So the match finally starts today. I am excited.

Viswanathan Anand, the 15th World champion, is defending his title in Sofia, on his opponent's home turf. It his his second match after winning the title. Two years ago, he beat his predecessor Vladimir Kramnik convincingly in Bonn.

The challenger is Veselin Topalov. It is his second shot at the title. In 2006, he lost against Vladimir Kramnik in a heated match in which he (and his manager) used some dirty below-the-belt tactics after losing the first two games. He qualified for the match by beating US player Gata Kamsky in the Candidates' Final.

I think it is hard to predict the winner. They have played 44 serious games so far, with Anand winning 10 and Topalov 11, but their last game took place nearly two years ago. Nonetheless, I think Anand should be the favourite. He has more match experience than Topalov and nerves of steel. The times when he could be impressed by bad behaviour from his opponent (as in his 1995 Kasparov match) are long gone.
Topalov on the other hand is under a lot of pressure. It is his second (and probably for a long time last) chance to become World Champion. He is also playing at home which means the public will expect a lot of him. He already showed against Kramnik that matches are not his best side.

My prediction for the openings:
In every game, Anand has always played 1. e4 against Topalov so far; but against Kramnik he switched to d4. I think he will play 1. e4 and we will see some Najdorf games or - if the match is running okay for Topalov - the Ruy Lopez Berlin.
With Toplaov as White it is harder to predict. I think he will try both e4 and d4. Against e4, I expect Anand to play some closed Ruy Lopez line or - if he is up - maybe the Petroff. Against d4, I expect the Nimzo or Queen's Indian. Maybe also the Slav; although both play the Slav regularly, they haven't played it against each other so far. Could be interesting.

They play only 12 games, with two play days followed by a rest day. The official site is http://www.anand-topalov.com/.

My prediction is that we will see two openings: Najdorf (Topalov) vs. Semi-Slav (Anand). The one who breaks through first will be crowned.

Ok, it's a Grünfeld. Surprise for Topalov?

what are your thoughts after 19 moves? my initial impression is white has an advantage, anands knight on a5 is away from the action and his lsb kinda sucks, while topalovs rook on c1 is extremely powerful and he definitely has the initiative

I would have played Ne6+ to get the light squares and activate my bishop and rook later on. They are moving so fast (= preparation), that this was probably losing. I don't see how Topalov wants to create play now. He can play h4, but that is about the only active move he has in the position.

Ok, h4 played with h6 and hxg5 hxg5 to follow. Now how about the fantastic/terrible Nxf6 Qxf6 with the idea of e5 and Rae1?

Bah! Rf3....he should have played my incredible sac!!!

Edit: It's Rce1 above of course.

Looks like Topa does get tons of activity after all. This will be a nailbiter for Anand.

well played by topalov so far. chances he still sacs the knight on f6?

This game once again shows the problem of chess on the highest level. Anand will go down and Topalov didn't make a single move outside of his preparation. It is obvious that this was all analyzed in every detail by Topalov's team. I have the feeling that game 1 is already over.

Yes, Nxf6 coming soon. Topa decided to build up first and/or put Anand in some kind of zugzwang.

I play the Grünfeld myself, actually this exact line, but I didn't follow theory lately since I don't play tournaments anymore. In my opinion g5 looked really antipositional and analysis needs to show if that move was forced. I don't have an engine available atm, so I cannot check it, but this has to be the starting point of the investigation.

Deep think for Anand now. Just count the pieces that Topa can potentionally get into action with the destructive sac on f6: Queen, bishop, both rooks and the e/f-pawns....and all of this against a naked king, a helpless rook on f8 and an overloaded queen. Massacre incoming - stay tuned!

Hmmm...Kf6!?!?!?!
Looks dubious and desperate at the same time.

Ok, the guys from the chat at chessbomb claim that various engines give Nxf6 as totally winning. I cannot calculate stuff like that, but let's conclude that this was it for game 1.


....and there he goes...Nxf6 played!

The game is hardly from over.

Consensus seems to be that Anand is in serious trouble.

i know i suck at this game, but why on earth would he play qxf5 instead of just resigning

that would probably be because the broadcast messed up and he played qxe4 instead

He prob did not move that and resigned. But how does white win after Nb7? I do not see a win.

He's resigned now anyway. Anand can't be happy after losing in 30 moves.

And that's that. Play a super sharp opening as black which you know your opponent is going to be super booked for, and get a losing position a couple of moves out of common theory and before your opponent has even left his opening preparation. Meh. What a world championship. It kind of makes you wonder what the title even means anymore. The strongest player in the world continues to crush tournaments and isn't the world champion, while two guys below him face off and lose out of the opening. And the worst part is I would wager a ton that Carlsen quits professional chess before he's 30.

A few meaningless points higher. And what is he going to do beside chess? Be a professional plumber?

Absolute crush of a game. Very nice finish with Rxc8+! as well.

I'm in agreement with Shandrax that this was most likely all preparation for Team Topalov.

Very bad match strategy I would think for Anand playing this super sharp line in game 1. :-x

Now he's in a hole in a 12 game match... /in before Topalov draws 11 games.

butnahhh or maybe

isn't there a history of the grunfeld being seriously bad for black in world championship matches, i'd have thought they would have stopped playing it by now (not seen the game yet)

so true


what's TLK gonna do beside poker? go to greece, smoke weed and bang chicks LDO.

can u or anybody tell me a little bit more about this, or maybe link me somewhere. I thought he had kind of a mob's image before knowing this...

Nice!

Nb7 (instead of Qxe4) meets Rc4.


Damn, this was unexpected. I agree with all the anti-grunfeld opinions. Personally i tried it with black last months, i dont think i will any longer.
Well, but Fischer started 0-2, right? Go Vishy!

Very disappointing game. What happens if the match ends 6-6?