2008 World Championship (Anand vs. Kramnik)
The big downdown will commence in Bonn, Germany in a few days. World Champion Viswanathan Anand will play in perhaps the biggest match of his life and a chance to cement his legacy among the world’s greatest players in chess history. His opponent… Vladimir Kramnik, who defeated Garry Kasparov in a match to become the disputed World Champion. Kasparov had broken away from FIDE which resulted in two disputed crowns.
Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik in Game #1.
Photo by Frederic Friedel (ChessBase).
Over the past few years, a cycle has been devised to unify the crown and Anand is currently the undisputed champion after winning the 2007 World Championship in Mexico City, Mexico. FIDE had designed a structure for the World Championship cycle and this is the second phase. The other part of this phase is a match between Veselin Topalov and Gata Kamsky. The winners of the two matches will meet in 2009.
This 12-game match will begin on October 14th and end on October 31st with tiebreaks on November 2nd if needed. The prize fund is a handsome 1.5 million euro (US$2.35 million) and sponsored by Evonik Industires AG. The tournament will be covered on many chess sites live with the use of Foidos new game presentation interface. It features videocast and live game feeds from five different cameras. It’s impressive.
Foidos Chess is offering two free passes for the first two games on October 14th and 15th if you send a request to office@foidoschess.tv. There are daily rates available as well as tournament packages. Check out their website and watch the interface demo at https://www.foidoschess.tv/.
(view game in new window)
Official Site: https://www.uep-worldchess.com/
ChessBase: https://www.chessbase.com/
Europe-Echecs.com: https://www.europe-echecs.com/
ICC: https://www.chessclub.com/
TWIC: https://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic.html
Chessdom: https://www.chessdom.com/
Chessvibes: https://www.chessvibes.com/
The Daily Dirt: https://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/
Susan Polgar Blog: https://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/
Drum Coverage: https://www.thechessdrum.net/
WCC 2008: Anand retains title! (29 October 2008)
WCC 2008: Kramnik crushes Anand, closes gap (27 October 2008)
WCC 2008: Anand escapes, holds +3 (26 October 2008)
WCC 2008: Kramnik has failed to break through (25 October 2008)
WCC 2008: Anand wins again… lead widens (21 October 2008)
WCC 2008: Anand powers ahead of Kramnik! (18 October 2008)
I wish good fortune and clear minds to both of these players, and some enjoyable games.
Hey,
What a fine start to this great battle of great minds……….Kramnik has got a poor record against Anand as black and a Remarkable one as white….lets hope he has worked on his black play and also avoid time trouble while defending against Anand!! – CHESSGURU (AKINSEYE)
i see a bit of aggression and intention to win from kramnik…………i hope he does not lose in the process……being too daring…….well time will tell
too bad for Kramnik. he is now in a tight corner. and Anand seems to be on rampage with the black pieces.
I wonder if he will win a game if he continues with the 1.d4…..
1. e4 should be his ultimate weapon now to turn the table.
VIVA Kramnik
Kramnik has choosen 1.d4 with same slav line he lost in game 3.
l hope he can squeeze a win here to equal. after 27 moves ….seems the win is still far away.
VIVA kranmik.
Kramnik resigned after 29 moves game 5.
he has lost as white again against a raging and untamed black piece in the hands of Anand.
Can our compatroit rise again and make the moves that makes him Kramnik?
1.e4 must be the next white choice to neutralise Anands sicilian and get the vital points we need.
VIVA Kramnik……VIVA Kramnik
point of correction ..Kramnik resigned after 35 moves.
i hope to see better chess in the next games.
well done Anand V …….VIVA Kramnik
Game 3
Daaim, Kramnik’s 33 Bd3 was indeed a blunder, however, Anand returned the favor with 33…Bh3? This is clearly not the best move. Better would have been the stunner, 33…Bxd3!! If 34. Rxd3, black simply forces resignation with Qc4+! Or, if 34. Qxd3, he will be soon forced to resign after 34… Rg2+ followed by too many mate threats on the back rank.
William Morrison
vlady miscalculated the last game. he should have never taken the bishop and instead secure his first rank which turn down to be a sacrificial pond of death with the spellbinding knight sac….
after further analysis, I think mr. kramnik would have still have a vulnerable position with three pieces lingering on his third rank. one piece operating on short range and two long range pieces either menacing to take pawns on the king side and at the same time watching his possible passed pawns. an outstanding eagle eye for mr. annand. congratulations from the DarkKnight666
would there ever be an opportunity to have a chess world championship taking place in new york city?
Is this match really only 12 games?
It should be atleast twice as long.
I like both players but I haven’t found the games very interesting.
I guess being an oldschooler I was spoiled by the Kasparov vs Karpov matches.
Sicilians, Gruenfelds, Ne2 instead of Nf3, sacs on f7!
Man, I couldn’t wait to get my copy of the NY Times and check those game out.
After Kasparov eloped with Short the title just doesn’t seem as prestigest anymore.
History really missed the Kasparov vs Shirov match.
It may has been a shutout put it probably would’ve had some fireworks.
I guess I have enjoyed a few moves in this match.
What was that Ne3!
I’m too lazy to go look it up!
If Kramnik can’t find some way to compete, this is going to get real ugly!
I do enjoy Anand’s Slav.
I think his 1.d4 has totally put Kramnik in a state of flux.
He probably was going to Petroff us to death.
I know they both play either side of the Slav, but Kramnik seems overmatched in its fine points.
I didn’t expect that!
I thought he was the master of “Exploiting Small Advantages”.
Not a bad book by the way.
Has he been “exposed”?
They both were in terrible form leading up to the match, match preparation I guess, Anand has shaken off the rust and Kramnik hasn’t.
Kaspy was thrilled when Topalov was on top of the chess world for a bit, because he never liked Kramnik’s style of play, has he commented on the match yet?
Your Oct 25th article. What is this Kramnik was the slight favorite? Kramnik was the total underdog, Anand was higher rated, is the current world Champion, and Kramnik, has been hanging out at around 5 or 6th place on the rating list forever. While Anand has Basically just sat on # 1 until very recently. Mostly Kramnik has just never been as good as Anand. Poltics is the only Reason Anand wasn’t World champion before last year.
Kramnik won a nice game today ,check position after Qd6
I learned today from my Indian friend that word “Vishwanathan” means conquerer of the of the world. What an appropriate name!!!
Admission by Kasparov- Even he knew that Kramnik was the underdog, he might have wanted to claim Kramnik was great since he lost a match to him, but… The real is below.
“This result ends the illusion that Kramnik is a great match player. London was a unique occurrence and I still stand with Leonid Yudasin as the only players Kramnik has ever beaten in a match! Kramnik now has some work to do. His overly-defensive play seems to represent a general decline in strength.” (Garry Kasparov)
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