Anand

Bonn: Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand will be hoping to seal the fate of the contest when his engrossing battle in the World Chess Championship against Vladimir Kramnik resumes on Sunday. Anand needs just one more point to retain the coveted title.

Anand is sitting pretty with a score of 5.5 points after the eighth game on Friday and the pressure will be on his Russian opponent who can hardly afford to commit any mistake at this stage.

Kramnik, who has managed to gather 2.5 points, has been taken by surprise by the Indian ace’s tactical moves. The summit showdown has generated considerable interest in the chess world.

The strategy Anand adopts in the ninth game remains to be seen but it should not come as a surprise if the Indian Grandmaster comes up with a new trick to unsettle his famed opponent and clinch the issue on Sunday itself in the 12-game championship.

The onus will be on Kramnik to prevent Anand from taking the honour and he will have to come up with something spectacular with black pieces to stay afloat in the championship.

The eighth game between the two stalwarts ended in a 39-move draw from Queen’s Gambit declined as Anand chose the sharp Vienna variation.

The cat and mouse game that Anand started with Kramnik continued in the 8th game.

It was the Vienna opening by Anand, who played with black on Friday. Kramnik again went under time pressure while Anand blitzed out the opening moves.

Two minor pieces changed hands by the 11th move itself and a couple of moves later, another set of minor pieces were off the board.

It was a typical middle game position where Anand had to find some correct counteractive measure and the Indian has had ample of them as the history books on this world championship will inform the chess buffs in future.

There was not much drama in the end game as Kramnik realised his chances were not great. The Russian, on his part did try to make an impression by some optical attacking moves on the king side but Anand was always on his guard and quickly gained control along the central files to maintain the dynamic equilibrium.

A total control on the open queen file ensured that Kramnik had things to worry about other than the clock.