Anand has his revenge

A sharper Anand versus a solid Kramnik was always going to be an intriguing clash. Millions of followers of the game on the internet and a few hundred lucky ones at the Art and Exhibition Hall in Bonn did not have to wait long for the contest to hotup, writes Rakesh Rao.

Since late October last year, Viswanathan Anand has endured pain silently. Terribly hurt by the uttering of Vladimir Kramnik, the man he dethroned to regain the world title, Anand did not express it. Perhaps, he remembered the idiom, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” He was then determined to silence the Russian, and many others.

Precisely a year later, in what will be known in chess history as the “Battle of Bonn”, Anand had his revenge. Within 12 hours of overpowering Kramnik 6.5-4.5 in the best of 12-game match and retaining the world title, Anand made a declaration. “Kramnik’s taunts helped me concentrate better in the match,” he said.

It was clear that Anand needed no reminder that emotional detachment was necessary to complete a thoroughly professional job. In the end, he carried out the execution almost ruthlessly.

After all, what did Kramnik say that made an otherwise composed Anand restless and yearn for an opportunity to shut him up?

It happened a month after Anand had won the “unified” world title, finishing a point ahead of Kramnik in an eight-player field in Mexico. Kramnik had then remarked in an interview, “On paper Anand may be world champion. But from my point of view, there is a difference in significance between a title won in a match and in a tournament. For me, the forthcoming match (in Bonn) with Anand is more important. If I lose that, I will accept completely the fact that I have lost the title, but right now, I have no such feelings. At present, I take the view that I have just lent Anand the title temporarily.”

The last sentence hurt Anand the most, but Kramnik did not stop with that. He went on to make another uncharitable comment. Unbeaten in three World title matches to Garry Kasparov (2000), Peter Leko (2004) and Veselin Topalov (2006), Kramnik came up with an analogy to substantiate his point. “Federer is better than Nadal, but cannot compete with him on clay. Everyone has his or her strong side. Mine is matchplay, whereas Anand’s is tournaments. He is very even and stable and can draw with the top players and beat those lower down.”

Now the ball was in Anand’s court. He decided to put everything into his preparations for the match against Kramnik. Even before putting together his team of ‘seconds’, Anand had made up his mind to work on an opening with white pieces that he has played just thrice against Kramnik during their encounters in classical time format.

Anand’s four-man army of ‘seconds’ comprised trusted lieutenant Peter Neilsen of Denmark, Uzbekistan’s Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Poland’s Radoslav Wojtaszek and the five-time National champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly. This was also the beginning of a planned assault on Russia’s most acknowledged bastion in the world of sports.

After nearly six months of preparations, the time came to prove a point to Kramnik. When two of the finest exponents of the cerebral sport come face to face, it was only fair to expect some out-of-the-box ideas in a series of intense battles.

A sharper Anand versus a solid Kramnik was always going to be an intriguing clash. Millions of followers of the game on the internet and a few hundred lucky ones at the plush auditorium of the Art and Exhibition Hall in Bonn did not have to wait for long for the contest to hot up.

After Anand played black in the opener and comfortably proved equal to Kramnik and then returned the next day for a similar result with white after looking better throughout, it was clear that the Indian had taken the early psychological advantage. In fact, in the second game, Anand surprised Kramnik with his first move. He pushed the queen-pawn forward instead of his well-known king-pawn start. He then held the whip for the better part of the game. Kramnik came up with a late trick and forced Anand to settle for a second successive draw in 32 moves.

After signing the peace treaty with just two minutes remaining to complete eight more moves, Anand confessed to not being sure whether he had missed a win or not. He said there was a brief phase when he thought things were going his way but soon understood that the advantage was not enough.

Then came the first big result.

With black pieces in the third game, Anand carved out a victory. The game will be used in future by experts and trainers to illustrate the champion’s ability to foresee a position that was beyond Kramnik and his team.

Anand played out a well-prepared novelty by improving upon a position witnessed in a game between two lowly-ranked players from Argentina and Brazil in 2000. Anand sacrificed two pawns but did not lose sight of Kramnik’s exposed king. The extra pawns on the board gave the Russian a false sense of security.

“I thought white was okay but realised that my king was not safe,” recalled Kramnik later. His hunch proved right. Anand went on to punish Kramnik with black pieces for only the third time in their clashes. With this, Anand had landed a major psychological blow.

Following a lacklustre draw in the fourth game and a day’s rest, Anand was back with the black pieces. Kramnik, eager to get even, came prepared to beat Anand in his choice of defence. Anand once again employed the Meran variation of Queen’s Gambit Declined and this time, Kramnik looked ready for the challenge and led the Indian on the same path as in the third game.

Did Kramnik and his team see something new over the past two days to refute what Anand and his team had prepared for months? Millions following the game live all over the world waited eagerly for an answer. Their waited ended soon.

Anand cleverly changed the move-order of his plan to draw Kramnik out and this led to the Russian falling back on the clock though the position was still equal. Kramnik then grabbed an innocuous looking pawn from the centre of the board. Anand promptly pounced on the opportunity and forced a winning ending — all in the space of six moves.

The second successive defeat with white pieces had seriously hurt Kramnik’s ego. A game next day meant he had no time to recover. And Anand sensed that this was the best time to strike again.

In Game Six, Anand posted what was clearly the most emphatic of his three victories in the match. Here, Kramnik sacrificed a pawn for initiative but Anand cleverly prevented the Russian from gaining any compensation. Thereafter, he added to Kramnik’s desperation by controlling the proceedings. This led to one late error from Kramnik and Anand finished off the game in style.

It was clear that by this stage Kramnik was suffering. For someone who hardly ever loses, suffering three reverses in four games was indeed hard to digest.

At the halfway stage, Anand had done the hard part well and now needed to hold on to his whopping lead. The match as a contest was over. The world now waited for Anand to complete the formalities. But for the champion it was not so easy. Kramnik, with very little to lose, was now expected to come hard at Anand.

Anand, on the other hand, had to stay pro-active and not resort to passive play in search of draws. As things turned out, Kramnik looked progressively better in the drawn encounters from seventh to ninth games. Low on time but high on confidence, Kramnik came very close to winning the ninth game but Anand, like in the two previous games, came up with an astute defence. But Anand’s resistance was finally broken in the 10th game.

Over the board, Kramnik for once managed to draw Anand out of his comfort zone and score a comprehensive victory in 29 moves. A rest day followed and speculations of a historic comeback from Kramnik remained the talking point among the Russian’s supporters.

In the 11th game, Kramnik had to pull off something he had never managed to do in all his previous encounters against Anand — play with black pieces and win!

Anand came prepared and for a change went back to his favourite and trusted king-pawn opening. After all, he needed only a draw to keep the title. There were moments of interest when Kramnik played a new move, which he later admitted led him to unfamiliar surroundings.

Anand settled down quickly and forced a position from where he could not lose. Kramnik read the writing on the wall and offered a draw that Anand accepted.

The draw signalled victory for Anand and the first-ever defeat for Kramnik in World matchplay.

The players equally shared the prize-money of 1.5 million euros. But there was much more at stake. The last of the Russian bastions was breached. After many years, the controversy-ridden chess world had a truly universal champion.