(218) ANAND RETAINS WORLD CHESS CHAMPION TITLE

ANAND RETAINS

WORLD CHESS

CHAMPION TITLE

India's Viswanathan Anand has retained his world chess championship crown in a cliffhanger final game win over his challenger, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria.

Vishy, as he is popularly known, seemed to have lost the upper hand in the match and was expected to fight hard for a draw with the black pieces in the last game to take the match into tiebreaks.

Anand employed the rock-solid Lasker Defence of the Queen's Gambit and quickly defused any aggressive intention from Topalov and won in 56 moves.

It soon become very crystal-clear that the defending champion was playing for a win, and his adversary obliged with a blunder to allow him to give up a pawn in exchange of a bewildering attack.

Topalov barely made it on the first time control, but Anand was not to be denied, and Topalov, confronted with imminent danger and complete annihilation, finally realizes that he had no choice but to desist from resistance and head-bent tendered his unconditional surrender.

This fantastic match comes to a fitting end, with no tiebreaks needed. The two protagonists deserve much praise for their huge contribution to this exciting match.

Anand won his 2nd consecutive world championship match against two former world champions, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Topalov.

Kramnik is the only player who defeated retired former world champion Gary Kasparov in the Classical World Chess Championship in 2000 with 2 wins, 13 draws and no losses.

The next championship cycle to decide who will challenge Anand for the title will feature the loser of this match (Topalov), Gata Kamsky, runner-up in the 2009 qualifiers, Boris Gelfand, the winner of 2009 World Chess Cup, Lev Aronian, the winner of Grand Prix Series, his runner-up (to be announced), Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik, the two others highest rated players, and finally, a wildcard chosen by the organizers (to be announced, he must have a rating of above 2700).

Chess.com commentator GM Magesh Panchanathan has his say in his post-game analysis: To all our readers, there is only one thing that can be said about today's game, "Who would have imagined this? Topalov, the second highest rated player in the world ended up playing a move that deserted all logical chess ideas. It was very difficult to believe what had just happened on the board as I saw him play exf5 followed by fxe4 without even taking much time on his clock.

Unfortunately, a world championship match takes a big toll on one's nerves and till the last game, it looked like Anand was the one who was feeling the pressure more.

After taking the lead and maintaining it by half time, Anand looked like he was sliding a bit, particularly games 8, 9 and 10 looked bad from the result and psychological point of view from him.

Topalov on the other hand was consistently pushing and pushing each game and he even managed to win one and survive a completely lost game to reach this final game of the match.

Eventually it looks like Topalov had all his pressure saved up for the big occasion.

By the end of the opening, Topalov was slightly better, but he was facing some active counterplay from Anand. One should give credit to Anand for playing very active in the last game, I am sure this was an impact of his other black games where he kept going back into extremely passive positions and suffered quite a bit.

Once Topalov made his fatal mistake, there was no looking back for Anand. He finished off the game with clinical precision.

I wanted to share one funny comment from strong Spanish Grandmaster Miguel Illescas, who was commenting for Internet Chess Club. Towards the end he said, "Topalov is actually waiting for Anand to accidentally knock his king down, so he can claim that he won."

It would be an interesting way to win a World Championship match.

HERE ARE THE MOVES OF THE MATCH-CLINCHING GAME: White - Veselin Topalov (2805) vs. Viswanathan Anand (2797) World Chess Championship Round 12 (May 11, 2010)

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 0-0 7. e3 Ne4 8. Bxe7 Qxe7 9. Rc1 c6 10. Be2 Nxc3 11. Rxc3 dxc4 12. Bxc4 nd7 13. 0-0 b6 14. Bd3 c5 15. Be4 Rb8 16. Qc2 Nf6 17. dxc5 Nxe4 18. Qxe4 bxc5 19. Qc2 Bb7 20. Nd2 Rfd8 21. f3 Ba6 22. Rf2 Rd7 23. g3 Rbd8 24. Kg2 Bd3 25. Qc1 Ba6 26. Ra3 Rb7 27. Nb3 Rc7 28. Na5 Ba8 29. Nc4 e5 30. e4 f5 31. exf5? e4 32. fxe4? Qxe4+ 33. Kh3 Rd4 34. Ne3 Qe8 35. g4 h5 36. Kh4 g5 37. fxg6 Qxg6 38. Qf1 Rxg4+ 39. Kh3 Re7 40. Rf8+ Kg7 41. Nf5 Kh7 42. Rg3 Rxg3+ 43. hxg3 Qg4+ 44. Kh2 Re2+ 45. Kg1 Rg2+ 46. Qxg2 Bxg2 47. Kxg2 Qe2+ 48. Kh3 c4 49. a4 a5 50. Rf6 Kg8 51. Nh6+ Kg7 52. Rb6 Qe4 53. Kh2 Kh7 54. Rd6 Qe5 55. Nf7 Qxb2+ 56. Kh3 Qg7 (White resigned)

Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez

Tia Belau Newspaper

Pages 13 & 15

Volume 19

Issue 20

May 17-23, 2010