Viswanathan Anand

Bonn: Things may not have shaped up the way he would have wanted in last 24 hours, but Viswanathan Anand is still very much in the driver’s seat in the world championship match against Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik.

After the 10th game fiasco, Anand will have to keep things under control in his final white game against the Russian as a draw would suffice to retain his world championship title.

After another rest day, the battle will resume on Wednesday.

For the first time in the match on Monday, Kramnik came into the reckoning of what had been a one-sided affair so far.

The Russian punished Anand’s reckless play in great style and proved his fighting qualities just when everyone thought that the match was over.

It remains to be seen if the loss has jolted Anand way much. The Indian ace still has a very handy two-point lead despite Monday’s loss and is only a draw away from retaining the world championship crown he won last year at Mexico city.

The win by Kramnik, however, has renewed the interest in the match. There are just two games left under classical time control and the Russian needs to win them both to force a tie-breaker which will have games of shorter duration.

While it still looks unlikely that the tie-breaker will happen, at least the chess buffs, especially Kramnik’s supporters, have started talking about it.

Kramnik himself, however, was still not too optimistic. When asked about his chances, the Russian said, “It’s better for me not to think about it, it’s still less than 50 per cent.”

While Anand had been calling the shots till the eighth game and had a three-point lead coming into the ninth, the turning back of the clock seems to have helped Kramnik.

On the last Sunday of October, the European clocks were moved back by an hour that has led to some change in the conditions of the match.

Kramnik’s fortunes have seen a reversal from the ninth game only, when for the first time he got a good position and Anand even thought he lost at some point. Then in the 10th, the Russian won very convincingly.

Official changes notwithstanding, Anand has a task on hand. The Indian has to make a draw and according to the experts it might well come in the 11th game itself when Anand plays white.

If things are left till the end, the world championship has a very encouraging history for the trailing player.

Garri Kasparov had won the last game against Anatoly Karpov in 1987 to level scores and Kramnik himself had beaten Leko in the final game of 2004 championship to retain the world title in Classical format.

Anand will definitely not like to leave it till the final game. If that happens, it will be the most remarkable story ever in a world championship.