October 2008 in Bonn was great. Sunny days, passersby slowly walked around the narrow streets of the old city, and only the wind rubbed neatly pasted here and there posters, inviting chess fans to visit a historical event: the World Chess Championship was taking place, in order to determine who was to wear the crown...
Vishy Anand against Vladimir Kramnik. The warm Indian against the cold Russian!
In the first show dedicated to the 2008 match, the fourteenth World Champion already painted the oppressive atmosphere of impending disaster that surrounded him on the eve of his encounter with Anand. Because of the wasted time to prepare and the absence of opening ideas, because of the lack of desire to sit at the chessboard at all.
"From today's experience, it seems to me that had I come to the match with absolutely no preparation, and taken it from there, it would have been even better. I did all the mistakes that made Kasparov lose against me!"
00:00 - Introduction
02:20 - "Coming to the first game, I had one idea!"
07:20 - "I understood at that moment that the Meran was going to be his main opening for the match"
11:50 - "After a dull draw I had the feeling that something had to be done."
13:15 - Anand, who usually played 1.e4, changed hands and went for 1.d4
13:35 - "I don't think that 1.d4 was right. He would have achieved more against my Petrov!"
15:40 - "Anand prepared a lot, and he tried to surprise me each time with a new opening."
17:00 - In a match, what does the opening strategy depend on?
20:45 - "Anand wasn't looking for an edge in the opening, but rather, for types of positions he liked."
26:55 - "Upon understanding that I wouldn't do much with white, I took risks with black."
29:55 - "Anand plays dynamically: pieces fly all over, and you need to calculate a lot."
31:30 - "I understood: Anand doesn't see everything necessarily, but he intuitively feels the positions."
32:20 - "If you have the right feeling, then you can find the right moves!"
38:17 - "I noticed, and it did a disservice: Vishy was very nervous."
39:32 - "Intuition, intuition, but if you're getting mated nobody's going to care about your intuition!"
41:35 - "Bitter conclusions: he felt the dynamics better, and his calculation was more precise."
42:15 - "I had one idea left, which I decided to use in the third game."
49:35 - "When he played 14...Bb7 I asked myself why he would give me this pawn?"
50:20 - "I sunk in thought after 15...Bd6. Had I known he'd take this direction, I wouldn't have played this line."
51:58 - "This is all computeresque. Nobody plays like this."
57:15 - "Vishy took a lot of risks. I could have found that and analysed it."
57:55 - "It seems that Anand decided that he had to take risks at all costs!"
1:02:00 - "At some stage I started to make mistakes, but the problems set were incredibly difficult."
1:03:03 - "I didn't play the computer's first line, but the second one"
1:04:30 - "There was no forced draw. Had there been one, I would have looked for it."
1:05:20 - "It's difficult to tell who's playing for a win. Black, most likely..."
1:08:45 - "I assume Anand would have saved it, but I don't like when my king gets checked."
1:15:55 - "Vishy had an hour on the clock and a winning position, but he was nervous anyway!"
1:17:00 - "I can't say I played badly. But I was really unlucky."
1:18:40 - "Anand played in a really risky way, and it all went as he wanted it to!"
1:20:55 - "It was sad. I was on -1, I had lost with white, and I had no idea left."
1:21:20 - "The fourth game was a mock one. We both got a chance to cool down."
1:23:47 - "As the game shows, Vishy didn't want to play."
1:27:25 - "This game gave me hope, as I understood that Vishy didn't have much with white."
1:28:30 - Vladimir lost the key fifth game, whereas on the same day Ilya got divorced and drank "like never before in his life"!
#chess #kramnik #chesschampion