Click to play videoBonn: World Champion Viswanathan Anand came up with an impressive performance to hold Vladimir Kramnik of Russia to a draw in the second round of the World Chess Championship on Wednesday.
Though there was no overt aggression, it was clear that there was greater probing in the second game than the first. Ultimately the duo decided to split the point after 32 moves even though held an upper hand with an extra Pawn at the Championship being played in Bonn.
In a daring strategy, Anand abandoned his pet King Pawn (1.e4) on the first move and opted opening the game with the Queen Pawn, thus aiming to surprise his Russian opponent.
Thus, Anand seems to be aiming to sidestep Kramnik's ploy which worked well for him against Kasparov in 2000 World Championship match.
Avoiding both the Petroff or the Berlin system of the Ruy Lopez against 1.e4, Anand may thus be trying to reach dynamic positions and invite Kramnik to come out of his shell.
If this is going to be Anand's strategy with White pieces for the match, the world of Chess will definitely be treated to some open fights on the even-numbered games, as witnessed on Wednesday.
Starting with 1.d4 for which Kramnik responded with the Nimzo Indian Defence, Anand went in for an Open middlegame position with irrational Pawn structure, thus making his intentions clear to have an open fight.
With his unconventional 8..f5, Kramnik aimed to surprise his opponent in turn and the game entered a tense middlegame, where Anand enjoyed a slight advantage due to his Bishop pair.
Understandably, this being the early stages of the match both traded slight inaccuracies between moves 14, 17 and by move 18th, Anand had once again regained a slight initiative, though Kramnik managed to exchange Queens.
The first player to reach 6.5 points in the 12-game final will be declared the World Champion.
The 12-game match carries a prize money of 1.5 million Euro to be equally divided between the two, regardless of who wins.
The third game of the match will be played on Thursday. In case of a 6-6 draw, they will play a tie-breaker.
(With inputs from PTI)
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