The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Anand wraps up the sixth game

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Anand wraps up the sixth game

Rakesh Rao

CHESS / The Indian takes a commanding lead in the series

— PHOTO: AP

A CHAMPION VISITS: Anatoly Karpov opened the match between Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik and stayed on till the end.

BONN: For Anatoly Karpov, the battle for the world title is virtually over. With Viswanathan Anand wrapping up the sixth game of the series against Vladimir Kramnik on Tuesday, this World chess championship match is fast threatening to be one of the most one-sided in history.

And Karpov has no doubt about the final result.

“I don’t think Kramnik has a way of coming back into the match. Only a miracle can save him. Anand is playing very good chess. Today, he was simply fantastic,” declared the 51-year-old who opened the 46-move game for Anand and stayed right through.

With a favourable 4.5-1.5 score at the halfway stage of the 12-game match, Anand is way ahead in what started as a battle among equals.

Kramnik’s state of mind is not difficult to guage. If it were a boxing bout, Kramnik’s corner would have thrown in the towel. But they are helpless. And Anand is not yet through with Kramnik.

The words Karpov shared exclusively with The Hindu summed up what the former great thought of his countryman against an inspired Indian.

The long route

For a change, Anand hurt Kramnik once again, this time with white pieces. Intentionally, or otherwise, the Indian took a longer route to victory. He made the Russian suffer all the way into the fifth hour of their sixth game before tightening the noose.

An understandably demoralised Kramnik offered no excuse on his third defeat in four games and said, “I don’t have to think about my chances now. I will have to take one game at a time, try to win and hope that I win three times. I will keep trying.”

Anand persisted with the queen-pawn push to start the game, just like he had done in the previous games with white pieces here. What was a surprise in the second game has since become an expected feature. The only difference was that on this day, it was Karpov, a former World champion, who played the move on Anand’s behalf.

Kramnik, looking for his first ever win with black against Anand, played along the tested lines before the Indian deviated with a new pawn-move on the ninth turn. Kramnik did not look surprised and matched Anand’s pace.

On the 14th move, the queens were off the board and Anand had decided to keep his king in the centre. He had pushed the pawns on both flanks to show aggressive intent. Kramnik, who took lesser time than Anand did to play his moves, was soon faced with a situation. He had to decide either to play a sharp line or stick to a dull positional battle.

By the 21st move, Kramnik trailed Anand by 15 minutes on the clock. Having sacrificed a queenside pawn, the Russian was looking to keep Anand guessing. But soon thereafter, it became clear that Kramnik had not gained any compensation for the sacrificed pawn. Anand, armed with an extra pawn, consolidated his position.

As former champion Garry Kasparov remarked after Anand’s two wins: “Even if a game ends in a draw, Anand will have to make Kramnik earn it.”

Tightening the screws

The position was reached where Kramnik was fighting to save the game. To take Anand off his planned track, Kramnik sacrificed another pawn, this time on the kingside. Short of time and ideas, the Russian was increasingly looking vulnerable. Two of the world’s leading chess software Fritz and Rybka pointed to a possible victory for Anand though a decisive result was not so clear.

Amid mounting tension, Anand gave up a queenside pawn to take one of Kramnik’s knight away from the scene of climax. Momentarily, Anand seemed to have taken a detour for victory but it did not matter. He put enough pressure on Kramnik who faced a mild challenge from the clock, managed to queen his kingside pawn to force the Russian to give up.

After a day of rest, Anand returns with white pieces since the colour-order changes for the second half of the match.

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