The Journey towards being Silent(ly) Assassin(ated)

Well, Well, Well........ if it isn't "that" time of the year again !!!!

.......Oh yes ! the memories that it brings back........

All the hustle and bustle and excitement of the days preceding...... ecstasy with every shortlist with your name on it, frustration on every shortlist without it...

"How can those %$#@!#$!% of $@%%$!%%@ not have my name on the shortlist.....this is eff'ing ridiculous......this is not fair yaar, those goddam @$!%%^!^ ....."

The lesson would soon be learnt.....IT ISNT SUPPOSED TO BE FAIR !!

Not all had the same feelings though....I remember some of us taking it quite well. All the excitement seemed to have given rise to feelings of 'camera-manism' in our dear Anand ----No I am not talking about the World Chess Champion this time!-----he seemed to be quite enjoying taking shots of everyone around....probably scoring a few shots of the chicks as well in all the melee near the lift!

...and all this while my poor roomie F-16 Destroyer, had to bide his time for he was struck by the old Egyptian curse of 'Hamuanoshortlistis.'...... Little did he know that the day of his redemption was at hand!.......slowly they crept up on him on that fateful night and the poor F-16 Destroyer's arse had been destroyed, forever consigning the curse to the nether regions :D

As for myself.....I woke up on that fateful day all full of hope.......after all i had a couple of shortlists to egg me on, but as my parents have always warned me....my excessive consumption of areca nuts would soon come to haunt me and i was to fall victim to the dreaded 'Hamuanoshortlistis' myself........

I squandered my few shortlists that i had and was soon down to watching the procession of well-calls and commiserating with fellow sufferers. I assure you that it was due to no lack of action on my part that i failed to convert the GD's but rather my inability to interrupt someone when they were speaking.....an art, my friends, it is an art which i was to witness first hand for the first time in my life. I think those who were with me in the HSBC GD would testify to that....how growing utterly frustrated at being not allowed to open my mouth, i finally caught everybody's attention by suggesting we let GANDHIJI air his thoughts!!! :D (....yeah, that does bring back a few chuckles...)

Ah, anyways.....the days went by painfully, illuminated by some comforting philosophical thoughts by dear departed friend Tuhin, (yes i remember him more often nowadays as memories of those times come flooding by- and by the way he isnt departed for good, just the more savoury shores of mid-eastern England i might add!)

I miss those passionate football discussions with him,....we would almost come to blows in the afternoon, but by evening we would be laughing together at another of Lehman's sorry mistakes...( I am talking about Arsenal's goalkeeper here.....what did you think we were predicting its sub-prime bust, for Christ's sake!!)

I wish him the best and i hope he is enjoying his time away from the demonic (or is it Tamonic ?!) attentions of the Devta of urns and balls!!

hmm.....coming back to the topic.......yes, the days went by and on that fateful day, growing utterly frustrated and despondent I broke all ties with this mortal world and went to meditate under the motherly care of the Bodhi Tree.......

.............and just as Lord Buddha, so many years earlier........ the feeling suddenly dawned on me.....ENLIGHTENMENT had arrived......Thank You God for that moment of eternal realisation of the immortal truth.....the futility of it all......the beauty of it all........
(the 'all' and 'all' above refer to different things--just a clarification before you think i am going crazy in emotion!)

The ordeal passed with light at the end of the tunnel.....and as if just to re-affirm my faith in God and the all ecompassing nature of His Will, i got my breakthrough interview call right after I had been blessed with the enlightenment......

The next day after SIP it happened.....I can still remember the look of shock and bewilderment on the poor guys face!.....He was busy as usual in his daily nocturnal activity.....destroying lives as only "Doodh" can in his F-16 style, when i crept up behind him and uttered those three words..............YES, THOSE THREE WORDS...........................................................................................

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

......." I WANNA PLAY !!!" ( What did you think, you dirty mind ? :D)

and the rest as they say is history!!!!

Silent Assassin was born---- rising as a phoenix from the ashes of his just passed sufferings----morphing into the Gothic conqueror, sniping the ghosts of the misery into oblivion.....

and since that fateful day, it happens so......that the shy quiet froggae by the day dissapears and
up rises the long fallen Gothic commander to lead the huskarlean armies to glory!!



I WISH ALL THE JUNIORS A SUCCESSFUL (and similarly 'enlightening' :D) SIP, the message being THERE IS LIFE BEYOND SIP !!!
Just try to relax and do your best...leave the rest, as they say, to the one best equipped to handle these things ( and I mean The Placecomm Secy here!!) ....................just kidding :D

PS - Hamuanoshortlistis is to be pronounced as follows Ha-mua-no shortlistis
'Ha' being the expression of surprise, mua being myself in French and Egyptian and the rest is self explanatory.


Please DO LET ME KNOW what YOU think about it.....relive your memories and let us know your experiences in the comments, or maybe something to make it better!!

Round 8 - A Step Closer!!

Firstly........let me CONGRATULATE Nithya, Shabs, Vamsi and Nupur .......Nice Going guys!!


Now for game 8
Wow....today we finally saw Kramnik wake up from his slumber and play a nice attacking game but Anad showed great resource when in times of difficulty and played some very accurate moves to keep Kramnik's advantage down to a minimum. However it must be said that Kramnik made a few poor decisions at crucial points in not going for more attacking but slightly risky variations which allowed Anand to come back and hence from a promising position, all Kramnik was able to muster was a draw....

The game started with a Queens pawn opening, and this time Anand went for Nf6, and hence avoided the Semi-Slav which had brought him great success in games 3 and 5. Perhaps he thought that Kramnik would be better prepared after the rest day.... again Kramnik could have allowed the Nimzo-Indian but that gives black some dynamic counterchances and hence he wanted to avoid those sharp lines. So he offered the Queens-Indian with 3. Nf3 but Anand chose to transpose to the Queens Gambit Accepted and the game entered the famous but sharp Vienna Variation....

