[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: This Week's ChessBase Show: Previewing the World Championship, Starring Kramnik and Anand

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
This Week's ChessBase Show: Previewing the World Championship, Starring Kramnik and Anand
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1188447394.shtml


   With the world championship in Mexico City almost upon us, weâll spend
   the next few shows previewing the players. This week, weâll start with
   the clear favorites: world champion Vladimir Kramnik and world #1 by
   rating Viswanathan Anand. The great chess these two have produced over
   the past 15+ years merits many hours of study, but weâll keep things
   brief and take a look at one highlight apiece.
   Weâll start, alphabetically, with an Anand win. Many chess fans hate
   the Petroff (wrongly, in my opinion), so they should delight in our
   first game, an Anand massacre with the White pieces in round 7 of the
   1999 Siemens Giants rapid tournament. At that time the following line
   was in vogue: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6
   7.O-O Be7 8.c4 Nb4 9.cxd5 (9.Be2 is almost automatic these days)
   9â¦Nxd3 10.Qxd3 Qxd5 11.Re1 Bf5 and now 12.g4!? This rapid event was a
   testing ground for the variation, and the sequence of games was quite
   amusing. The round 1 game between Anand and Kramnik continued 12â¦Bg6
   13.Nc3 Nxc3 14.Qxc3 Qd6 and Black drew quickly. Yet something was felt
   to be amiss in Kramnikâs treatment, and in round 5 Karpov tried
   14â¦Kf8, and after 15.Bf4 c6 16.Re3 h5 17.g5 h4 18.Rae1 Qf5 19.Rxe7
   Qxf4 20.h3 Bh5 21.g6!! White was winning with room to spare. Anand
   managed to lose that game, unbelievably, in a completely won position
   with a huge time advantage, but it wasnât the fault of his opening and
   middlegame play. That brings us to round 7, when Kramnik went for this
   line again, intending to improve on Karpovâs play. (One guess is that
   instead of 16â¦h5, he planned 16â¦f6.) Unfortunately, Anand improved
   first, and the result was devastating. The game is a fine example of
   both attacking play and opening preparation, and as a fringe benefit
   this is a variation you can use against local Petroff players who have
   forgotten about (or never knew about) this chapter of the openingâs
   history.
   Now for the Kramnik win. Around the turn of the century, was often on
   the White side of the Queenâs Gambit Accepted, and he won many
   attractive attacking games in the isolani positions that arose. Our
   second game, from the 2001 Dortmund tournament, was one of them, and a
   very complete game as well. The position after the opening was highly
   complex, and after an inaccuracy by Black Kramnik sacrificed a pawn
   for a powerful kingside attack. Anandâs typically resourceful defense
   allowed him to reach an endgame, but Kramnikâs technique was, as
   usual, up to the job.
   Both games highlight the winnersâ strengths, and some of their
   weaknesses too, I think. So come join me: the games are great, and
   itâs time to start getting psyched up for the world championships. The
   show starts Thursday night at 9 p.m. ET â hope to see you then!
   (Directions for watching the shows can be found [1]here.)

References

   1. http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1114234449.shtml