Preview: The second half begins today in Bonn with a score no one could have predicted, at least no one in his right mind. But sometimes you have to be crazy to keep up with reality. It's 4.5-1.5 and Anand needs just two points from the final six games to successfully defend his title against Vladimir Kramnik. He has white in today's 7th game. Before game six I wondered if Kramnik would play something sharp with black and instead he went right into Anand's favorite line in the Nimzo. If there's no Plan B Kramnik had better make one up quick because he's way behind. Hmm, it might be time for him to accuse Anand of hanging around with Bill Ayers ten years ago. As for Vishy, there is a school of thought that you don't repeat even your successful openings in a match too many times, but testing out 1.e4 now and allowing a Sicilian, which Kramnik used to play quite successfully, would be insane. He's certainly not going to be scared of another Nimzo.

Any suggestions for an answer to 1.d4 that doesn't include an exchange variation? Leningrad Dutch, as GM Christiansen mentioned? Kramnik doesn't just not win with black against Anand, but he hardly wins with black ever, so conservative is his black philosophy. You have to go back two years to his 2006 WCh match with Topalov, game two, for a black Kramnik win in classical chess. Including that match, that's 42 games (+1 =35 -5), an astounding stat for someone as strong as he is. (For context, over the same period for Leko: +5 =41 -7; for Anand: +12 =30 -5.) There is more than his repertoire at work, of course. If he fought out all of his black games he would surely have more wins than losses. But his philosophy has always been that a draw with black is fine against anyone. It has served him pretty well, mind you, but it's going to make it even harder to shift into Genghis Khan mode in Bonn.

A world blitz championship in Almaty on November 7? What was wrong with the last blitz championship? Wait, that wasn't one? Looked stronger to me... Anyway, this press release just came in and I'm a sucker for any website from the .kz domain. The text reads like it was run through Google Translate set to "Borat." The creative spellings of well-known players' names are particularly nice. Anyway, this was announced by FIDE a few weeks ago and, unlike the press release the organizers sent out, they included the list of players.

Amin Bassem (Egypt)
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan)
Krishnan Sasikiran (India)
Gata Kamsky (USA)
Alexander Morozevich (Russia)
Lenier Dominguez Perez (Cuba)
Rafael Vaganian (Armenia)
Sergey Rublevsky (Russia)
Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan)
Vlad Tkachiev (France)
Peter Svidler (Russia)
Alexander Grischuk (Russia)
Boris Gelfand (Israel)
Judit Polgar (Hungary)
Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine)
Murtas Kazhgaleev (Kazakhstan)

World Blitz Championship promises to become one of the most important events in Kazakhstan's sport life in 2008. The greatest 16 chess-players of the world, arbiters and masters of chess will take part in the championship. FIDE president, the head of Kalmikia Kirsan Ilumzhinov will take part in the Championship as official person.

The goal of the Championship is to develop Kazakhstan's chess, to advance Kazakhstan's chess-players to the first-class level and also to form positive image of Republic of Kazakhstan as the developing and stable state at the international scene.
Organizers of the tournament are the Chess Federation of RK, FIDE and Noncommercial Charitable Seimar Social Fund. Prize fund - 350 000 Swiss francs is granted by Kazakhstan's Chess federation with the support of Noncommercial Charitable Seimar Social Fund and JSC "Alliance Bank".

World Blitz Championship is one of the most important and prestigious events in sport. As usual, the greatest chess-players from all over the world take part in championships.

Chess Blitz - is blazing game, where an extremely short time control is used - 5 minutes to each one on the whole game of chess. Loses this one, who exceed a time limit first or take mate. The World Championship will be conducted by Swiss system. Results will be counted by international FIDE system. Games of chess on the tournament will be played by classical time control - 5 minutes to each player during the whole game, without excess.

We have no doubts, that future championship will give a lot of memorizing, perfect, designing moments to all chess fancies not only in Kazakhstan, but in the whole world. It will be possible to watch the events on 8 chess-boards on-line and live.

Wait, there are still banks somewhere offering to guarantee things? Hot damn, how do I open an account in Kazakhstan? I hope all of you chess fancies are excited about this. Tee-hee. Later in the release we learn about Nijdorf, Bronshtain, Michail Tal, and, inevitably, Robert James Fisher and Harry Kasparov. All sic. But the history section does perform the service of reminding us all of the winner of the blitz world championship in St. John (or "Jhon"), Canada, in 1988. Kasparov and Karpov were there but the winner was Mikhail Tal. I still remember that cover of Inside Chess.

