The sixth game of the World Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov ended in a draw today. For the third time a Catalan came on the board, and after an interesting fight between Anand’s knight pair and Topalov’s bishop pair a drawish ending was played out till move 58 where a move repetition again brought a silent end to the game.
On the hottest day so far in Sofia (about 26° C) many citizens could be found parading on the street, celebrating Labour Day, which as in many countries is a national holiday in Bulgaria.
Instead of celebrating what was orginally planned as a rest day, Anand and Topalov chose for labour instead: they played the longest game in the match so far! It was another Catalan and again soon the queens went off. Both sides had two rooks but Anand ended up with tho knights, and Topalov with two bishops.
A special detail of this game is the route Nb1 followed. It went Nb1-a3-c4-e5-d7-c5-b7-d6-c8-a7-c6-b4-d5-b6 before it was captured! Amazingly, the knight never went to a single square more than once.
Besides, in this game the two white knights together probably broke a World Championship record of thirteen consecutive knight moves.
As FenderTwang mentioned on the Chess.FM broadcast today, in the 10th match game Tal-Botvinnik 1961 World Championship a single white knight played ten moves in a row. You can replay that game below .
For a long time it remained unclear which side was better, though these knights did seem to provide some initiative. After one knight was traded for the black-squared bishop, on move 37 Topalov sacrificed a pawn to maximize his piece activity. By returning his b-pawn, Anand liquidated to a position with three against three on the kingside, which he held to a draw comfortably.
Tal-Botvinnik 1961 World Championship Game 10
"Today was a tough game," Anand said at the press conference...
...while Topalov said he was certainly planning to try harder in the second half of the match
The spectators at the start of the game
Chief Arbiter Panaqiotis Nikolopoulos from Greece
Thus today's game was unlike any other ever seen in World Championship history. It started off as a normal Catalan, with Topalov deviating from the previous line that had led him to disaster in game four. Then Anand produced a novelty that led to a middlegame pitting his knight pair against Black's bishop pair, and spurred off into a unique sequence of thirteen consecutive knight moves!
Here is the full analysis of the game.
Stay tuned for video report,press conference video & video analysis of the game.
Links
- ICC Chess.FM - Anand vs. Topalov Game 1 Video Analysis by GM Peter Svidler
- ICC Chess.FM - Anand vs. Topalov Game 2 Video Analysis by GM Alex Yermolinski
- ICC Chess.FM - Anand vs. Topalov Game 3 Video Analysis by GM Joel Benjamin
- ICC Chess.FM - Anand vs. Topalov Game 4 Video Analysis by GM Miguel Illescas
- ICC Chess.FM Live Coverage -WCC 2010 Game 2 - Anand vs. Topalov
- Anand - Topalov WCC 2010 - Game 3 Analysis
- Anand - Topalov WCC 2010 - Game 2 Analysis
- Anand - Topalov WCC 2010 - Game 1 Analysis
- Video Analysis of Game 5
- Video Analysis of Game 4
- Video Analysis of Game 3
- Video Analysis of Game 2
- Video Analysis of Game 1
- Game 1 Video Report & Press Conference
- Game 2 Video Report
- Game 3 Video Report
- Game 4 Video Report
- Game 5 Video Report
- Game 2 Press Conference Video
- Game 3 Press Conference Video
- Game 4 Press Conference Video
- Game 5 Press Conference Video
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