Anand vs Topalov world championship

  

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Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-23)
Anand vs. Topalov, world championship

So it seems that a FIDE world championship match is to start between current FIDE world champion Viswanathan Anand and former world champion Veselin Topalov...

I'm not even sure if this is a kind of "semi-final" or if this is a final match in the cycle... In my memory, Veselin Topalov beat Gata Kamsky and V. Anand beat Vladimir Kramnik, right?

Anyway a first problem occured with Anand asking FIDE to postpon the start of the match by one day because of the lack of airplanes as a consequence of the icelandic volcano (yes, Bobby Fischer stroke again! :)), the psychological war started and Silvio Danailov already threatened to sue FIDE. What do you expect to happen during this match? Who is your favourite?


Mircea Hrubaru    (2010-04-24 10:01:04)
Anand vs. Topalov, world championship

I hope that the whole mess will stop after this WCC match and things will come back to the normal cycle, even if the whole logic behind the cycle seems fuzzy...
I think Vishy will win, but I'm afraid of attempts to repeat the "toiletgate" in any variant. It started already with the transportation issue...


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-25 02:55:31)
Topalov wins Game 1




Mircea Hrubaru    (2010-04-25 13:51:18)
Anand vs. Topalov, world championship

We must credit our mate Dmitry Domanov for the 16...Qd6!? move (1/2-1/2 Stephenson, Andrew (2256) - Domanov, Dmitry (2202) / FICGS__CHESS__WCH_ROUND_ROBIN_FINAL__000003 (1), FICGS 2008 and 0-1 Agustin, Santos (2010) - Domanov, Dmitry (2181) / FICGS__CHESS__WCH_STAGE_1_GROUP_09__000006 (1), FICGS 2009).


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-25 17:56:03)
Anand vs. Topalov, world championship

Wasn't this move played before?

So maybe Anand is following your games guys ;)


Garvin Gray    (2010-04-25 17:59:11)
Anand vs. Topalov, world championship

He did not follow it well then :P


Benjamin Block    (2010-04-25 19:31:09)
Anands follow games

Sure he told that he have a database with over 10 millions games or was it 11?


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-25 20:06:21)
Anand wins Game 2 ! 1-1




Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-28 08:55:53)
Game 3 is a draw




Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-28 21:22:41)
Game 4: Anand wins again

How to explain so many wins in this match? Let's hope it can continue like this as a way to promote chess as a still living & not drawish game. Do you think that the players took many risks so far? Nice game anyway.




Mircea Hrubaru    (2010-04-28 22:14:49)
Anand vs. Topalov, world championship

I think we should put aside the first game. In my view black played allright until the blunder 23...Kf7? which gave white the chance to blow away black's position with 23. Nxf6!! (Anand saw the pawn in f6 under the threat Nxf6 and that's why he defended with the king, but I think he didn't consider the immediate capture).
In games 2 and 4 Anand showed a superb preparation in an opening that haunts Topalov since his match against Kramnik. Game 2 showed a Topalov looking for deadly attacks and ignoring the lack of sufficient force in the attack. Until now the game with the highest quality is surely game 4, where 10. Na3!? caught Topalov offguard. Between them Anand showed in game 3 that he can chill out and play for safety.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-04-30 21:08:53)
Game 5, draw




Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-02 16:17:36)
Game 6 draw, Anand still leads




Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-03 23:33:36)
Game 7, draw again




Mircea Hrubaru    (2010-05-05 09:24:06)
Anand vs. Topalov, world championship

Hi Thib,
Maybe you can publish something on your game against Robert Leemans in which you followed the line in the game Maletin-Amonatov (18. Rac1). Did you consider 18. a5 to continue?


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-05 15:41:56)
Topalov wins Game 8

Topalov strikes back in Game 8, now the score is 4-4, and as Mircea noticed it, the game follows a line until move 18 in another game played here "de Vassal vs. Leemans 1/2-1/2", I'm not sure if 18.a5 is a real improvement but it worked well against a world champion, at least!




Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-08 20:50:45)
Games 9 & 10 ended in a draw






Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-11 18:50:39)
Anand wins game 12 !

Quite a surprise to me, Anand beats Topalov with Black in the very last game... He is chess world champion again ! Congratulations to him!


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-05-11 19:13:45)
Anand is new world champion

30... f5 !




Lazaro Munoz    (2010-06-04 19:12:14)
V. Anand is new chess world champion

This is the news that Thibault provided recently. However Anand has been world champion since 2007 so he is not the "new" world champion. He was defending his title in this match.


Thibault de Vassal    (2010-06-04 19:59:41)
Anand vs. Topalov, world championship

True Lazaro... :)

(I moved the topic into this one)