WCC 2008: Anand retains title!!

Viswanathan Anand of India has retained his world championship title by accepting a draw from Vladimir Kramnik.This World Chess Championship further unifies the championship cycle using the match system The game was surprising in that all the games had begun with 1.d4, but Anand trotted out his traditional 1.e4. There was an expectation that Kramnik will parry with his solid Petroff, but needing a win, he threw out the provocative Najdorf Sicilian. He mentioned in the press conference that he had “no clue at all about the theory.”

Anand changed the move order with 8.Bxf6!? gxf6 and 9.f5!? This didn’t appear to catch Kramnik off guard, but he went into a long think and actually got into a bit of trouble. Leading up to the final position, Anand had a clear advantage and had managed to thwart all of Kramnik’s tactical tricks. In a sign of class, Kramnik played 24…Be3, offered a draw which Anand immediately accepted. Kramnik congratulated Anand with a double-handed handshake.

Photo by Vijay Kumar.

Drum Coverage: https://b2bsoftwares.com/client-daaim/blog/2008/10/11/2008-wcc-anand-kramnik/