GM Radjabov (2744) – GM Anand (2798) [B46]
Bilbao Grand Slam, 09.09.2008
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.f4 Bb4 8.Bd3 e5 9.fxe5 Nxe5 10.0–0 d6 11.h3 Bxc3 12.bxc3 h6 13.Bf2 Nh7 14.Nf5 0–0 15.Kh1 Bxf5 16.exf5 Rc8 17.Rb1 Qe7 18.Qd2 Nf6 19.Bd4 Rfe8 20.a4 Qd7 21.a5 Re7 22.Qf2 Qa4 23.Ra1 Qc6 24.Qg3 Qd5 25.Qh4 Rce8 26.Qg3 Kf8 27.Qh4 Kg8 28.Qg3 Kf8 29.Qh4 Game drawn ½–½
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Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Anand is not very keen on playing in this tournament. I think his mind is on the match with Kramnik.
Draws by three-fold repetition used to be fairly rare. Now they seem to be happening much more often!
Think its cause this tournament has special rules to get less draws. You have to ask for permission or something. So its easier for players to just do a 3 fold once they both think its a draw.
“Anand is not very keen on playing in this tournament. I think his mind is on the match with Kramnik.”
It’s the usual Anand style with many unfought draws, sorry, that’s nothing new.
It’s just new that he ‘forgot’ to win one or two games before (mostly when his opponents blundered and ‘forced’ him to play on).
I think Sergey is exactly right above in his response to me.
I don’t see why one should blame anand in this position. Looks to me like Radjabov had the initiative but decided to draw instead of pressing on.
Radjabov is the forgotten victim of the Topalov-Kramnik match- he was was going to have a world title match with Topalov- it was all agreed- but he had no deal with Kramnik.