By IANS,
Bonn : Viswanathan Anand drew first blood as he crushed Vladimir Kramnik with black pieces in the third game of the World Chess Championships final to go one-up in the 12-game in Bonn. The first two games of the match were drawn and there are nine more games left in the match.
The first player to get to 6.5 points will be declared the World Champion though both will share the prize purse of 1.5 million euros equally.
The fourth game will now see Anand start with white pieces, which is traditionally considered an advantage, though Kramnik would be left wondering about it after Friday’s game, where Anand lulled him into what seemed a home preparation.
Anand had sized Kramnik up in the first game of the match, which was also in the Slav Exchange. This time around the game was in the same opening, but in Meran variation, as against Samisch the last time around.
Anand took apart the Russian after taking the early initiative. Kramnik went in for the Meran and avoided the Moscow variation which is more popular and more analysed. The game went into a very sharp variation as the fans were ready for a bloody and interesting clash, which was full of complications.
The Russian also seemed to be running into time trouble as Anand squeezed him in a game, where he was well prepared and went all out in a very aggressive manner. Kramnik did try to fight back, but Anand was always better placed, even though in a disguised manner, which later made it clear that he had a home preparation designed to deceive his opponent.
The first indication that Anand was very prepared and ready with a novelty came on the 14th move when he played 14… Bb7 instead of the usual Ba6. Anand played in a very fast manner almost daring Kramnik. He was also lulling Kramnik into a feeling that it might be a risky line for black.
By the time the players came onto the 17th move, Anand was 30 minutes ahead on the clock, but he was slowly drawing Kramnik into his web. He was slowly building towards a sacrifice.
But Kramnik was not content to wait passively and tried to take over the initiative. But Anand was in a combative mood and went for an offensive.
Kramnik may have made his first big mistake on the 25th move Qe2 and then with his 33rd move Bd3 and that was probably when the writing was on the wall. Then came time trouble and soon it was too much to bear and Kramnik resigned on the 41st move to hand Anand his first win and take lead.
In the past Anand has taken lead against Garry Kasparov in 1995 but then lost. Kramnik can also take solace from the fact that twice in the past against Kasparov and Peter Leko he rallied back from deficit.
But the way Anand played on Friday, he looked every inch solid and mentally very strong and prepared for the clash of the titans.
Moves of the third game
Kramnik v Anand
Round 3 World Chess Championship
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. e3 Nbd7 6. Bd3 dxc4 7. Bxc4 b5 8. Bd3 a6 9. e4 c5 10. e5 cxd4 11. Nxb5 axb5 12. exf6 gxf6 13. O-O Qb6 14. Qe2 Bb7 15. Bxb5 Bd6 16. Rd1 Rg8 17. g3 Rg4 18. Bf4 Bxf4 19. Nxd4 h5 20. Nxe6 fxe6 21. Rxd7 Kf8 22. Qd3 Rg7 23. Rxg7 Kxg7 24. gxf4 Rd8 25. Qe2 Kh6 26. Kf1 Rg8 27. a4 Bg2+ 28. Ke1 Bh3 29. Ra3 Rg1+ 30. Kd2 Qd4+ 31. Kc2 Bg4 32. f3 Bf5+ 33. Bd3 Bh3 34. a5 Rg2 35. a6 Rxe2+ 36. Bxe2 Bf5+ 37. Kb3 Qe3+ 38. Ka2 Qxe2 39. a7 Qc4+ 40. Ka1 Qf1+ 41. Ka2 Bb1+ 0-1