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India’s Viswanathan Anand took a 37-move draw in the slav defence to maintain his dominance over Vladimir Kramnik in the 12-game World Chess Championship final. Anand, who had white pieces, did try to go for his fourth win in 37 moves but had to settle for a draw.

The draw gives Anand a 5-2 lead with the Indian needing just 1.5 points from five games to retain his world title.

Picture Courtsey: Uep-Chess.com

India's Viswanathan Anand has taken a commanding lead over Russian challenger Vladimir Kramnik in the 2008 World Chess Championship in Bonn, Germany.

Kramnik conceded defeat on the 47th move of the sixth game on Tuesday.

Anand's third win gives him a 4.5-1.5 lead over Kramnik in the 12-game match. The other three games were draws.
Kramnik, who lost his title to Anand last year, now has little chance of digging himself out of the hole with only six games to go - three of them with white pieces. That means the defending champion can easily keep drawing in the remaining games, making it highly unlikely that Kramnik will be able to reclaim the world title.

Image Courtsey: http://www.uep-chess.com/cms_english/

World champion Viswanathan Anand scored his second victory in the World Chess Championship, again with black pieces, against Vladimir Kramnik of Russia to extend his lead to two points.
If one thought Kramnik, playing with white pieces and trailing by a point would go on the offensive for the equaliser, they were quickly corrected. It was yet another Slav defense by the Indian ace in the fifth game and Kramnik went for what he had chosen in the third game, giving an idea that he had prepared something against the variation. However, Anand had other ideas and once again he was the one to come up with another surprise. If Kramnik thought he was going to deviate from the earlier game, he was proven wrong as Anand came up with a different idea on the 15th move.

Like in the third game, Kramnik yet again felt the heat and spent a lot of time on his clock. Anand got a good lead on the time while his position also remained intact. Kramnik went for unwarranted complications instead of trying to regain the momentum, which caused him dearly. The Russian was under pressure when Anand just improved the position of his pieces and maintained a fairly balanced position.

With the clock ticking away and not many options in sight, disaster struck the Russian on the 29th move. Going for a tactical move, Kramnik missed a fine retort that turned the tide decidedly in Anand’s favour.

News Courtsey: Indianexpress.com

Defending champion Viswanathan Anand of India played to a 29-move draw with Russian challenger Vladimir Kramnik on Saturday in the fourth game of their world chess championship match.
Anand leads the 12-game match 2.5-1.5. He won the third game in spectacular style on Friday after the two men drew their opening games.

Saturday's draw was a tame affair in comparison with the previous day's game.

Anand had the white pieces and the opening was the solid Queen's Gambit Declined. As often happens in this opening, Black wound up with an isolated d-pawn and White had only the slightest chance of an advantage.

Kramnik summed the opening up after the game by saying that "White has to be very precise" to have an advantage. "One inaccurate move and it's a draw."

Indeed, Anand said that "Black was fairly comfortable" coming out of the opening.

The position seemed to be headed for a draw almost from the beginning. There was the usual maneuvering around the isolated pawn as White tried to prove that it was a weakness and Black tried to liquidate it.

News Courtsey: Associated Press

World champion Viswanathan Anand struck with black in Game 3 and took a crucial psychological lead in the 12-game World Chess Championship aViswanathan Anand making a move under the eyes of Vladimir Kramnik at the chess world championships in Bonn.
gainst Vladimir Kramnik in Bonn on Friday.

In a sharp line in Slav Defence, Anand took the initiative by inviting Kramnik for a debate in tactics and seemed to have fallen into a trap when he lost two pawns in the middle game. However, in a remarkable rally, he resisted temptations to go for a draw and fought brilliantly to pull off a big black win after 41 moves.

Viswanathan Anand surprised Vladimir Kramnik by going in with a Nimzo-Indian in the second game of the World Chess Championship on Wednesday that also ended in a draw. With this both games have ended in draws and in the third game Kramnik will hold white pieces.

Anand, playing with White, led with the Saemisch variation of the Nimzo-Indian Defense. His first move, 1. d4, was a minor surprise because he almost always leads with 1. e4 and it gave him a slight edge over Kramnik.

"At a certain point in the opening, the position became very sharp," Anand said.

Kramnik, of Russia, called the position "very complicated."

"Such a strange position is difficult to assess," he said.

Kramnik will have White in game three on Thursday.

News Courtsey: Associated Press

World Champion Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw after 32 moves, with black against Vladimir Kramnik of Russia in the first game of the World Chess Championship here today.

Playing with white, it was a rather insipid approach by Kramnik that led to the dull draw. The Russian, well-known for his safety first approach, in fact did not trouble Anand at all.