He will have to take risks

‘Kramnik will have to take risks’
Dhananjay Khadilkar
Monday, October 20, 2008 02:47 IST

Dibyendu Barua feels the Russian, who trails Anand by one point, will find it hard to breach the Indian GM’s defences

MUMBAI: Viswanathan Anand may be leading Vladimir Kramnik by one point after four games in the world championship match.

But, according to Dibyendu Barua, India’s second Grandmaster after Anand, a lead of one point is not a big enough cushion. “Anand will have to be on his guard against an opponent of Kramnik’s calibre,” Barua said.

Barua was all praise for Anand’s style of play and his planning. The most striking feature of this match, being played at Bonn, has been the continuous use of d4 as the opening move instead of the traditional e4 that Anand has been associated with.

“With d4 Anand has managed to take Kramnik by surprise. There are very few games in which Anand has opted for d4. As a result, this surprise element has certainly caught the Russian on a wrong foot and has given Anand a huge psychological boost,” Barua said.

He also feels that Anand’s opening choice has been governed by Kramnik’s expertise in playing the Petroff and Berlin defence with black.

Barua was surprised at the attacking play of both the players in the first three games.

“Normally, one wouldn’t have expected them to take risks so early. However, except for the fourth, all the games saw plenty of attacking and counterattacking moves.”

Anand has been in a similar situation in a world championship match. In 1995, Anand had taken an early lead against the then world champion Gary Kasparov. However, the Indian went on to lose the match. Is there a chance of history repeating itself? However, Barua feels Anand has changed a lot over the past 13 years.

“Anand is much more experienced, mature and solid than what he was 13 years ago,” Barua remarked.

When asked about Kramnik’s tactics for the remainder of the match, Barua said that the Russian Grandmaster would try to create confusion in Anand’s mind with some new ideas.

“Anand is very difficult to crack. Kramnik will have to come up with new ideas and introduce novelties if he wants to beat Anand. At some point of time, he will have to take risks,” Barua said.

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/