Anand Bounces Back As Topalov's Slump Continues In London

Viswanathan Anand bounced back from his round-four loss and defeated Veselin Topalov the next day at the London Chess Classic. The Indian GM won a knight-vs-bad-bishop-endgame after more than six hours of play.

“Not sure I've ever done more extensive analysis of a position in my life,” wrote GM Robert Hess when he sent the game Anand-Topalov for this report. “I spent over 2.5 hours trying to figure out if the ending is won, and I'm still uncertain if White is winning or if Black can hold.”

Anand reached a typical knight (on d5) vs bad bishop (Bd8 with pawns on d6 and e5) endgame. The game had started as a 6.h3 Najdorf but the position was similar to a Sveshnikov when White got a passed b-pawn.

Topalov, who had already lost twice, faced the arduous task of defending this endgame. Maybe it was a draw, but the chances for White winning were much bigger than Black drawing.  

Annotations by GM Robert Hess

Excellent play today by @vishy64theking! Good karma after taking in numerous Chennai flood victims into his home #LondonChess

— Nigel Short (@nigelshortchess) December 8, 2015

Nigel Short was referring to this article, which reports that the Anand family has thrown open the doors of their house to flood-affected residents of neighboring slums. Anand's wife Aruna told Times of India:

“Since it was difficult to leave my toddler and elderly father-in-law at home and venture out to offer relief and assistance, we chose to open our doors to those affected. Following the first floods, we had close to 20 people, including two pregnant women, from the neighboring slums staying over at our place. My maid, who lost her home and all her belongings, too came over along with her extended family and stayed with us. Food was cooked in large amounts for all those at home as well as handed over to volunteers for distribution.”

A wonderful gesture indeed.

Back to the chess, where yet again the round saw only one decisive game. Except for Topalov, who is simply having a very bad tournament, the players are all on either 2.5 or 3 points, which means anything can happen.

Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Anish Giri are still in shared first place. This means Nakamura has the best chances to win the Grand Chess Tour; he leads with a four-point gap in the virtual standings (see below).

The situation could have been even better for the American number-one, who was a pawn up against Mickey Adams. That was one of the three Berlins in this round.

The Englishman pushed his h-pawn early on and then decided to give it up for active piece play. Nakamura seemed to be consolidating, and Adams had to defend the rook ending, which turned out to be an easier draw than expected.

@GMHikaru plays with the greed of Gollum. Will he win twice in a row by snatching a lousy pawn and then nursing it to victory? #LondonChess

— Nigel Short (@nigelshortchess) December 8, 2015

Hahahahahahaha! https://t.co/yRYIG5SAxJ

— Hikaru Nakamura (@GMHikaru) December 8, 2015

Caruana and Grischuk followed the same variation of the 4.d3 Berlin, with White quickly taking on c6 voluntarily. Grischuk chose a different setup but failed to fully equalize.

Caruana was on his way to win an excellent game, until he missed a queen move that won on the spot. The sign of a player who lacks form.

Jan: "How did you keep a poker face when Caruana could have played 46.Qg6?" Grischuk: "I didn’t see it" https://t.co/y9pZePdSQR #c24live

— chess24.com (@chess24com) December 8, 2015

The third Berlin of the day was a real theoretical battle in the actual endgame. In the commentary room, Anish Giri gave a small lecture about how this line developed, and how his novelty 19...Nd4 came about.

That new move was a deviation from the game Adams-Kramnik played one year ago in the same playing hall. Better prepared than his opponent, Giri held the draw comfortably.

Aronian used only one word to describe his game with Carlsen: “Boring!” It could have been more exciting, with a potential attack for White on the kingside, but in the game not much happened.

15.Rfe1 was “a lemon” according to Aronian, who had missed 15...Bxh2+, which should be fine for Black. “I thought objectively it should be all right but it's easier to play with White,” said Carlsen.

The Norwegian called his 22...Rfe8 “a bulls*** move” and 28...g6 “positionally bad,” but his position was still solid enough to hold the draw.

Wednesday is a rest day. Anish Giri said he has “32 hours to prepare for Magnus Carlsen” (“Sopiko is gonna do the Najdorf. For the greater good!”). 

The world champion, who by the way is part of a new Porsche campaign, is rather busy on Wednesday. In the morning he will be interviewed by CNN, and in the evening he will go and watch the Chelsea-Porto football match.

“So there's not much time to prepare?” asked commentator Danny King. Carlsen: “No, I'll probably play some crap!”

2015 London Chess Classic | Pairings & Results

2015 London Chess Classic | Round 5 Standings

#	Name	Rtg	Perf	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	Pts	SB
1	Nakamura	2793	2840		½		½			½	½	1		3.0/5	7.75
2	Vachier-Lagrave	2765	2865	½		½		½		½			1	3.0/5	6.50
3	Giri	2778	2839		½		½		½	½			1	3.0/5	6.25
4	Adams	2744	2801	½		½		½	½			½		2.5/5	6.75
5	Carlsen	2850	2776		½		½		½		½	½		2.5/5	6.50
6	Aronian	2781	2792			½	½	½			½	½		2.5/5	6.50
7	Grischuk	2750	2785	½	½	½					½		½	2.5/5	6.25
8	Caruana	2787	2795	½				½	½	½			½	2.5/5	5.75
9	Anand	2803	2795	0			½	½	½				1	2.5/5	4.75
10	Topalov	2803	2536		0	0				½	½	0		1.0/5

Virtual Standings Grand Chess Tour

*At the moment Carlsen and Aronian's tiebreaks are exactly the same, so that their points for sixth (5 points) and seventh (4 points) place in London are shared here.

The London Chess Classic takes place in Kensington Olympia, London and runs until Monday, December 14. December 9 is a rest day. You can watch live streaming commentary daily at Chess.com/TV with GMs Jan Gustafsson and Daniel King. 

Image courtesy of Spectrum Studios.

Not super strong level of games in London at the moment. I know that this guys can do better;)!Hope we will have some gg after the rest day!

— Sergey Karyakin (@SergeyKaryakin) December 8, 2015