Monday 13 October 2008

Anand v Kramnik

The much anticipated World Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik starts tomorrow in Bonn, Germany. Obviously there will be huge amounts of online coverage, so it is probably a question of which site you look at. I'll probably stick with www.chessvibes.com for the multimedia coverage (Press conferences etc) while live game coverage is probably best handled on sites like www.playchess.com (or even good old www.fics.org) There is even premium multimedia coverage (ie you pay for it) through Chess Media Services. You can access this through www.dgtprojects.com
As for my tip, I'll stick with my earlier prediction of an Anand victory. Nonetheless I found Kasparov's recent comments on both players interesting. He favoured Kramnik, on the grounds that Kramnik seems to have less difficulty in recovering from setbacks.

Here is a game played between the 2 players in the 2001 Dortmund GM Tournament. While it was a win for Kramnik, it also showed Anand's ability to defend when needed. Hopefully the upcoming match will contain games as exciting as this one.

Kramnik,V (2802) - Anand,V (2794) [D27]
Dortmund SuperGM Dortmund (9), 21.07.2001

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 e6 4.e3 Nf6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.0-0 a6 7.Bb3 cxd4 8.exd4 White chooses to accept the IQP. Black will try and tie it down to d4, White will attempt to force it to d5. 8...Nc6 9.Nc3 Be7 10.Bg5 [ 10.d5 exd5 11.Nxd5 Nxd5 12.Bxd5 immediately liquidates the pawn, but White is looking for more than equality.] 10...0-0 11.Qd2 Na5 12.Bc2 b5 13.Qf4 Ra7 14.Rad1 Bb7 (D)
15.d5! Sacrificing the pawn to accelerate a direct attack on the Black king. 15...Bxd5 [ 15...exd5 16.Qh4 g6 17.Rfe1+-;
15...Nxd5 16.Nxd5 Bxd5 17.Rxd5! exd5 18.Bxh7+ Kxh7 19.Qh4+ Kg8 20.Bxe7 Qxe7 21.Ng5+-] 16.Nxd5 exd5 [ 16...Nxd5 17.Rxd5! exd5 18.Bxh7++-] 17.Qh4 h5 [ 17...h6 18.Bxh6 gxh6 19.Qxh6 followed by Rd4-h4] 18.Rfe1 Nc6 19.g4 Qd6 20.gxh5 Qb4 21.h6 Qxh4 22.Nxh4 Ne4 23.hxg7 Rc8 24.Bxe7 Nxe7 25.Bxe4 dxe4 26.Rxe4+- Kxg7 27.Rd6 Rc5 28.Rg4+ Kh7 29.Nf3 Ng6 30.Ng5+ Kg7 31.Nxf7 Rxf7 32.Rdxg6+ Kh7 33.R6g5 Rxg5 34.Rxg5 Rc7 35.a3 b4 36.axb4 Rc1+ 37.Kg2 Rb1 38.Ra5 Rxb2 39.Ra4 1-0

2 comments:

James said...

Shaun

There's also the official site at http://www.uep-worldchess.com/, which I assume will display the live board, and a discussion forum for premium members (paid up - US$25pa) www.chessgames.com members at http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesslive

Regards

James

James said...

Pity the game starts at 2am AEST though....