WCh G11: Anand starts with 1.c4, game drawn after 65 moves

The 11th game of the World Championship match in Sofia ended also in a draw today. Anand, who had started the game with 1.c4, could give perpetual check in a rook ending and instead offered a draw, which was accepted by Topalov. Video added.

For all the match details, rules and regulations we refer to our large overview article here. Here's a summary:

The match will take place April 21 - May 12 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Venue is the Central Military Club in Sofia, Bulgaria. The match will consist of 12 games, and if necessary, a 4-game rapid tiebreak, if necessary 5 2-game blitz matches and if necessary 1 sudden death game. The classical games will be played in pairs of 2, so there will be a rest day after every 2 games. No postponements are allowed. Topalov has White in games 1,3,5,8, 10 and 12.

Schedule

April 24 – 17.00 EEST (16:00 CET) - Game 1 April 25 – 15:00 EEST (14:00 CET) - Game 2 April 26 – Rest Day April 27 – 15:00 EEST (14:00 CET) - Game 3 April 28 – 15:00 EEST (14:00 CET) - Game 4 April 29 – Rest Day April 30 – 15:00 EEST (14:00 CET) - Game 5 May 1 – 15:00 EEST (14:00 CET) - Game 6 May 2 – Rest Day May 3 – 15:00 EEST (14:00 CET) - Game 7

May 4 – 15.00 EEST (12.00 UTC) - Game 8 May 5 – Rest Day May 6 – 15:00 EEST (14:00 CET) - Game 9 May 7 – 15:00 EEST (14:00 CET) - Game 10 May 8 – Rest Day May 9 – 15:00 EEST (14:00 CET) - Game 11 May 10 – Rest Day May 11 – 15:00 EEST (14:00 CET) - Game 12 May 12 – Rest Day May 13 – Tie breaks

The time control for each game is 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting after move 61. The Chief Arbiter is Panaqiotis Nikolopoulos (Greece). The Deputy Chief Arbiter is Werner Stubenvoll (Austria). The total prize fund is 3 million Euros: 2 million for the players, 400,000 for FIDE taxes and 600,000 for organizational costs. The winner will receive 1,2 million Euros while the loser receives 800.000 Euros.

Score

Anand, V

2787

0

1

½

1

½

½

½

0

½

½

½

5½

Topalov,V

2805

1

0

½

0

½

½

½

1

½

½

½

5½

Videos

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Game 11

Today's 11th match game started with another 1-minute silence, this time for Andor Lilienthal. Last night I emailed a FIDE delegate, and he would ask the arbiters. I have no idea if it was a because of this, but Chief Arbiter Nikolopoulos did pay attention to it, which is good.

The game started with 1.c4 - a move Anand had never played in a classical game, to the knowledge of Topalov. However, we think we've found one: Anand-Christiansen, Munich 1991. But this was a last-round game in which Christiansen needed a draw to secure clear first, and the game ended in a quick draw indeed. Exactly the kind of draw that's being avoided by the Sofia rule...

Today Anand showed that it's actually a good opening when you don't want to take risks, but still like to keep slight, very slight winning chances.



Although Topalov was surprised by the move, he played fast in the opening. And indeed Black had no problems whatsoever. The resulting ending was quite drawish, but suddenly Anand took some risks by sacrificing his last pawn on the queenside in return for active play. However, in the game the world champ proved that his counterplay was sufficient.

At the press conference Topalov didn't want to answer the question whether he agrees that Anand should be considered the favourite for the tiebreak. "First we have another game, then we'll see."

Game viewer by ChessTempo

Links (we keep updating this!)

• Official website
• Games in PGN via TWIC
• Rules & regulations (PDF)
• The Week in Chess with analysis by IM Malcolm Pein and reports by Mark Crowther
• Anish Giri annotating for Chessbase
• Europe-Echecs, also reporting from Sofia
• GM Ian Rogers blogging for the USCF
• Rogers' articles for Crikey (all together)
• GM Kevin Spragget blogging
• GM Susan Polgar with live commentary
• Chessdom (also live commentary)
• Crestbook (GM Sergey Shipov, live commentary in Russian)
• GM Dejan Bojkov analysing the games
• Die Zeit's coverage
• Kramnik interview in Die Zeit
• Schwatt und Weiss (Georgios Souleidis blogging for Der Westen)
• Entwicklungsvorsprung (Georgios Souleidis' blog)
• Schach Welt (live audio commentary & chat with GM Jörg Hickl and IM Ilja Schneider)