Grischuk won this title in 2006 and Ivanchuk in 2007. This is a strong field, but only three members of the top ten are there: Morozevich (2), Ivanchuk (3), and Radjabov (8). Brooklyn's finest, Gata Kamsky -- no insult to Irina Krush and Pascal Charbonneau -- is going to be there too. Speaking of Kamsky, he's hanging tough at the #16 spot between Karjakin and Svidler. Anybody heard anything about his match with Topalov lately?

[The usual preview and live discussion item. Update post-game. You know the drill. Kasparov doesn't think Kramnik plays to win with black in game six. Says he should just worry about surviving tomorrow after such a blunder in game five, then decide on a game plan for the final six games. Sounds like pretty good advice since the chances of going too far and losing with black when in bad shape must be much greater than pulling off your first ever win with black against Anand. He also figures Anand should stick with 1.d4 since he doesn't want to run into any surprises and playing for two results suits his match situation. Deep Thought Dept: Is it unethical to root for Kramnik now because I'll lose a day's pay at Chess.FM if the match ends early?]

Hmm, apparently Vishy Anand doesn't care about my losing work. The world champion beat Kramnik again, burying the Russian's chances in the match and at the same time burying his own reputation for lacking a killer instinct. Instead of coasting with his lead he played a sharp new kingside push with h3 and g4. As in the other two games Anand won, Kramnik got through the opening fine, but went slowly downhill. The difference in game six was that this wasn't one of the razor-sharp tactical positions Kramnik lost in games 3 and 5. Here Anand won on Kramnik's home turf, a dynamic maneuvering position with queens off the board.

Kramnik's time handling was curious at times. He wasn't in bad time trouble but played a few key moves very quickly, as if they were obvious only moves. From what we could tell on the ICC, 33..a4 was one (33..Re8!?) and 37..Nxb2 was another of these, when 37..Nxe4!? was certainly worth a look. But GM Larry Christiansen was already saying Black's position was probably beyond salvation by that point.

As I did after game five I ask, is it over? I would say so. The score is bad enough, but how they are playing says much more. Kramnik has been outprepared, he's blundered in tactics, and he's lost a defensible endgame. He hasn't had real chances in any of the six games. Anand has played superlatively in every phase of the game. (Lest we pile too much scorn on Kramnik's doorstep.) Momentum might not count for much, but unless Kramnik comes out for game seven wearing a cape it's going to be the same two guys for the second half. That spells victory for Anand even if he doesn't win another game. The big lead going to his head and messing with his concentration is the only real pitfall remaining.

Of course that's just my practical side speaking. The fan in me wants to see Kramnik go down swinging, trying with ever fiber to win three games from six. We could have some sensational chess even if the match turns out to be far shorter than its scheduled short 12 games. But it's more likely that desperation would lead to further losses and Kramnik knows that. He's not the desperation type. He'll go out and play his game ("a painter paints") and either win quietly or lose quietly. I don't see a KID or Benoni from Kramnik, but Larry suggested the Leningrad Dutch as a way to get a sharp game against 1.d4. Other suggestions? The way the preparation has gone so far, Kramnik might be willing to boot his seconds and listen! 9.h3 was surely more home cooking today.

As I mentioned yesterday, both Korchnoi (against Karpov in 78) and Karpov (against Kasparov in 86) made up a three-point difference in fewer than six games in WCh matches. (Coincidentally both lost in the end.) So not only is a mathematically possible, it's been done more than once. The difference in those cases and now was that both of those comeback streaks came very late in very long matches. Hard to see Vishy tiring or losing focus in this sprint.

The match is only halfway over, and we all know Kramnik is capable of winning three games. Maybe it's not to late for him to invite Gata Kamsky over to be his new second. Or at least he can rustle up a "Sanghi Nagar" t-shirt for game seven? (In 1994 Anand led Kamsky by two games with three to go in a candidates match held in that Indian city. Kamsky won twice and then won the playoff.) If Kramnik does come back to win I'll happily make him a shirt with this item's headline as a "Dewey Defeats Truman" souvenir!

Just so you know, my new G1 (aka Google phone) arrived today. We'll be off spending some quality time together for a while. It's so shiny and cute, while my three-month old daughter is already old news around here. And does she have built-in GPS? I think not. The precious, the precious...

On the other hand, I get a lot more female attention in the street when I'm carrying the baby.

