Anand loses Candidates - not in world championship first time since 2007!

[amish]

Chess world championship 2010 is here.
(April 24, 2010 - May 11, 2010)

This time its between:
Vishwanathan Anand (India) and Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria)

Website: Anand-Topalov - FIDE World Chess Championship 2010

Game format:
Best of 12 games. In case of tie, 4 games of blitz chess will decide the winner.

Head-to-head: (44 games)
Topalov (11) - Anand (10) - Draw (23)

Anand has been champion from last 3 years (since 2007). He won last two times (2007 and 2008). Championship didnt take place in 2009. So can Anand do a hat-trick?

Anand is only player in chess history to have won the World Championship in three different formats: Knockout, Tournament (multiple players), and 2 person match.

Anand is ranked number 4 currently (mostly because he doesnt play much now)

Topalov is ranked number 2 currently. But was no.1 from October 2008 to Dec 2009.

So lets just hope it turns interesting for chess fans. I would hope Anand has clear upper hand.

---------- Post added at 09:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:10 AM ----------

Ok first game has been delayed by one day

Source: World Chess Championship 2010 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The champion, Viswanathan Anand, booked on the flight Frankfurt-Sofia (Bulgaria) on 16 April was stranded due to the cancellation of all flights following the volcano ash scare from Eyjafjallajökull. Anand asked for a three day postponement, which the Bulgarian organisers refused on 19 April.

It was reported that Anand reached Sofia on April 20, after an exhausting 40-hour road journey. The first game was delayed by one day.

 

[Sushubh]

Eyjafjallajökull

 

[amish]

Anand lost his first game in 27-28 moves. He exposed the king and allowed Topalov to bring 2 rooks on rank 7. And then immediately resigned in the next move.He played with BLACK.

 

[Sushubh]

ah well lets hope he recover from the loss and goes on to win this championship again.

 

[amish]

Anand wins 2nd game.Both players were tight on time. Initially Anand was behind with time, but he was calculating moves. Then Topalov ran out of time but both players managed to finish 40 moves in 2hrs.But Topalov soon resigned on 43rd move. As he wud not have been able to stop pawn promotion to queen without sacrificing rook.

 

[amish]

3rd game goes DRAW

Anand was with Black and defended well. Game went in a draw with 3 repeat moves.

 

[amish]

Anand wins 4th - Score 2.5-1.5

Anand with white played attacking game with smart pawn sacrifices to get positional advantage. Then never looked back.

---------- Post added at 11:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:59 PM ----------

Funny thing happened in game 3 (which went draw).

Before the championship began, the manager of Topalov declared that match will be played as per Sofia rules (as it was played in Sofia, Bulgeria) and players will not be allowed to talk to each other. If they want to convey a message they should tell arbiter. And Topalov announced that he will NOT offer a draw or accept a draw. Anand said that this is world championship so should be played with world championship rules (and not Sofia rules), but he didnt insist.

Now in game 3, there was no scope of win for any player. Anand didnt say anything and Topalov got frustrated. Eventually Topalov went to arbiter and asked him to offer draw to Anand. Now Anand DIDNT ACCEPT the draw, but instead continued to play. And played 3 repeat moves, which as per chess laws is a draw. So Anand indirectly told Topalov that if you DONT offer a draw even in such stale situation then he knows how to force a draw.

After the draw, Topalov-Anand didnt shake hands. So someone in press conference asked question, that why players didnt shake hands.

So Topalov replied, "Is it? I forgot."

And guess what Anand replied?

He laughed and said sarcastically, "May be the arbiter should shake hands!"

 

[amish]

Game 5 draw, Anand leads 3-2.

 

[amish]

Game 6th goes draw, but Anand makes a strange record of world championship.

He makes 13 consecutive knight moves in that game!

At halfway stage Anand leads 3.5-2.5.

 

[amish]

Game 7th draw - Score 4-3

Anand loses Game 8th with black - Score 4-4