WCh G8: Topalov beats Anand, levels score

Veselin Topalov has won the eighth game of the World Championship match in Sofia. He defeated Viswanathan Anand in an opposite-coloured bishop ending and thus levelled the score: it's 4-4, with four games to go. 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					4
Topalov,V	2805	1	0	½	0	½	½	½	1					4

Videos

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Game 8

It was a bit of a quiet day, today, with much less cameras and photographers in the playing hall than on previous days, when someone like Karpov or Mundell was around. The weather is still great, though a bit humid today. For some reason before the game I had the feeling Topalov would level the score today, and in the end he did.

So far the match, or at least the white games of Topalov, was a bit similar to the famous Kasparov-Kramnik match in London in 2000, where the challenger kept on playing the passive but solid Berlin Defence, and didn't allow Kasparov to come with improvements because he kept on coming with different versions.

In this match Anand keeps on coming with new versions of the Slav ending and one could wonder whether Topalov wasn't making the same mistake as Kasparov was ten years ago: stubbornly trying to create a win again and again, and failing till the very end, instead of chosing a completely different variation altogether.

However, what Kasparov couldn't do, Topalov could, today. In a difficult, opposite-coloured bishop ending which was probably still a draw, Anand blundered on move 54 and could resign just two moves later. At the press conference Anand wasn't sure if he could hold the ending even if he hadn't blundered, and was critical about his play much earlier in the game. However, analysis shows the draw was actually in reach.

And so Topalov got finally rewarded for his fighting spirit. He kept on trying to find was to break through the Slav ending, and he kept on pressing in today's bishop ending.

Tomorrow is another rest day and then we're back for an even shorter World Championship match: one of four games.

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
• 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)