[Kramnik is down one with his third of six whites. He lost his last one to Anand's brilliant preparation and play. Time to see what Vlady's got up his long sleeves. Or he could just "play chess" as the saying goes, get a little +/= going and squeeze. Deep Thought Dept: How much will Obama pay Foidos to interrupt the world championship broadcast with his 30-minute commercial? Post-game update...]

Wow. What, doesn't Kramnik want his friend Peter Svidler coming on ICC Chess.FM to commentate game 12 as scheduled? If things keep up this way there won't be a game 12. Or 11. World Champion Vishy Anand again beat Kramnik in the same incredibly sharp line of the Meran they played in game three to go up 3.5-1.5 with seven games to play. Hardly an insurmountable lead, but the how of these losses more notable than the what. Today Kramnik compounded his preparation woes with a losing blunder, allowing a very pretty winning combination that Anand saw coming a mile away. In the press conference both players evaluated the position before the 29.Nxd4 blunder as okay for Black. ("Complicated and pretty good for Black," quoth Kramnik.) Kramnik stated the obvious, that he simply missed the shot 34..Ne3!, which GMs Speelman and Har-Zvi had shown everyone on the ICC earlier. He didn't take on d4 earlier simply because he didn't see what else Black could do to improve, not because he saw and forgot the combination Anand eventually used to win.

I'm surprised to see Kramnik go head-to-head with Anand's preparation like this so soon. Trying to refute in days what your opponent and his team have worked on for months is almost always suicide. Kasparov tried it against Kramnik in 2000 and paid the price, but at least against the Berlin you don't lose when things don't work out for you. After this game Kasparov briefly opined something along the lines of what he said about game three, that Kramnik has been in his comfort zone by successfully avoiding sharp play for too long. He's just not at his best in these complications. (To these losses I'd add his brutal loss to Morozevich at the Tal Memorial. That was another king-safety blindside.) But Kramnik made his motive clear in the press conference, saying he figured he was at -1 and in these lines he's definitely going to have a chance to play for a win in a sharp position. A fair point, though giving up choice of battlefield is starting at a serious disadvantage, even apart from these being the sort of positions Anand likes and Kramnik typically avoids.

Press conference question: "Is the situation critical for you now?" Kramnik got a laugh with his physical reaction and "I think so," along with his response, "it could have been better." He continued: "No, it's still okay. There are still a few games to go and okay, minus two is a difficult situation, but not totally hopeless. I'm going still to fight, of course."

Anand varied first, a bad sign for Kramnik, playing 15..Rg8 and allowing the white bishop to come to f4 and then g3 to block the g-file. Anand then followed with the subtle-like-an-axe-to-the-forehead 17..f5!, showing that the bishop on g3 had troubles of its own. Kramnik was content with his 18.Rfc1. In the press conference he called it "a very interesting move," which is about as effusive as Big Vlad ever gets. Kramnik said he felt White should be better after that but couldn't see a way to a big advantage. He gave 22.Bxd7 Kxd7 23.Qh5 as an alternative, or 22.Qh5 directly, though he didn't see a followup after 22..Qd6. My old buddy Rob Huntington asked if Speelman's suggestion on the ICC, 23.Rd1, might not have been stronger. Kramnik agreed that 23.Rd1 is probably better than his 23.Rxc8, but that he was already getting low on time and wanted to simplify. With more time, he said he might have gone for 23.Rd1. He had already lost the thread by the time he played 27.Re1, which was based on the variations leading up to the blunder.

Anand also did battle on the stating the obvious front, saying that these Meran lines are sharp. He didn't see how White could attack without the dark-squared bishops, and combined with the central pawn mass he thought he would be okay. He saw the winning shot as early as when Kramnik played 27.Re1. He knew Nxd4 was losing, but thought he would be fine after 29.Bxd7 Bxf3 30.gxf3 Kxd7. A question to Vishy asked about lifting the rook to g5 instead of challenging on the c-file with 22..Rac8. Anand (and Kramnik earlier) emphasized the importance of the c-file.

One interesting line was given as a response to a question from GM Robert Huebner, who offered 22.b4. Kramnik said he wasn't sure if 22..Rxg2+ was then working. It looks pretty good for Black. 23.Nxg2 Rg8 24.f3 d3+ 25.Qf2 Bxf3 26.Qxb6 Rxg2+ 27.Kf1 Bxb6 is an entirely irrational position with chances of everything except a draw.

