PUNE: In a dynamic endgame, Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik almost repeated their moves to get a draw in Game 8 of World chess championship inViswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik in Game eight of the World chess championship. (AP Photo)
Bonn, Germany, on Friday. The 39-move draw took Anand to just one point away from taking the title in this 12-game match. The Indian leads the Russian 5.5-2.5 now. The next board is slated for Sunday with Anand having white pieces. According to the webcast, Anand opted for Vienna variation which was quite tricky from the black side. He came up with a novelty on the 10th move.
The middle game was probing, replete with sharp play from Anand, who again chose not to castle. However, Kramnik found the necessary counterplay. Meanwhile, Anand had gained some advantage on the clock, and he used that to take his king to safety without castling it. As the first time control came nearer, the position looked picturesque with attacking queens still on board. Kramnik attacked on the king-side while Anand had managed to open a file on queenside and ‘connect’ his pieces well. When the draw was agreed to, Kramnik’s attempts to squeeze out a win had reached a dead end. He had managed to hassle Anand with eight checks in last 12 moves but his knight and rook were almost rendered inactive.
The Russian appeared not to have a concrete plan to continue. Both of them had a rook each supported by knights; and their knight manoeuvres were blocked by pawns. Both had six pawns each. But neither of them was a passer or vulnerable to the opponent’s attack.
The World Chess Championship is taking place from Oct 14 - Nov 2, 2008 in the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn. The match consists of twelve games, played under classical time controls: 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 move 61. The prize fund is 1.5 million Euro (approximately $2.35 million), including taxes and FIDE license fees, and is split equally between the players.