Claus Jensen Chess Blog

With only 2 games to go of the 12 scheduled standard time control games and standings being 5-5 the possibility of a tiebreak is moving closer and closer. If the score is 6-6 after game twelve we will see 4 tie-break rapid games where the players have 25 minutes for the game plus 10 sec increment per move.
Players will not be forced to note their moves, an arbiter will do the job for them :)  

The big question is: Do any of the two players have an advantage over the other in rapid play?
Head-to-head rapid all-time scores favours Anand slightly. He has won two and lost once in the 10 rapid games I could find between the two on chessgames.com

Previous rapid games is one thing. More important is probably to look at their current form.
I think chess wise it has been quite an even match so far. Anand lost the first game but then had the upper hand for several games following and it was not until Topalovs two critical black games in game 6 & 7 that I felt he had a slight advantage. Topalov then won game 8 but should have lost game 9 and Anand had no serious problems in game 10. So chess wise it’s also quite balanced.
The biggest difference between the two has actually been time consumption!
Anand has played significantly slower than Topalov in almost all games. In game 9 Anand even missed a win due to time trouble!
So peerhaps this is a tiny sign that Topalov may have a slight edge should the match go into tie-breaks!

What do you think?

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3 games to go - the excitement is increasing for every game!
Standings before this game is 4½-4½.
Watch my analysis in the youtube video below.

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With the standing 4-4 and only 4 games to go we’re into the decisive phase of this very interesting 2010 world chess championship match.
Anand was having the white pieces today, and after the two most recent games where Topalov found good play with black it was expected that Anand would come up with something different today.
And in some way he did.
Watch the intriquing 9th match game with annotations in my youtube video below: 

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Topalov has equalized! Its’ 4-4 in the match!
After having played two very good black games in games 6 & 7 it was perhaps not that surprising that Topalov had some momentum and was able to win game 8 with the white pieces.
But still it was very surprising that Topalov managed to win an opposite coloured bishop endgame against the world champion!

This is my youtube game analysis video of game 8

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Today saw the first game of the second half of the match.
Colours have been switched, so once again Anand had the white pieces.
But this time Topalov came up with a very interesting idea first introduced by Ivanchuk earlier this year agains Gelfand in Nice 2010.

Please watch my youtube video analysis of the game:

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6 games have been played of the 2010 WCC match between Anand-Topalov. This means we’re halfway through the match and on this rest day it’s time to do a midway status.

The match was postponed by one day because Anand was caught in Frankfurt because volcanic ashes from Iceland closed all european airports. Some thought the game should have been postponed for more days, others were of the opinion that Anand could easily have found alternative transportation sooner.
I think the one day postponement was fair for both parties…

Game 1: Topalov-Anand 1-0

Anand very surprisingly chose the Grünfeld defence against Topalov’s 1.d4
The game took a dramatic turn when we reached this position with white (Topalov) to move.

Topalov here played the tactical beauty 23.Nxf6! which decided the game because Anand couldn’t defend both g5 and threats in the h-file.
An excellent start to the match! 

Game 2: Anand-Topalov 1-0

A catalan game and on move 15 Anand introduced a very interesting idea.

15.Qa3!? and after Topalov accepted the queen exchange he recaptured with the b-pawn!
This gave Anand very active piece play on the queenside and after an inaccuracy from Topalov Anand went on to win the game which was of course psychologically very important to equalize

Game 3: Topalov-Anand ½-½

Anand drops the Grünfeld and choses the slav defence instead.
He introduces a new idea, 14…Rg8!? after which Topalov puts his g6 bishop under some pressure but Anand defends accurately and the first draw of the match is a areality.

Game 4: Anand-Topalov 1-0 

Another catalan game and once again, Anand is the one to play a novelty: 10.Na3!
The game was very interesting and after 22 moves Anand was ready to show the chess world that he is not only a brillant positional player, he can play tactical as well:

23.Nxh6!!
A very deep tactical sacrifice that seems to be winning in all variations.
Excellent stuff from Anand!

Game 5: Topalov-Anand ½-½

Once again Anand chose the slav defence and they followed the same line as in game 3.
Anand deviated with 15…h5 instead of game 3’s 15…h6
Again Anand defended accurately and another draw was inevitable.

Game 6: Anand-Topalov ½-½

The third consecutive catalan game. Anand deviates early from the line from game 2 and plays the almost new idea 10.Bg5!?
Anand got the ususal initiative for the pawn but Topalov defends very well and later in the game he actually not only gives back the pawn but also offers another to take over initiative. He succeeds and although he is not able to win the game he isto be considered the moral winner of this game. Not only has he drawn with black for the first time, but the way he did it was very impressive and Anand had to play accurately not to lose this very complicated game.

So, halfway through the match Anand is leading 3½-2½

In the second half of the match colours are reversed, so tomorrow Anand will have the white pieces once again.

So far it has been a very interesting match. Let’s hope the second half will be just as interesting!

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Today we saw a very interesting 6th game of the 2010 world chess championship match.
Initiative was swinging from side to side and the game ended up in a very complicated endgame with 2 rooks and 2 knights vs 2 rooks and 2 bishops + 5 pawns on each side.
Game was playedvery correctly from both sides and eventually drawn after 56 moves.
Anand then leads 3½-2½ with 6 games left to play.

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Same line in the Slav Defence as in game 3 was played.
Once again, Anand was the one to play the novelty, and Topalov had a hard time squeezing a win out of his small advantage…

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At this point 4 games have been played in the 2010 World Chess Championship match.
The remaining games are played after this schedule:

Current standing
Anand 2½ - Topalov 1½

Game 5: Topalov-Anand, April 30th, 12.00 GMT
Game 6: Anand-Topalov, May 1st, 12.00 GMT
Game 7: Anand-Topalov, May 3rd, 12.00 GMT
Game 8: Topalov-Anand, May 4th, 12.00 GMT
Game 9: Anand-Topalov, May 6th, 12.00 GMT
Game 10: Topalov-Anand, May 7th, 12.00 GMT
Game 11: Anand-Topalov, May 9th, 12.00 GMT
Game 12: Topalov-Anand, May 11th, 12.00 GMT

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In game 4 we once again saw Anand sacing a pawn in the catalan for initiative.
And after a questionnable 20…h6? from Topalov Anand eyed the opportunity of going for a kingside attack.
And he did!
2½-1½ for Anand after 4 games…

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