So, is it over? Coming back from -2 in seven games, and just three whites, against the world champion is no small task. Several have come close. Karpov won three in a row against Kasparov to equalize near the end of their 86 match. In 1978 Korchnoi came close to a heroic comeback against Karpov, winning games 28, 29, and 31 to tie things up before Karpov got the sixth win in game 32 to end the match. In 1954 Smyslov scored 3.5/5 at the end to draw even but then ran out of track and Botvinnik retained his title. In Bonn there are no draw odds, however.

One big question will be answered tomorrow, and that's whether or not Kramnik feels he has to start playing to win with black already. Having a repertoire dedicated to slight disadvantages and queen exchanges instead of counterplay is here a liability. Of course going for broke could lead to a fatal third loss, so they may deem it early to hit the panic button. So really the question is does Kramnik have a Plan B now that Plan A is down the, umm, toilet?

The latest scientific confirmation that my brain is melting.

Men's Reactions Peak at Age 39

This explains everything.

Scientists asked 72 men, ranging in age from 23 to 80, to tap their index fingers as fast as they could for 10 seconds. The researchers also did brain scans to measure in each subject the amount of myelin - a fatty sheath of insulation that coats nerve axons and allows for signaling bursts in our brains.

Both the tapping speed and the amount of myelin was found to decline "with an accelerating trajectory" after age 39.

The rest of the article here. I turned 39 in June. Anand will in December. It doesn't connect this to things that affect mental disciplines, but it should account at least for a drop-off in blitz reflexes. Shouldn't there be a pill for this by now? Melatonin? Gingko biloba? But of course we have Viagra and its ilk in abundance. Typical - worried more about failing below the belt than above the neck. There are probably far more scientists working on solving baldness than on preventing what's inside our skulls from falling apart as we age. Ah vanity, the quicksand of reason.

Get your thread on. Consolidate with caution or go for the kill? Kramnik has never beaten Anand with black. Chat and predictions in the message boards. Cheap Shot Dept.: Did Kramnik forget to click the link on the left before game three?

Game four drawn with no hits, no runs, and no errors. Anand again opened with 1.d4 and it looked as though he was trying to rest up from yesterday's excitement. Kramnik didn't shy away from his usual stuff this time and though he avoided the Slav he played an IQP position he's been happy to play before, including in a blitz game against Kasparov in 2001. GM Nick de Firmian tried to make it interesting on ICC Chess.FM, but the game conspired against his best efforts. Anand did get a few tiny threats on the queenside but Kramnik reacted in plenty of time. He spent a while triple-checking 24..g5! (a move Shirov and Moro would play in three seconds) before deciding there was nothing Anand could do to punish the pawn pushes before ..d4 swapped everything off the board. As usual, the pushing of the IQP led to equality and they agreed the draw a few moves later on move 29.

An acceptable result for both players. Anand apparently didn't want to try too hard to kick Kramnik while he was down, instead choosing to play for two results and psychologically consolidate after his big win. The 5.Bf4 system has been played by Ivanchuk, Topalov, and Carlsen recently so it's stodgy reputation is a little unfair. Still, as with the colors reversed in game 1, it's hard to imagine Kramnik losing this sort of position. He prudently dodged any Anand surprises in the main line with 11..Bf6 (which he played against Kasparov) with 11..Bf5. Anand tried to get something going with his queen on the queenside, but there wasn't anything there. Kramnik's fine ..h5, ..g5, ..g4 plan allowed him to get in ..d4 with a fire sale and a draw. The champ's 23.Bh3 looks strange, but Nick showed how the bishop can run into trouble on f3 in some lines. Still, it's worth a second look since Black drew easily in the game.

Overly cautious from Vishy? I don't think so. The game doesn't look like much but this line has been fairly popular lately with aggressive players going for a win. Kramnik simply responded well to neutralize the threats and a draw was the natural result. The match is 1/3 over and Anand leads 2.5-1.5 heading into the second rest day. Kramnik comes back with white on Monday with some problems to solve after he was bitten hard by Vishy's Meran prep in game three. Official site.

More soon, just wanted to get a g3 thread going. What a game! Tremendous preparation by Vishy, great fight by Kramnik despite being out of book and down on time, then a king hunt in mutual time trouble. Looks like Kramnik missed a draw by giving up his queen. Anand missed a forced mate but he had already figured out a win with another move, so only a misdemeanor.

Update #1: A condensed version of some on-the-fly comments from Garry Kasparov: "Great choice by Vishy! [With 8..a6] he dragged Kramnik into this nightmare instead of allowing him to play slowly. It was good preparation and also good psychology to kick some sand in Kramnik's face and show him he wasn't afraid. I didn't see the whole thing, but when I came back from a meeting and saw the position after 22..Rg7 I thought Kramnik had had it. At first glance it looks like the game was well played by both players. Just looking at it I'm not sure why Kramnik couldn't play 33.Kb3. Maybe he can give up his queen and still draw with the a-pawn."

