I came across this game in one of my chess books, and thought,'Wow! Ouch, Anand. What do you think of the game? (Anand resigned on the sixth move).

The reason Anand resigned is because 6...Qe7 7.Nd5 wins or 6...d5 7.d3 wins.

 

 

Rather horrific blunder by Anand eh?

Oh, by the way the game is Zapata vs. Anand

5...Bf5 was suggested in the magazine "Informator" based on Miles-Christiansen, 1987. What Anand didn't know was, that game was a pre-arranged draw. Anand's mistake was to add a line to his opening book without analyzing it first himself.

 

This is not the shortest GM game... many 1-move games have been played.

an arranged draw.. hmm. i dont see the hopelessness of blacks position here, maybe im not seeing something important but why not blacks king bishop to e7 ? i dont see an impending mate, from what im seeing

Notice the Black knight is attacked twice but defended once, so If 6...Be7 7.Nxe4. White's up a piece and Black doesn't have compensation. At the 2500-level hanging a piece is resignable. At my level too, if my opponent was any good, I would probably resign and save my energy for the next game. :)

i see that but it still seems a bit early to raise the white flag, i suppose grandmasters know better though, lol. i still would have played it out a bit more though, even the best players in the world a piece up are capable of mistakes. but i understand your point

The best player in the world....

We are all human. 

"even the best players in the world a piece up are capable of mistakes."

 

Perhaps he had a 1/1000 chance of drawing, but when you have to play several games in a row it's often wise to conserve your energy and prepare for the next game where you have real chances. Actually, in the next round he managed to defeat his opponent and score a full point. If the last round of a tournament it's more common to see someone play out a losing position. Maybe this makes it more understandable. :)

after looking at this again i can understand why black resigned. he only made 5 moves and 3 of them were bad. he must have been asking himself..... what was i thinking? lol

well 2 anyway,Nf6 looks like where it all started , i guess thats debateable

Only Black's fifth move was bad. 2...Nf6 is fine... it's the Petroff Defense. It's known for being very solid although somewhat drawish.

so thats the petroff defense ,i knew somebody must have used that move before, ive never encountered it in my ltd experience though, it looks odd

Here's a similar Petroff game (without 5...Bf5??) from the last world championship:

 

 

wow what a battle, up 2 pawns and white settles for a draw

Tell me about it.

Another short game between two GM's in the Petroff was this;

Here's an even shorter game, though played by masters, not grandmasters: Gibaud vs Lazard, Paris,1924.

Ouch.