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Viswanathan Anand vs Vladimir Kramnik
Anand-Kramnik World Championship Match 2008  ·  Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation (B96)  ·  1/2-1/2


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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 39 OF 39 ·  Later Kibitzing >
Oct-30-08   jacklovecaissa: i think it is psychological factor that has to do with kramnik giving up (offering draw) to anand.

kramnik well aware that anand is in top form (way better than himself).

but if kramnik is a true champion, he'll come back and show it to us all. i hope :D

Oct-30-08   sanyas: Didn't Anand miss a win somewhere?
Oct-30-08   square dance: <YvY> <The question is, how does black create complications? Most of his pieces are gone and he has a bad pawn structure that he has to defend and a king that is badly placed.> you're completely correct. if black had played on for maybe 10 more moves he would have been offering his hand in resignation. its quite clear that this game could end in only two ways; 1-0, or 1/2. this isnt some ICC blitz game.
Oct-30-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Ulhumbrus: <Eyal: <Ulhumbrus: <Kramnik mentioned 19.Bd3, and noted that 19...Be6 20.Nxf5 Qb4 leads to a position where "everything's hanging" and that turns out well for Black, but after Anand's 19.Nxc8 Rxc8 20.Kb1 Black has no tricks and ...Nb4 doesn't work.> An improvement over 19 Bd3 in the variation which Kramnik gave is 19 Bc4> 19.Bc4 actually creates a problem for White in the 19...Qf6 line, since after 20.Nxf5 (which seems to work well in case of 19.Bd3) Black has 20...Nb4! On the other hand, in the line given by Kramnik, the exchange sac 21.Rd4 might be very dangerous for Black after 20...Qb4.> On 19.Bc4 Qf6 20.Nxf5 Nb4 suppose White tries 21 Rd2 defending c2. On 21...Qxb2+ 22 Kd1 (threatening now 23 Rd8+ as well as 23 Qd6+) 22...Qf6 23 Be6!! Black's Queen cannot cover both d8 and d6. On 23...fxe6 24 Qxb4+ Kf7 25 Nd6+ Kg6 26 Qg4+ Qg5 27 Rf1+ ( now all of White's pieces are in play) 27...Ke7 28 Rf7+ Kd8 29 Nxb7+ Ke8 30 Nd6+ Kd8 31 Nxc8+ Ke8 32 Nd6+ Kd8 33 Qxa8 is mate.
Oct-30-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Eyal: <Ulhumbrus: On 19.Bc4 Qf6 20.Nxf5 Nb4 suppose White tries 21 Rd2 defending c2. On 21...Qxb2+ 22 Kd1 (threatening now 23 Rd8+ as well as 23 Qd6+) 22...Qf6 23 Be6!!> 23.Rd6 also wins; but it doesn't really matter, because instead of 21...Qxb2+? Black can simply play 21...Bxf5 (now that the rook has left the 5th rank) and White is lost.
Oct-30-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Ulhumbrus: <Eyal: <Ulhumbrus: On 19.Bc4 Qf6 20.Nxf5 Nb4 suppose White tries 21 Rd2 defending c2. On 21...Qxb2+ 22 Kd1 (threatening now 23 Rd8+ as well as 23 Qd6+) 22...Qf6 23 Be6!!> 23.Rd6 also wins; but it doesn't really matter, because instead of 21...Qxb2+? Black can simply play 21...Bxf5 (now that the rook has left the 5th rank) and White is lost.> How about 19 Bc4 Qf6 20 Kd1
Oct-30-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Eyal: <How about 19 Bc4 Qf6 20 Kd1> Loses to 20...Be6. Relatively best for White is probably 20.Nxf5 Nb4 21.Qd6+ Qxd6 22.Nxd6 Nxd5 23.Bxd5 Be6 where there are at least drawing chances rather than a clear loss; but of course there's no reason to settle for that with options like 19.Nxc8 and Bd3.
Oct-30-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Ulhumbrus: <Eyal: <How about 19 Bc4 Qf6 20 Kd1> Loses to 20...Be6. Relatively best for White is probably 20.Nxf5 Nb4 21.Qd6+ Qxd6 22.Nxd6 Nxd5 23.Bxd5 Be6 where there are at least drawing chances rather than a clear loss; but of course there's no reason to settle for that with options like 19.Nxc8 and Bd3.> Another alternative. 19 Bc4 Qf6 20 Qf2 followed by Qc5
Oct-30-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  stardust762: <sanyas: Didn't Anand miss a win somewhere?>

No, actually he found it. Three times.