1. d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.e4 Bb4 6.Bg5 c5 7.Bxc4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Qa5 9.Bb5+ Bd7 10.Bxf6 Bxb5

















Position after 10. Bxf6


Tenth move played above is a "novelty" in chess terms...it means a move introduced in Master play for the first time. Once again Anand managed to surprise Kramnik with his home preparation, which has been a remarkable hallmark of this World Championship Match!!

But this time Kramnik was clever in his strategy and negated Anand's home preparation by avoiding the most logical reply for which Anand surely had a plan in advance, thus sidestepping the dangers..the most logical move here seems 11. Nb3 driving back the Queen, this gaining a tempo because 11......Bxc3 is disastrous for black as white can play 12. Bxc3 gaining a minor piece.
Instead, he thinks for 25 mins for his next move, and correctly decides to negate Anand's preparation by going for 11. Ndxb5........

11.Nxb5 gxf6 12.O-O Nc6 13.a3 Bxc3 14.Nxc3 and here Anand makes an inaccuracy which enables Kramnik to grab control on the kingside and limit Anand's knight to a passive position.
He plays ...
14. .....Rg8 which allows Kramnik to play 15. f4 preventing the Black knight to cross over to the kingside with Ne5.

















Position after 15. f4


15.f4 Rd8 16.Qe1 Qb6+ 17.Rf2 Rd3 [ if 17. Kh1, Qxb2 is winning] 18.Qe2 Qd4 .....

Now Anand is going into dangerous territory and his moves 17 ....Rd3 and 18......Qd4 may be called weak moves. Here Kramnik missed the chance to capitalise with 19. Nd5 or 19. Nb5......
suppose he plays 19. Nb5 here, then Anand is forced to go back with his queen and Kramnik gains both space and time, thus exposing Anand's play on moves 18 and 19 as inferior....the point is if Anand replies Qe3 then Kramnik plays 20. Qxe3 Rxe3 21. Rad1 ! and the Black rook is trapped and he must lose the exchange!!


Another interesting try was 19. Nd5 and the threat of 20 Nxf6 winning a pawn forces Anand to capture the knight with 19....... exd5 where White plays 20. exd5+! Kd7 21. dxc6+ Kxc6 which is good for white as the black is now completely exposed and with his Queen and rooks better placed and Anand's pieces lacking co-ordination, Kramnik is certainly better. If Black plays 20. exd5+ Kf8 to protect his king, then the advantage after 21. dxc6 bxc6 is HUGE as the black pawn structure is ruined!!

















Position after 18.... Qd4


19. Re1?! a6 20. Kh1?

Wow..... i think this is where Kramnik's chances of winning and coming back in the match evaporated.....

If you check this move with the computers, they wont say it was a bad move as it releases the king from two pins....ie the pin from the Rook on g8 as well as the Queen on d4....BUT
I believe the only way to play for a win now was to play the second option discussed above...20. Nd5 with the forced variation coming up. By playing Re1 he had allowed Anand to cover his first weakness by playing a6 so as to prevent Nb5 but the second weakness still remained....Kramnik in the situation of 3-0 down in the match just had to go for the more attacking approach with Nd5....but he opted for a more sedate and safe approach and gave an opportunity to Anand to cover his last major weakness....... which Anand grabbed with both hands!!!

20.Kh1 Kf8 21.Ref1 Rg6 22.g3 Kg7 23.Rd1 Rxd1+ 24.Nxd1 Kh8 25.Nc3 Rg8 26.Kg2 Rd8


















Position after 26..... Rd8


With 26......Rd8, Anand having fully recovered from his earlier weak play attains full equality and the game is heading for a draw. Kramnik tries hard to force a win but Anand's position is very solid and he is able to hold the fortress without any major problems. A series of move repetitions follow to gain time for both players to reach the time control and Kramnik, realising that the advantage had vanished and the chance was gone accepted the inevitable........

27.Qh5 Kg7 28.Qg4+ Kh8 29.Qh5 Kg7 30.Qg4+ Kh8 31.Qh4 Kg7 32.e5 ........Using his final throw of the dice....... even if Anand accepts the pawn with fxe5 his position still remains solid and accurate defense must lead to a draw but then its gives Kramnik the chance to create mischief and to use the semi-open f-file and the game would unnecessarily drag on......So Anand goes for the more solid 32......f5 and his final shot being denied, the draw is hastened.

f5 33.Qf6+ Kg8 34.Qg5+ Kh8 35.Qf6+ Kg8 36.Re2 Qc4 37.Qg5+ Kh8 38.Qf6+ Kg8 39.Qg5+ Kh8 1/2-1/2


















Final Position

One question though that may arise is that why didnt Kramnik play Rf2 and Kh3 in the final position with the idea of marching the king to h6 and delivering the mate on g7....
The answer is simple.....Anand would just play Qc5 and Qf8 covering that threat and all that remains is for Kramnik to commit suicide by going for some crazy speculative moves and end up losing again!!


So with this draw Anand moves closer to the World Chess Title needing only one point from a possible 4. Saturday being a rest day, game 9 is on Sunday and lets hope Anand can wrap up the title in style with a victory with the white pieces....

Thank you all and thats it for this game....see you next time!!!

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!!!!!

Humble Beginnings!

Om Shri Ganeshay Namahah !!

Well Well Well......the bug has finally bitten me as well....This blog has been created on an experimental basis to discuss and analyse the World Chess Championship games between Vishwanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik.......lets see if it sustains beyond it :)
I hope you like reading some of the stuff i may write here...

If you dont like it,please tell ME
If you do like it, please tell the world!

Enough for today!