Kramnik-Anand Round 2 Battle for Supremacy!

DRAW AGAIN?!!!

Anand played 1.d4 suprisingly rather than his normal line or maybe he knew Kramnik would play something unexpected. Kramnik reply with Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 changing it into Nimzo Indian. Anand reply with 4. f3 which is Kmoch Variation which seldom been played nowadays. 4. .. d5

 

5. a3 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 c5 7. cxd5 Nxd5 8.
dxc5 f5 transposed into Saemisch-Romanov Variation.

9. Qc2 ({Hiarcs 9:} 9. Nh3 Qa5 10. e4 fxe4 11. Ng5 Nxc3 12. Qd4 Nb5+ 13. Qb4 {[%eval -1,4]}) Nd7 With 10. e4 Anand intend to break Kramnik pawn structure. fxe4 11. fxe4 N5f6 12. c6 bxc6 13. Nf3 Qa5 14. Bd2 ({Hiarcs 9:} 14. Bd3 Ba6 15. Bxa6 Qxa6 16. e5 Nd5 17. Ng5 Ke7 18. Qe4) Ba6 was a weak move & Kramnik supposed to do castling. Castling or king safety was one of the main opening principles in the game. I felt Kramnik was going for an early draw and light square Bishops exchange in the game.                                 

15. c4 ({Hiarcs 9:} 15. Nd4 Bxf1 16. Rxf1 Kf7 17. Nxc6 Qc7 18. Nd4 Qxh2 19. Bf4 Qh5)Qc5 16. Bd3 Ng4 17. Bb4 Qe3+ 18. Qe2 O-O-O 19. Qxe3 Nxe3 20. Kf2 Ng4+ 21. Kg3 Ndf6 {0.73 for White immediately} ({Hiarcs 9:} 21... Nge5 22. Rhd1 Nxd3 23. Rxd3 Nf6 24. Re3 Bxc4 25. Ne5 Nh5+ 26. Kh4 Nf4 27. Nxc4) In this position if I still can remember last time when I attended the late of GM Eduard Gufeld course held at Westland School of Sport Excellence in 1990's in Penang, he mentioned that never ever put 2 pieces blocking each other way. Here we saw Kramnik played Ndf6 which put the Knight at g4 less space to maneuver later on.    

22. Bb1 h5 23. h3 Kramnik had no choice but to play h4+ to activate the h-Rook. 24. Nxh4 Ne5 25. Nf3 Nh5+ 26. Kf2 Nxf3 27. Kxf3 e5 28. Rc1 Nf4 In here Anand start to have time trouble with 5-10 minutes left to play with Kramnik. 29. Ra2 Nd3?

Analysis by Hiarcs 9:

1. +/-  (1.08): 30.Rc3 Nf4 31.Rb2 Rd1 32.Bc5 Rf1+ 33.Kg4 Rh6 34.g3 Rg6+ 35.Kf5 Rxg3 36.Rxg3 Nd3+ 37.Kg6

2. +/=  (0.61): 30.Rcc2 c5 31.Ba5 Rd4 32.Rc3 Nf4 33.Rb2 Rf8 34.Ke3 Kd7 35.Ba2 g5 36.Bb3

30. Rc3 Nf4 31. Bc2 Ne6 32. Kg3 Rd4?

Analysis by Hiarcs 9: 1. +/-  (1.15): 33.c5 Nf4 34.Rf3 Be2 35.Rf2 Bd3 36.Bxd3 Nxd3 37.Rf7 Rxe4 38.Rxa7 Nxb4

However in a spot of time trouble the Anand decided to accept his Russian opponent's draw offer. I feel Anand could easily won the game if he had enough time. However I felt overall Anand was bold enough to try out d4 against Kramnik. A suprised opening game plan to earn another sweet draw! 1/2-1/2

Well Tomorrow(today) is rest day.