Corus 2008, 11-27 January

[viji]

kramnik's queen moves to f6. May be take the b7 pawn? Does that really help?
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Anand does that! He must have seen quite bit of the stuff in advance.
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If Kramnik is into saving pawns he would put his bishop on c5.
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Actually that would have been a bad idea, given that Anand could play b4 and attack the bishop. But after 49...Rh2, why would Anand not just move his rook close to the King and have a better fortress?
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After 50..Qf2 does Anand have any choices other than defending the d2 square with something like Rd1?
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Something rather subtle must be going on that is totally beyond me. Anand sees the mating threat with Qd2+ but instead of defending it with the rook, just moves his king away donating the bishop to Kramnik.

[jaydeep]

Superb reporting by Kujo and Viji ... Thanks guys, please continue ...

Sad to see Negi lost his match ... But creditable performance from teenager.

[kujo]

two GMs  trying to best each other in the end game...  this is exciting.

Anand with Qf7 can corner the black king literally!


53 Qf7  and he does that!


54. Qxg6 it should be over soon...   this is crazy.

56 Qxc6 ok,  this is officially a death by 1000 cuts.  Anand has some compensation for his bishop sacrifice now 

[viji]

Hopefully cuts multiply. At this moment it looks superficially like a very slight advantage.

[kujo]

the queens are off the board.  and the gloves are off. we are entering into the final moves for this game....

you are going down Kramnik....

down down....

61. b4  oh yeah....  that's right....

[viji]

I think Kujo has been right all along! Kramnik may be going down.
My worry is what if Kramnik moves his Bishop away, concedes one more pawn, give Anand a passed one but still manages to block it from queening?

[kujo]

After 50..Qf2 does Anand have any choices other than defending the d2 square with something like Rd1?
.................................
Something rather subtle must be going on that is totally beyond me. Anand sees the mating threat with Qd2+ but instead of defending it with the rook, just moves his king away donating the bishop to Kramnik.

sorry viji, I didn't go through all of the questions there. 

but I think that was the moment of Anand and Kramnik staring each other down.  really close to each other, each threatning a possible sequence of mating moves.  who is going to blink first?  by taking Anand's sacrifice, it was Kramnik who blinked first!!

[kujo]

ok I give up!!  they signed a peace treaty.

got excited too much I guess. obviously it shows how much I know at this level of chess 

after all that, Anand offers a draw... grrr....

[jaydeep]

But still this matches giving us some picture of how much exciting will be their World Championship matches in late 2008.

Jaydeep.

[kujo]

I would have fancied a 62. Rd5 move by Anand.

exchange the rooks off and white now has 4 pawns Vs 1 pawn + bishop  game.  is that a draw in chess theory? I am not sure...

[kujo]

I think Kujo has been right all along! Kramnik may be going down.
My worry is what if Kramnik moves his Bishop away, concedes one more pawn, give Anand a passed one but still manages to block it from queening?

viji, your concern was probably quite right.  as they went for a draw.

[viji]

Perhaps, I would also have thought he would go down that line.
Although, may be the Bishop and the King together can stop such a pawn chain. Anand had quite a bit of time if the display is to be trusted. May they explain later why he gave up.
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I still wonder whether 51. Rd1 was a better option than the bishop sacrifice?
Anand's rook would have moved out of an open file be he could mop up more pawns with his queen.
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Anyway, an exhilarating game. Thanks to all for joining in.

[kujo]

thank you for keeping it exciting.

would love to see what Anand's thoughts were during the final stages of this game...

[viji]

Similar(?) thoughts from a more respectable chess player on Anand-Kramnik.
http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2008/01 ... html#links

[kujo]

thanks for the link viji.  quoting from there:

50...Qf2 51.Kb2?!  This is an extremely risky move. He is basically sacrificing his Bishop to the attack on the Black King. However, there is no mating attack that I can see of. 52...Qxd2 52.Rf1+ Kg8 53.Qf7+ Kh8 54.Qxg6 = Qg2 55.Qe8+ Qg8 56.Qxc6 Bf8 57.Qa8 Bc5 58.Qxg8+ Kxg8 59.Rf5 Rd2 60.c4 Kg7 61.b4 Be7 Basically, only White has a shot to win here. It is enough to convert though

you are right. That move 51. Kb2 didn't look like it lead him to some sort of a clear winning position.

But, Susan also says, only white has a shot to win here and it is enough of a shot....  Was Anand too tired and agreed for a draw?