Oct-30-08   alfa.vimapa: Someone tell me what was wrong with 16 Qd6 instead of Qf4? And what was the reazon of 18 Kb1?
Oct-30-08   Mikhail Tal fan: A fan of Vishy Anand:" i'm a regular chess player but i play like Kramnik...and i blunder!
Oct-30-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Eyal: <what was wrong with 16 Qd6 instead of Qf4?> 16.Qxd6? fxe4 17.Qxe7+ Nxe7 18.Rh5 f5 is advantageous to Black.

<what was the reazon of Kb1?> As the game itself shows, Kb1 makes room for the white knight on c1, to defend against the threat of Qe1+ Rd1 Bxb2+; it also removes the king from the dangerous c1-h6 diagonal (so that, for example, Qf6 by Black won't be accompanied by the double threat of Qxb2+ AND Bh6). And if Black tries 20...Nb4, it fails to 21.Rxf5 Rxc2 22.Rxf7+! Qxf7 23.Qxb4+ followed by Kxc2.

Oct-30-08   VinnyRoo2002: I think you're misunderstanding the point of a match you vs yourself. By agreeing to a draw, Kramnik lost! If this was just an individual game, fine, a draw is a good decision for Kramnik, but it isn't just a game, it was a match. You seem to think it matters if he loses this game, it doesn't. Any result other than a win is going to cost him the match and he didn't even fight to the bitter end to obtain that result. I think that's poor strategy even if the odds of him winning are .00001%, I mean what else did he have to do that was more important than competing for a world championship. The fact that this game was to settle a world championship may have effected Anand's nerves, you simply don't know. But Kramnik didn't make his opponent prove it. It is somewhat comparable to if the Rays had quit playing in the 7th inning against the Phillies. You should try to win the match by all legal ways possible, Kramnik didn't do this.
Oct-31-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Eyal: Kramnik at the press conference: <The position which arises [after the queen exchange] is basically just better for White. I mean, maybe it's holdable for Black but clearly there's no winning chance for Black anymore, so I decided to call it a day.>
Nov-01-08   veerar: White wins!
Nov-01-08   Bear With Me: A World title match is over after only 11 games !! Whatever happened to the old format played over 24 games, with adjournments? This was and still is a much better and fairer way to decide a match for the World title:
Nov-01-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  talisman: <Bear With Me> agree agree agree... except no adjournments. Back then only IBM and Batman had computers.Now...every second and Danailov and etc...
Nov-02-08   vkwow: This is rated so I think it was a good idea for Kramnik to agree to a draw because if he lost he would just lose more rating points and the match.
Nov-04-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  The Chess Express: Heh, it looks like both these guys have taken hits on their ratings. This was one of the best world championship matches I've seen.
Nov-04-08   Shams: <TCE> is that possible, for two players to play a match and both lose points? I would think not.
Nov-04-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  The Chess Express: <Shams> Last I checked Anand was 2803. He probably lost the points before the match.
Nov-04-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Eyal: In the October list Anand's rating was 2783 (http://ratings.fide.com/top.phtml?l...) - he lost a bunch of points in Bilbao; he gained about 8 points in the match (http://chess.liverating.org/)
Nov-12-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  kevin86: Not only did Kramnik go down to defeat,but was stuck with f-file triplets at move twelve.
Nov-24-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  The Chess Express: <kevin86> Yea, I'm not much of a sicilian fan in general.
Aug-11-09   tagbay: I think sicillian is the best opening the chess ever had..
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