Update #2: Garry's glances are usually pretty accurate and here he scores 50%, it seems. It was very well played but Black has a long and complicated win (or close to it) after 33.Kb3. The thousands of brains and processor cores that make up the global Borg of chess analysts in the 21st century have come to some necessarily tentative conclusions about the thrilling third match game. That it was a sensational piece of preparation was never really in doubt. Anand played his moves very quickly until a deep think on 19..h5. Perhaps Kramnik's capturing on d4 with the knight instead of the more natural-looking rook finally took him out of his preparation. That prep started with 14..Bb7, breathing new life into a complicated line that was considered superior for White. This is why it was such a nice piece of work. White really can't back down from the craziness after 8..a6. Black scores very nicely after the lines with a4-b4 instead of 9.e4. And the 10.d5 (instead of e5) lines haven't been popular since Karpov was having mixed results with them in the mid-90's. After White plays the desperado Nxb5 he's basically along for the ride until the point at which Anand sprung his novelty.

It was quite a good ride for White against the usual moves that dealt with the threat to the b-pawn, 14..b4 and the ugly 14..Ba6. Few top players had ventured this far for a long time. Shirov played it in the 90's and Karjakin trotted it out a few times three years ago. Kramnik surely wouldn't have minded playing those lines. Anand's aggressive new move (the move is but the position isn't, technically speaking, since it transposes into a few unknown games, two from 1946) is classic stuff, giving the pawn back for development. Black's pressure against the white kingside gets a jumpstart and the white bishop on b5 can hang in various lines. There are many spectacular variations on just about every move from 15 to the end of the game on move 41. Quite a few of them must have been analyzed by Anand and his team (and their computers) because otherwise it just looks too slow for Black.

Kramnik invested a lot of time meeting the challenge and he did so in very impressive fashion. He pressurized the d-file with an x-ray on the pinned Nd7 and took aim at the centralized black king. From the "strange computer suggestion" department comes 17.a4, which GM Jan Gustafsson could scarcely believe during our live broadcast on ICC Chess.FM. Handing Black a tempo in such a sharp position to anchor the bishop just can't be right. Kramnik kept playing logical, strong moves, as Anand bashed through his prep. Just how sharp it must have been, and how tough for Kramnik to deal with at the board, is illustrated by the move 17..Rg4! This simply looks losing to 18.Nd2 at first, threatening the rook and Nc4. But the computer shows that the rook, and then the Nd7, can be ignored! 18.Nd2 Ke7! 19.Bxd7 Rag8! insane. The threats of ..d3 and sacrifices on g3 are enough for Black to earn at least a perpetual check. In several lines he has queen and bishop plus dangerous passed center pawns against a hodgepodge of poorly coordinated white pieces and an open white king. Wonderful stuff.

Kramnik instead found the sensational piece sacrifice 18.Bf4! and the game started to take on a faint odor of immortality. Instead of defending White goes on the attack in the center at the cost of a bishop. Anand took his first think of the game before taking the bishop. We looked at the speculative 18..Rxf4 for a moment but Vishy played too quickly to allow for a deeper look. It looks like White is okay after 19.gxf4 Ke7. Kramnik surprised again by taking on d4 with the knight, playing for sacrifices on e6 that can't be avoided. The "normal" 19.Rxd4 also looked interesting for White. 19..0-0-0 20.Rad1 must be unpleasant for Black and 19..Kf8 20.Bxd7 Rd8 21.Rad1 looks solid.

Now it was the world champion's turn to burn his clock. After building up an advantage of well over an hour, he used nearly all of it over the next few moves. 19..h5, 19..Rg6 was the likely alternative, looked like it allowed a more dangerous White attack after the unavoidable knight sac on e6. But Anand saw that he was still playing for a win after 22..Rg7! Black can bail out in search of a perpetual with 22..Bxg3 23.hxg3 h4 when 24.Qh7 loses to 24..Rxg3+! Back in the game, at first the computers were quite cheery with the two extra connected passed pawns on the queenside. But White's king is in a great deal of danger. If Kramnik has a weakness it's when his king is under fire (not anyone's idea of fun, but he has defended such positions relatively poorly on several notable occasions) and here he made several dubious moves to put himself in a critical position.

