The following is just one of the countless articles from Indian media about this World Championship match.
Anand opens up 2-point lead
GM SPEAK
Pravin Thipsay
Viswanathan Anand has done it again! The defending champion scored yet another spectacular victory over challenger Vladimir Kramnik in the fifth of their 12-game World Championship match in Bonn. Anand, who has taken his tally to 3.5 points, now leads by two full points.
The challenger once again began the game with the Queen’s gambit, which was countered by the champion with the meran variation of the Slav defence, as in the third game.
Inspite of having won comfortably in Game 3, Anand decided to change the course of the game on Monday by varying on move 15, bringing his King rook into play immediately. On move 17, Anand moved a King side pawn, intending to attack Kramnik’s dark squared Bishop which was shielding his King.
That was apparently the end of Kramnik’s preparation, since he took a long time to reply to Anand’s novelty. The challenger moved his King rook to an open file after almost 30 minutes, vacating a square for his King to escape. After the exchange of dark coloured Bishops, Kramnik brought out his other rook as well, covering all his weaknesses in the third rank.
This, however, weakened the back rank in his camp. The champion immediately found out another way to get at the enemy king by exchanging a pair of rooks, threatening a checkmate on the back rank. Kramnik had to retreat his rook back to the original square, guarding the back rank.
The position by move 25 was dynamically balanced, Anand having absolute control of the centre and Kramnik having two connected distant ‘passed pawns’. On move 26, Anand set an ingenious tactical trap offering his powerful central passed pawn.
Kramnik refrained from capturing the pawn as it would have resulted in an immediate loss due to weak back rank. Instead, the challenger moved his rook to a semi-open file, placing it in front of Anand’s king.
On the 28th move, Kramnik suddenly decided to grab the centre pawn offered by Anand since move 26. Anand forced the exchange of queens and invaded the enemy back rank to conclude the game favourably with a brilliant knight sacrifice, forcing the challenger to give up the hopeless battle immediately.
Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/
This article seems to be written for those who don’t really follow chess.
These random statements do injustice to the players and the game. For example …Rg8 was a fantastically clever psychological ploy, to digress from whatever Kramnik must have prepared.
Also, to suggest that Game 3 was won “comfortably” understates the dynamic double-edged positions we are seeing and enjoying from the comfort of not having to play them. No GM commenting on the games today would characterize the positions on Game 3 or 5 as anything but complicated.
Pravin Thipsay is a GN, so obviously a good player. He shouldn’t write garbage like this.
Bravo to Anand, who don’t choosed a comfortable draw!