Keeping the computer switched off

Due to favourable time zones, the Pearl Spring tournament is part of my early evening entertainment. Of course in these modern times, it is part of a wide array of things done almost simultaneously, such as cook dinner, watch TV, talk with children and waste life on World of Warcraft. So I tend to dip in and out of the coverage from Nanjing, rather than follow it continuously.

One thing I've avoided while watching the game is to have a chess engine running while the games are in progress. In doing so it makes the games a little more spontaneous, with certain moves coming as a real surprise, rather than as a second choice according to Fritz. An example of this was tonights Anand v Topalov game. Topalov decided to sac on f2, which was a small surprise, but it was his decision to not try and win the piece back straight away that was a bigger shock. It turned out that the whole game was a bit of a tactical slug fest, with Topalov eventually taking the perpetual check. I'm sure Rybka might decide the whole thing wasn't perfect, but for me it was great to be an (uniformed) spectator.

Anand,Viswanathan - Topalov,Veselin [E08]

Pearl Spring, 28.10.2010

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Be7 6.Bg2 0-0 7.0-0 c6 8.Qc2 b6 9.Rd1 Nbd7 10.Bf4 Ba6 11.cxd5 cxd5 12.Ne5 Nxe5 13.dxe5 Rc8 14.Nc3 Ng4 15.h3 Nxf2 (D)

16.Kxf2 Bc5+ 17.Be3 Bxe3+ 18.Kxe3 b5 19.Qd3 Rc4 20.Nxd5 exd5 21.Bxd5 Qg5+ 22.Kf2 Qxe5 23.Bxc4 bxc4 24.Qd6 Qf5+ 25.Ke1 Qxh3 26.Qxa6 Qxg3+ 27.Kd2 Qf4+ 28.Kc2 Qe4+ 29.Kc1 Qe3+ 30.Kb1 Qe4+ 31.Kc1 ½-½