Both players were under 20 minutes by move 25 and Kramnik's 25.Qe2 is one of those moves that just looks fishy even if it's hard to prove. It blocks the white king's escape route and the hit on the h5 pawn is defended by a move Black wants to make anyway to open the g-file. Such curiosities are often meaningless, but for some reason I find it meaningful that the white queen never moved again for the rest of the game as the white king was chased pillar to post. Qb3 looked like a safer bet, though Black is still calling the shots. Anand continued the play with tremendous precision, although his clock handling had us worried as both players sank under 10 minutes. 28..Bh3! was pointed out by GM Jon Speelman and it's very hard to handle. The computer wants to play 29.Rd1, offering the exchange. After 29.Rd1 Bg4 30.Qe3 Qxe3+ 31.fxe3 Bxd1 32.Kxd1 Rg2 33.Kc1 it's a difficult race with all three results in play. Black can instead opt to keep the attack going with 29..Bf5 or the tricky 29..Rg1+ 30.Kd2 Rg2.

Kramnik played 29.Ra3, after which it appears there is no way to survive. All three black pieces coordinate in the attack on the king. With both players dipping under five minutes, White could have gone for the computer recommendation of giving up the exchange by playing 32.Rd3 Bf5 33.Kb3, but this is much harder for White with the queens still on the board. What happened next was remarkable. Kramnik blocked the check with 33.Bd3, which loses instantly to 33.Bxd3 34.Rxd3 Qc4+ and either the white queen is lost or it's mate in one on c1. Anand ignored the mate and instantly replied 33..Bh3, a clear example of sticking with a winning plan instead of looking around for a better one when in time trouble. Kramnik desperately gave up his queen and ran his a-pawn but it wasn't nearly enough to stop him from losing the house to checks. He resigned after reaching the time control.

A magnificent game worthy of the world championship and a win worthy of the world champion. Anand combined preparation, aggression, and precision into a lethal package. Kramnik gave as good as he got, holding the balance against Anand's preparation with sacrificial flair. The discussion around Kasparov's suggestion (a little unfair to pin it to him since he didn't do any analysis) of 33.Kb3 seems to have moved conclusively to a win for Black, but it's a sharp and long series of checks that even the computers need a while to figure out. With my silicon running on just one core during the game it thought Kb3 was okay for White, at least not immediately losing. At first the comps need a minute to see that 33.Kb3 Rc1 34.a5 Rc2 35.Qxc2 Bxc2+ 36.Kxc2 Qc5+ 37.Kb1 Qxb5 38.a6 is a draw.

That sends them back to find something better and eventually they work out a long sequence starting with 34..Qd5+ that looks close to winning for Black. Still, for a human to reproduce it, especially with a minute or two on the clock, would have been nearly impossible. And the White a-pawn is dangerous, making a perpetual a perpetual temptation. The main line according to my four cores: 35.Bc4 Qb7+ 36.Bb5 Rc5 (36..Rc2 seems even stronger, but also very hard) 37.Kb4 Rc2 38.Qe3 Rxb2+ 39.Rb3 Qe7+ 40.Kc4 Qc7+ and Black has gotten one pawn back while keeping a very dangerous attack into the second time control. But it's notable that even at 10 million nodes per second the comp can't find a forced win of material here, so it's still a game. The a-pawn always offers drawing chances even with rook vs queen. Also note that if Black plays one move differently at just about any point in that line it's a draw or worse. Objectively we can't say 33.Kb3 would saved White's bacon, although it was definitely the best try. I wouldn't go as far as saying the 33.Bd3 blunder ruined the game though.

Many analysis links in the comments, including GM Miguel Illescas's typically excellent work on the official site. He probably didn't have time to look at the 34..Qd5+ winning attempt.

Whew! Will Anand kick Kramnik while he's down or get cautious with nine games still remaining? Knowing Vishy, he's just going to go out and play chess, sticking to whatever plan he had at the start. The early win by Anand is quite different than an early win by Kramnik. As the more solid player in general, Kramnik may soon be forced to give up catenaccio and go with three strikers. But not yet. This isn't the first time he's trailed in a world championship match and he can take heart that both times previously (04 against Leko and 06 against Topalov) he's fought back to even the score.

Ironically, or just presciently, my first trivia question of the day on Chess.FM, written the night before, was "Who was he last player to defeat Kramnik with black in a classical game?" That one's not too hard. But to name the player who did it before that you have to go back to 2006.

[Just a temporary title for a game 2 discussion thread. Garry called it: 1.d4!]

