WCh G2: Anand strikes back, levels score

Viswanathan Anand immediately struck back in the second game of the World Championship match in Sofia, Bulgaria. He defeated Veselin Topalov in 42 moves with the white pieces in a Catalan, to level the score. 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.

Videos

Game 2

Like yesterday it was Anand who passed the stage from right to left, and sat down on one of the two resting chairs there, about fifteen minutes before the game. About five minutes to three, Topalov walked onto the stage, immediately to his chair, and so again he was there first, and by himself for a short while.

After asking Anand to take his seat too, the Chief Aribiter announced the second game to the spectators. Then it took a minute or two more before he actually started the clocks. There were no further ceremonial activities this time.

In a Catalan, the World Champion somehow managed to outplay his opponent and won a very important game:

Game viewer by ChessTempo


At the press conference Anand was quite talkative, and mentioned the following lines: "When I played f4 I thought I had compensation for the pawn, maybe, because he doesn't get in …e5. But after Rc4 I don't know about Ne3; somewhere there it began to slip away for Black. I played Bf3, I think Black is still sort of OK but after I take on b6 and come back, then I'm just much better already. After Rd4 I was quite happy to find this resource Rc7, Bb8, Rc5, because then I win the pawn and I keep all my pieces. I like to keep the knight on d3 as long as possible. And then it's fairly straightforward."

Naturally Topalov had less to say: "It was a very complicated game and at some point I started to make mistakes. Of course after some time it was simply already much better for White."

Like yesterday, a journalist from Argentina asked two questions in Spanish. I translated the answers. Anand: "I only played what the position asked for. When I started to get an advantage, with Rb6, only then I started to think of more." Topalov: "I think I got quite a normal position, a complicated one. It's clear that at some point I was mistaken."

Links

• Official website
• Rules & regulations (PDF)