Viswanathan Anand

Defending champion Viswanathan Anand survived an extremely difficult — if not losing — position with a brilliant display of attack and tactics in the ninth game of the World Chess Championship match to force a draw in 45 moves after a long battle which lasted for five hours. With a tally of six points, the champion now needs only one draw from the last three games to reach the magic figure of 6.5 points.

The champion began the game with the Queen’s gambit which he has been playing all along in Bonn.

The challenger replied with the Queen’s Gambit orthodox set up, avoiding the exchange variation of the Slav defence, wherein white can force a draw effortlessly.

However, on move 4, the challenger converted the game into a Slav defence set-up. On move 6, Black opted for the sharp Botvinnik variation, invented by former world champion Mikhail Botvinnik. In this system, Black wins a Queen-side pawn at the cost of seriously weakening the position.

Anand accepted the challenge and sacrificed the pawn on move 8, indicating that he was eager to finish off the match as soon as possible.

On the 11th move, instead of the usual castling on the King-side, Anand played his Queen rook to a central file, which is a theoretical novelty. This is the first time the players stopped ‘blitzing’ the moves and started thinking for a while. Kramnik took about ten minutes to come up with an excellent defensive plan by pinning Anand’s knight and vacating an important square for own queen.

Scared of Anand’s exemplary attacking skills, Kramnik refrained from castling till Anand castled himself. On the 13th move Anand castled, Kramnik following suit by castling same side as Anand on the very next move. This resulted in a dynamically balanced position, Kramnik having an extra pawn in exchange for an exposed King-side and a badly placed bishop.

Generally, Kramnik would try to avoid double edged positions but the point position compelled him to go all out for a win. On move 15, Anand came up with a brilliant move, giving away a centrally placed Bishop for an important defensive Knight of Kramnik. The champion followed it up with a pawn roller in the centre, threatening to manoeuvre his knight to King-side with decisive threats. On the 17th move, Kramnik made a brilliant counter pawn sacrifice to activate his Queen Bishop.

For a change, Kramnik had good control of the important central squares. On move 20, Anand offered his centre pawn for initiative. However, instead of taking the pawn immediately, Kramnik brought his Queen rook into play and seized the initiative. At this stage Anand’s position looked quite gloomy.

Kramnik initiated direct tactical complication on move 21 and won a pawn but Anand had foreseen a brilliant defence which kept the defensive chances alive. With a combination of precise defence and counterattack, Anand forced a drawn ending by move 36. Kramnik sacrificed his Bishop on the 38th move to create a strong passed pawn but Anand gave back the Bishop on move 44, forcing an immediate draw.

THE MOVES

White: V.Anand

Black: V. Kramnik

1.d4,d5 2.c4,e6 3.Nf3,Nf6 4.Nc3,c6 5.Bg5, h6 6.Bh4!?,dxc4 7.e4,g5 8.Bg3, b5 9.Be2,Bb7 10.Qc2,Nbd7 11.Rd1!? NOVELTY, Bb4 12.Ne5,Qe7! 13.0-0,Nxe5 14.Bxe5,0-0 15.Bxf6! Qxf6 16. f4,Qg7 17.e5! c5! 18.Nxb5,cxd4 19.Qxc4,a5! 20.Kh1! Rac8 21.Qxd4,gxf4?! 22.Bf3,Ba6! 23.a4,Rc5 24.Qxf4,Rxe5 25.b3,Bxb5 26.axb5,Rxb5 27.Be4,Bc3 28.Bc2, Be5 29.Qf2,Bb8 30.Qf3,Rc5 31.Bd3! Rc3 32.g3!,Kh8 33.Qb7!,f5 34.Qb6!,Qe5 35.Qb7!?, Qc7 36.Qxc7,Bxc7 37.Bc4!,Re8 38.Rd7,a4!? 39.Rxc7,axb3 40.Rf2,Rb8 41.Rb2,h5!? 42.Kg2,h4 43.Rc6,hxg3 44.hxg3,Rg8 45.Rxe6! Rxc4

Draw agreed.