Yes, Vishy eschewed his usual 1.e4, Kramnik played a Nimzo, Anand went for the f3 variation (in his rare recent 1.d4 forays Anand has only played 4.Nf3), and Kramnik delved into the history books with ..f5. Black came out fine and though he had to sac his h-pawn he got good compensation and the white bishop pair was kept under wraps. The players agreed to a draw on move 32 in mutual time trouble. A dynamic and interesting game, just the sort of thing Anand must be hoping for. And surely the sort of thing he needs to play out, since it's so hard to get active, unbalanced positions against Kramnik.

And that's the problem. Nobody is qualified to say they should have gone against their best instincts and played on. But I really must count this as a knock on Anand for letting a chance to mix it up turn into a draw by mutual fear. Kramnik is so solid, so well prepared, and so good at turning White's first move into sterile equality that you have to press hard whenever you get the chance. I can easily imagine several of Anand's whites turning to dust against Kramnik's preparation, so a chance like this can't be squandered.

Of course Vishy knows all this and must have thought he was borderline worse, or at least with the more difficult position with just minutes on both clocks. And Sofia rules would be draconian considering the subtleties of match strategy, etc. Still, as I believe Russianbear put it in the shoutbox, this one could come back to haunt Anand. It's very early and if you aren't going to take chances with ten games left, when will you? But okay, Kramnik practically took a pass with his first white and the match is still even, just shorter. And I think most would agree Anand would have the advantage in rapid tiebreaks, nerves notwithstanding. Kramnik has said as much himself.

I must say it was nice just to see these guys slugging it out. Finally, Kramnik versus Anand! We've been waiting for this for a long time and this was a good game. Kramnik, a master of the bishop pair himself, was very instructive in neutralizing Anand's. Right out of the Nimzo primers. He confidently trotted out 8..f5, which was played by Tal, Petrosian, and Korchnoi 50 years ago and few luminaries since. Anand, Leko, Topalov, and many other current top players have played the more common 8..Qa5 in recent years. Karpov has played both, however, and it's anything Karpov plays cannot be called anti-positional almost by definition.

Black's play with 14..Ba6 continued along classical strictures, forcing White to either give up the bishop pair or limit the bishops' mobility. After 16..Ng4 White never got a chance to catch up in development. When he threatened to, Kramnik found a nice plan to sac his h-pawn to keep White bottled up. It forced the swap of knights and allowed the black pawn to get to e5, jamming the bishops. Anand was only able to move his rooks toward the end of the game and the ended up on squares that exemplified how uncoordinated his pieces were. But he did still have an extra pawn in the final position and if the bishops had already endured 30 moves of suffering why not eight more? It doesn't look like Black is crashing through after the ugly 33.c5 Nf4 34.Re3 Rh6 35.Kh2. Not the sort of moves you want to make in time pressure, but it's still up to Black to prove compensation. White's threatening Bc3 and it's not easy to keep the bishops under control while blitzing. Again, Anand's the champ so you don't fault his judgment, but it does look like he blinked here. Heck, just his being in time trouble is news.

Now Kramnik's team has to work on 1.d4 too. The Nimzo was a good solid choice here against someone who doesn't play d4 often. Still, you'd think Kramnik would go back to his Slav if Anand continues with d4. He knows it better and must have lots of goodies stored up. As for game three, no way in hell it's another Exchange Slav. It's time to take the gloves off and it's time to break out the Catalan or see if Vishy is up to putting the Slav up to Kramnik's scrutiny. They even danced in the hot ultra-sharp Semi-Slav in Mexico City last year and it would be spectacular to see that again. A commentator can dream, can't he?

[Thank goodness this isn't in Munich. What rhymes with Munich? Punic? Eunuch in Munich?]

Kramnik used the Exchange Slav to warm up a bit and get a risk-free position with his first white. Anand was never in any danger after simplifications and Kramnik soon agreed there was nothing to play for. It was the sort of position Kramnik adores, but there just wasn't enough meat on the bones for a meal even for him, at least not against Anand. 21.Re2 is one of the few suggestions for this one other than "don't play the Exchange Slav."

Kramnik might win such bland positions 1/10 against average GMs, but against Vishy it would probably be closer to 1/30. But the ice has been broken, swords have been crossed, and the nerves and opening jitters have been released. Now let's hope we can get down to business. Will Kramnik walk right into Anand's Petroff preparation or does he have some surprises in store to gain time? Kasparov has another theory, mentioned at the bottom.

