World Championship: third win for Anand

Update: video added. After winning the 6th match game today, reigning world champion Viswanathan Anand increased his lead even further. Three points down, challenger Vladimir Kramnik finds himself in a hopeless situation half-way the match.

Before the game Anand was leading 3.5-1.5 and everybody wondered: would Kramnik go for a win, or would he follow the advice of Kasparov, who said "he should just worry about surviving [...] after such a blunder in game five, then decide on a game plan for the final six games"?

Following the opening of the sixth round, it appeared that Kramnik was having similar thoughts as Kasparov's, when he went for the Classical Nimzo-Indian with 4?¢‚Ǩ¬¶d5 and 6?¢‚Ǩ¬¶Qf5. However, it turned out that Anand himself was in the mood for more than just a quiet ending.

The Indian avoided the ending with 7.Qb3 and two moves later he brought an interesting novelty, again taking the initative as it comes to opening theory. This time Kramnik reacted quicker than in previous games, but still he found himself in a slightly worse ending around move 15.

And then Anand just outplayed Kramnik. His advantage got bigger, he won a pawn, he won another one and easily countered his opponent's threats that weren't really serious threats anyway. His pieces seemed to lack coordination, but Anand managed to untangle and convert his material quite elegantly.

And so we're suddenly left with the second half of the match still to be played, but nobody believes it will be a real fight anymore ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú the general consensus is that Anand has won the match today. For the first time he actually smiled several times during the press conference.











Here's the sixth game of the match, co-commented by IM Merijn van Delft and by your editor-in-chief:




Match score:

Name

Nat.

Rtg

G01 14/10

G02 15/10

G03 17/10

G04 18/10

G05 20/10

G06 21/10

G07 23/10

G08 24/10

G09 26/10

G10 27/10

G11 29/10

G12 31/10

Anand

IND

2783

?Ǭ?

?Ǭ?

1

?Ǭ?

1

1

4?Ǭ?

Kramnik

RUS

2772

?Ǭ?

?Ǭ?

0

?Ǭ?

0

0

1?Ǭ?

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Links:

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• Game commentary at TWIC, Crestbook, Chesspro and Chessdom
• Videos by Europe-Echecs
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• GM Ian Rogers blogging
• Dennis Monokroussos blogging
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(Note that the comments below this article started during our live coverage of the game)