Round 7 !! Fight !!

Well lets begin the purpose for which the blog was created!

lets start with game sven, the most recent one.....the analysis for the 1st six games will be posted in times of more leisure!!

The game went as follows

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. e3 e6 7. Bxc4 Bb4 8. O-O
Nbd7 9. Qe2 Bg6 10. e4 O-O 11. Bd3 Bh5 12. e5 Nd5 13. Nxd5 cxd5 14. Qe3 Re8 15.
Ne1 Bg6 16. Bxg6 hxg6 17. Nd3 Qb6 18. Nxb4 Qxb4 19. b3 Rac8 20. Ba3 Qc3 21.
Rac1 Qxe3 22. fxe3 f6 23. Bd6 g5 24. h3 Kf7 25. Kf2 Kg6 26. Ke2 fxe5 27. dxe5
b6 28. b4 Rc4 29. Rxc4 dxc4 30. Rc1 Rc8 31. g4 a5 32. b5 c3 33. Rc2 Kf7 34. Kd3 Nc5+
35. Bxc5 Rxc5 36. Rxc3 Rxc3+ 1/2 - 1/2 (draw agreed)


The notation used above for depicting the game is the simple algebraic notation most commonly used around the world.

Yes as for the game.....
This time around Kramnik chose to begin with the Slav Defense but instead of going for the Semi-Slav where he lost games 3 and 5 with white, he did not want to allow Anand the chance to follow his home preparation from the white side as well. An eminently sensible decision to steer away from a line well prepared by the opponent with his team of seconds. Therefore he chose to play the Smyslov Variation of the Slav defence, a very solid variation named after the former World Chess champion, Vassily Smyslov.

The game went on well known opening theory till move 14.... . d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. e3 e6 7. Bxc4 Bb4 8. O-O
Nbd7 9. Qe2 Bg6 10. e4 O-O 11. Bd3 Bh5 12. e5 Nd5 13. Nxd5 cxd5 14. Qe3 Re8

















Also tried earlier in the Candidates Match up at Elista in 2006 between Topalov and Kramnik was the variation 14...Bg6
15.Ng5 Re8 16.f4 Bd3 17.Qd3 f5
18.Be3 Nf8 19.Kh1 Rc8 20.g4 and topalov had a very fine game as white and should have gone on to win but for his costly blunder later in the game.

Anand, must surely have thought that Kramnik would have something prepared this time against 15. Ng5, and i agree with him as you can be quite sure that some improvement over the earlier line must surely have been worked out by Kramnik and his team of seconds. Thus Anand showed good pyschological awareness by sidestepping that variation and avoiding walking right into Kramnik's best laid plans.....therefore he chose to differ with 15. Ne1 ........and from here the game becomes very complex

the game continued....

15. Ne1 Bg6 16. Bxg6 hxg6 17. Nd3 Qb6 18. Nxb4 Qxb4 19. b3 Rac8













Here at this point, Anand had two main choices,
1) to play Bd2 with the idea of driving back the queen temporarily with the long term plan of a King side pawn storm and attack against the Black king at the cost of conceding the c-file

2) to play Ba3 with the idea of pressure on the a3-f8 diagonal and contesting black on the queenside.

My choice would have been to attack the king because in game 3 and game 5, we had seen that with Anand putting pressure on the relatively exposed opposing king, Kramnik had crumbled under the complexities combined with the acute time-trouble he had managed to get himself into by walking right into Anand's home preparation. Even in this game, he was around 24 mins behind Anand on the clock at that time and another attack on the king may have proved decisive. However this strategy was not without its risks....by giving black control of the queenside in this French-Winawer defense sort of set-up, Blacks gets dynamic chances and i guess Anand, being in the comfortable match position of 3 points up, didnt want to take any unnecessary risks......again a sensible choice!!!
therefore he played......

20. Ba3 Qc3 21. Rac1 Qxe3














Here Kramnik offered a draw, wanting to consolidate his situation before coming back with the White pieces tommorow....which Anand refused by playing.....

22. fxe3 f6 23. Bd6 g5 24. h3 Kf7 25. Kf2 Kg6 26. Ke2 fxe5 27. dxe5

With the queens off the board, the players could bring the kings out to the center where they could influence the game more.... the position as it stood after the above was as follows..
















if you see closely, White has succeeded in establishing superiority on the Kingside without relinquishing the queenside and his bishop stood on a much better square than blacks knight on d7 where it was hardly influencing the game....so kramnik wanted to move it to to c5 where it would influence the game more and hence played

27.... b6
to which Anand immediately replied with b4.....

at this pointKramink decided to reduce the material to increase the chances of a draw....

28. b4 Rc4 29. Rxc4 dxc4 30. Rc1 Rc8














This is here a crucial point in the game because here Anand made, what I think, a poor decision...... he decided to lock up the kingside by playing g4 allowing Kramnik to find an ingenious defence....

31. g4 a5 !! 32. b5 c3 !


Initially, people around the world thought that a5 was a disaster as White could now play b5 and artificially isolate the c-pawn which could be won by playing e4, Ke3 and Kd4 and white is a pawn up without any compensation for black.......
However this is the match-saving move 31..... a5 is indeed a brilliant move to save his skin because after that and the subsequent c3, black creates an impregnable fortress and the draw is inevitable. Here the only chance for White to play for a win was 32 bxa5 . Even after this move, black has equalized and with accurate defence should hold out for the draw.....

the game then went on for a few more moves....
Rc2 Kf7 34. Kd3 Nc5+ 35. Bxc5 Rxc5 36. Rxc3 Rxc3+

at which point draw was agreed because after white plays Kxc3 Black though a pawn down has an impregnable fortress due to the locked nature of the pawns....an ingenious defence by Kramnik thus saved the day....













However i believe Anand made two very weak moves here.....31 g4 and then 32 b5........
instead of g4, he could have tried 31. Kd2 with the idea of blocking the passed pawn with the king and attacking on the kingside with his rook... the most obvious reply to Kd2 is Kf5, but the point is that after Rf1+, the black king must retreat to g6 again or the rook penetrates the seventh rank and Kramnik might as well start pulling his hair out, so the king goes back to g6 and then Anand can dictate play on the king side and try to get black into some sort of "Zugswang" like position due to his centrally posted Bishop..... i think the continuations for white are very promising and after exhanging the rooks for the c-pawn, the king can march on and at some point the bishop can be sacrificed for the poorly positioned black pawns on b6 and g5 to reach a winning ending....... GM Seirawan seems to agree as he seemed positive about the idea when I put forward this line in a question-chat for viewers after the game.....

Anyways, Anand got a draw and moves a step closer to the title, now needing just 1.5 more points from a possible 5. Tomorrow's game has now assumed critical importance because Kramnik must, i repeat MUST win with the White pieces tomorrow to stand any chance of recovering at all. This means he must come out of his usual solid openings and play a more dynamic and risky opening.......We're in for some early Diwali Fireworks tomorrow folks!!!!!