The statistics may not excite but that’s the reality of top-level chess.
ARE you well settled down in your chair? Good. If not for anything else, be settled down to enjoy one of the highlights of this year: the world chess championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik.
The match started three days ago in Bonn, Germany, but unfortunately at press time on Tuesday, only the first game has been played and it was a draw with only 32 moves played. Today is already the third game.
That’s why if it’s important that you must know the latest results, you’ve got to do as I do: sit back in your chair, log into the Internet and visit one of the many sites that carry the match live or at least an end-of-game report. The games begin at 3pm in Germany but we’re lucky because here in Malaysia we can start watching them live from 9pm.
Call me a die-hard fan of the Internet Chess Club or ICC if you like but this is my favourite website whenever I want to watch any game that’s broadcast live. However, you will need to download either Blitzin if you are a Windows user, or Chessic if you are using an Apple computer. Once logged in as a registered user or a guest, type “ob 1” and you are well on your way to watch the games live on your computer.
Alternatively, try playchess.com which is run by the people from ChessBase. To watch the games, you’ll need to be on the Windows platform and install the free ChessBase Light software which will then give you immediate access to the PlayChess server.
The official world chess championship site itself is at http://www.uep-worldchess.com/ but I’ve found it not very helpful. Painfully slow; perhaps there are too many people trying to access it for the live transmissions.
All right, now that you are in the mood for the world chess championship, let’s take a brief look at the game statistics between Anand and Kramnik. First things first, though: before Tuesday’s first round, they had already faced one another 127 times. So they are not strangers to each other.
In their preparations for this match, they would have turned their games upside down in an effort to search for subtle weaknesses in one another’s play and they would have also studied games databases as well. In short, it would be a complete analysis of the opponent from the way they play the opening stage of the game to the endgame.
Out of the 127 games, Anand has won 19 times and Kramnik 15 times. The remaining 93 games were drawn. This type of statistic doesn’t excite but that’s the reality of top-level chess.
The best explanation I can give on this lack of decisiveness in their games is that while in Anand we have a player who has a natural flair for the attacking game, Kramnik is not. Though his chess prowess is no worse than Anand’s, he is less of an attacking player. He knows how to snuff out an opponent’s aggression so that’s why his games show a greater proportion of draws.
Perhaps I should also mention that out of the 127 games, they had only faced one another 51 times in classical games under classical time control. That means each playing session can theoretically last about seven hours!
Classical games give the best comparison between any two players because of the longer time control. This is unlike rapid chess games or blitz games where the shortened time contributes to more decisive games. In classical chess, Kramnik holds a very slight edge over Anand. Out of the 51 games, Kramnik has won four times and Anand two.
(Classical time control means 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from the 61st move.)
This here is the first game played on Tuesday. As had been expected, Kramnik opened with his queen’s pawn and chose a very solid continuation to curb Anand’s attacking style.
White: Vladimir Kramnik
Black: Viswanathan Anand
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 cxd5 5. Bf4 Nc6 6. e3 Bf5 7. Nf3 e6 8. Qb3 Bb4 9. Bb5 O-O 10. Bxc6 Bxc3+ 11. Qxc3 Rc8 12. Ne5 Ng4 13. Nxg4 Bxg4 14. Qb4
(The queen attacks Black’s pawn on b7. Black now as a choice. He can either capture the bishop with his pawn whereupon he has to continually guard this weakness or he can capture with his rook and hope that he has sufficient compensation for the sacrificed b7 pawn. He chose the latter.)
14. … Rxc6 15. Qxb7 Qc8 16. Qxc8 Rfxc8
(Interestingly, after the exchange of queens, the game already seemed heading towards a draw. Black’s rooks are more active and White must seek a way to neutralise them. Once the rooks are neutralised, how can White win with bishops on opposite-coloured squares?)
17. O-O a5 18. f3 Bf5 19. Rfe1 Bg6 20. b3 f6 21. e4 dxe4 22. fxe4 Rd8 23. Rad1 Rc2
(Up till this point, I think White has done well to inject some dynamism into his pawns as well as to contain the black rooks.)
24. e5
Game in action: White: Kramnik, Black: Anand
(See diagram. No idea whether this is the best move or not, but there are alternatives such as 24. Rd2 or 24. a4. By playing 24. e5, the tension in the centre is released. I think White is signalling to Black that the draw should come soon.)
24. … fxe5
(Or more liquidation will follow with 24. … Rxa2 25. exf6 gxf6 26. Rxe6 Bc2 27. Rd2 Bxb3 28. Rxa2 Bxa2 29. Rxf6 Rxd4)
25. Bxe5 Rxa2 26. Ra1 Rxa1 27. Rxa1 Rd5 28. Rc1 Rd7 29. Rc5 Ra7
(Eh? A complete switch from being aggressive to defensive but then White now willingly offers to exchange off the remaining rooks.)
30. Rc7 Rxc7 31. Bxc7 Bc2 32. Bxa5 Bxb3
(How to win this simplified game? Not possible. Looks like time for Kramnik and Anand to call it a day and then head home.) ½-½
really a class