Thursday, October 23, 2008

Anand - Kramnik 2008 World Championship Game 7 Live



The second half and the 7th game of the Anand vs Kramnik 2008 World Championship start tonight. Watch the game and commentary below. The forget to refresh this blog to watch the latest move and comment.

GM_Anand (2783) - *GM_Kramnik (2772)
World Championship, Round 7, 23.10.2008


1.d4 d5 Kramnik choose not to reply with the Nimzo which doesnt gave him any good results in previous game. 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 Kramnik choose to play the Slav Accepted Variation which gave him good results in his match against Topalov in 2006 Elista World Championship. However, i think this is not a great strategy because Anand is expert in this line as black as he played this line many times before! 5.a4 Bf5 6.e3 e6 7.Bxc4 Bb4 8.0–0 Nbd7 9.Qe2 Bg6
Anand on his way to play 10.e4. Photo from chessvibes.com

10.e4

This pawn sacrifice is well known in this line. Black will have problem to castle if he accept the sac, e.g 10...Bxc3 11.bxc3 Nxe4 12.Ba3! 10...0–0 11.Bd3 Bh5 12.e5 Nd5 13.Nxd5 cxd5 14.Qe3 Re8 Kramnik repeat the same move he play in his 1st tie-break game against Topalov in the 2006 World Championship in Elista. In game 2 in the same tournament, he choose 14...Bg6 . 15.Ne1 Bg6 16.Bxg6 hxg6 17.Nd3 Qb6 18.Nxb4 Qxb4 19.b3 Rac8 20.Ba3 Qc3 21.Rac1 Qxe3 22.fxe3 f6 23.Bd6 g5 24.h3 Kf7 25.Kf2 Kg6 26.Ke2 fxe5 27.dxe5 b6 28.b4 Rc4!? An interesting move to analyze. Kramnik is surely playing for a win- even with black after trailing 1.5-4.5. After the obvious 29.Rxc4 dxc4 the c4 passed pawn is a possible target though black can support it with a6-b5 and Rc8 29.Rxc4 dxc4 30.Rc1 Rc8 31.g4 a5

quite a shock reply by Kramnik because it seems that after Anand move 32.b5 black queenside pawns are fix on the same square with white bishop which could be a serious weakness later. 32...c3 the c pawn will fall anyway so Kramnik seems to provoke white to play 33.Kd3 and later 33...c2 which could force into a draw after 34.Rxc2 Rxc2 35.Kxc2 and black will only play his king with Kh6-g6-h6-g6 and draw because white king can't penetrate black terortiry whereas black knight safely sit at light square ( d7) and protect his pawn based on b6! 33.Rc2 !? Anand show that he is keen to finish Kramnik as quick as possible! Kf7 33.Kd3 c2 34.Rxc2 Rxc2 35.Kxc2 is dead draw as i mentioned before. 33...Kf7 34.Kd3 Nc5+ 35.Bxc5 Rxc5 36.Rxc3 Rxc3 37.Kxc3 = Game drawn


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