Your might think that because of those initial nerves the first game of a world championship is special mostly for historic reasons, not chess reasons. But we do get action and drama with surprising regularity. There is a relatively high percentage of decisive first games. An amazing 25 of 38 game ones were decisive! That's 65.7% compared to 44.6% decisive for non-first games.

1886 Zukertort-Steinitz. The eventual match winner takes the first game only to lose the next four in a row. Hmm, something I never noticed before: Steinitz trailed at one point in all five of his world championship matches. Even his rout of Chigorin in 1889 wasn't a rout. He trailed the Russian three separate times in the first half of the match.

Lasker won game one of his first four WCh matches (Steinitz twice, Marshall, Tarrasch). Of course Schlechter broke that streak, which Lasker resumed when he flattened Janowski in 1910.

Alekhine put Capablanca on notice with a blistering win in game one. He wouldn't win again for another three weeks. The shortest decisive game one was Alekhine's demolition of his favorite client Bogoljubov in their first match in 1929. Black was getting mated with his king on d7 after 26 moves. Against Euwe, Alekhine won the first game in the match he lost and lost the first game in the match he won.

Botvinnik and Smylov reversed that trend in their three matches. All three first games were decisive and all three were won by the eventual winner of the match. Or, in the case of the 1954 match, by the player who kept his title by virtue of draw odds. Tal famously took out Botvinnik's French in their first match and went on to win. Botvinnik returned the favor a year later, winning game one and the match. The Patriarch also beat Petrosian in game one in 1963, but could score only one more victory and lost his title.

That mirrored how Petrosian lost the crown to Spassky six years later, winning the first game with black but losing the match. Of course the most famous game one of all, one of the most analyzed games in chess history, was Fischer's loss to Spassky. Pawn grab blunder or calculated risk? Only game two from that match was analyzed more. So three new champions in a row lost the first game.

Game one of Korchnoi-Karpov 1978 was the shortest first game ever, an 18-move draw. Three years later Karpov won the first two games and then three out of four. He also started strongly against Kasparov in 1984, though they drew the first two contests. The famous Marathon Match looked more like it would be but a short sprint at the start as Karpov won four and drew five to start. But then...

Kasparov needed 32 games to score his first win over Karpov in their first match in 84. He only needed one game in their second. He did trail in the match after five games, however, and didn't take the lead for good until the 16th game. (Ahh, feels so good to write "16th game." This 12-game stuff is for sissies. 20 ought to be a legal minimum.) The two K's drew the first game in each of their subsequent three matches.

One of the most dramatic first games ever was Kasparov's win over Nigel Short in 1993 -- on time in what had gone from a winning position to a difficult one in time trouble. Short failed to exploit a superior position in game two, lost games three and four and the match was over. Anand and Kasparov 1995 started out with eight consecutive draws, still a record. Anand drew first blood in the 9th game but then, as he put it, had a tiger by the tail and couldn't hold on. Kasparov won four of the next five to make the final score look a lot worse for Anand than the match really was.

Kramnik unveiled the now-legendary Berlin Defense against Kasparov in the very first game of their 2000 match in London. Perhaps even more critically for the eventual result, he demolished Kasparov's choice for black, the Grunfeld, in game two with a strong novelty. Feeling at sea at the board after just two games Kasparov alternately flailed and faltered, not winning a single game from fifteen. Kramnik again started off well in 2004, beating an over-pressing Peter Leko on the black side with some deep preparation in the Petroff. Remarkably, Kramnik's only wins in the match were the first game and the last, which he had to win to tie the match and retain his title.

Against Topalov in 2006, Kramnik jumped out to an early lead again, though more thanks to his opponent than in the earlier matches. Like Leko in 04, Topalov pressed for a win in game one and ended up with a loss. It was even worse for the Bulgarian in the second game, when he had a clear forced win missed by both players and went on to lose again.

In light of all that, today's Exchange Slav looks even tamer. Kasparov wondered if Anand might not try to rub Kramnik the wrong way in game two by opening with something other than his habitual 1.e4. "Leko switched to d4 against Kramnik and had success. Anand could try the same thing." This makes me wonder if the world would be a different place today had Kasparov more quickly come to that conclusion himself in 2000!

Here's the official site, but there's nothing there I can see yet. Post your links to analysis, photos, and other coverage. Joel Benjamin and I had fun on ICC Chess.FM goofing off with listeners and playing their calls on the air. Also giving away a lot of stuff. Need to kill some time with a game like this one, though newly proud papa Joel did a great job of making it interesting and educational, as always.