in every game, that he managed to find the optimal position for his king in order to ward off any dangers or to put the opposing king under pressure. Stimulated by Anand’s subtle use of his king, in another video Rogozenco has also collected from other top games in this issue samples of perfect play with the king or fabulous attacks on a king (with an especially impressive example in the game Aronian - Volokitin from the European Cup).

The author takes a critical look at Moskalenko’s article on 4.e3 Qb6 in CBM 125 and then concentrates in detail on what he considers a superior move: 4.c3!