By John Foley

Game 12: Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) v Viswanathan Anand (India)

I decided to follow online the final game of the World Championships today between Vishy Anand of India, the current champion and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, the former champion. The match is taking place in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, the home ground of Topalov. As I write this I do not know the outcome of the match.

All major chess events have a website which enables the event to be followed online. The Bulgarian chess federation is no exception so I am following it on their precisely named official website. Chess is taken seriously in Bulgaria and the website is quite formal. The names of the sponsors are displayed prominently. Half the sponsors are displayed in the local Cyrillic alphabet so I am none the wiser. Of the international sponsors, I only recognise IBM which has had a long association with chess, not least when their dedicated computer Deep Blue beat Gary Kasparov.

Sport also needs a commentary. The official website has spoken commentary from distinguished grandmasters. However, previously I found that I could not listen to it for very long before I lost the will to live. Apart from much of the commentary being in Bulgarian and the English commentary being heavily accented, the issue is the dry and technical nature of the discussion. We want to be entertained as well as informed.

I am aware that the Internet Chess Club has a spoken commentary feed, but that is only for members. Over 200,000 memberships have been sold and it is the leader in the field. For those wanting free commentary, i.e. the bulk of chess fans, another solution must be found. I therefore turn to three other websites to obtain some insights. These provide a written rather than spoken commentary.

Firstly, I like Susan Polgar’s crisp and timely comments on her blog. On the previous game she had over 100,000 followers from USA and all over the world. [1] Susan is originally from Hungary but now lives in Texas where she runs a very successful chess training business and what is designated as a Chess University. Susan is one of the strongest players in the world, male or female.

Susan is known for having been one of three sisters who were chess prodigies. They were subject to an educational experiment by their father who believed that it was possible to inculcate chess (and other) skills by intensive practice. He proved his theory correct and all three girls performed at world class level. Susan continues to promote chess education amongst children, and she has developed a range of teaching methods including online tuition.

Secondly, there is a feed from Chessdom written by Alexandra Kosteniuk the brilliant, and proudly photogenic, Russian World Champion. In between winning international tournaments Alexandra promotes chess and finds time to get photographed by Vogue magazine. The Chessdom site is unfamiliar to me. There is no information on the site about who owns it or how it is funded. Still, one is grateful for any chess resources.

These feeds seem perfectly adequate to keep abreast of developments and obtain insights into tactical and strategic issues. These sources would also likely be using some chess analysis software, so there is nothing to be gained by running Fritz in the background.

Closer to home, the London Chess Centre also covers the match in its excellent The Week in Chess where Malcolm Pein has taken the trip over to Sofia. The notice says the commentary is slightly delayed “out of respect for the organisers”. This relates the legal right that the Bulgarians have to control the live broadcast of the event so as to obtain some revenues to defray their costs. Things have not been going smoothly on that front because there is a notice on the official website “This prohibition is being violated by ChessBase”. Chessbase is a leading software company based in Germany. If true, perhaps Chessbase have calculated that the potential downside in terms of legal action from the Bulgarians is manageable.

The game is underway!

Topalov plays the Queen’s Gambit which Anand declines. They navigate quickly through well-charted waters. Topalov really wants to win this game. A draw would result in a play-off at 25 minutes each per game. Anand is noted for his speed of thought and would be the strong favourite to win under these conditions.

Position after 9 moves

Queen’s Gambit Declined.
Lasker Variation

The players rattled off the opening moves very quickly.

After 22 moves, Susan assesses the position as equal. Black has a bishop v knight in compensation for his weak c pawn. Alexandra observes that “Topalov needs to be careful since Black’s dynamical factors are quite strong and if White will try too hard to play for a win he can end up in a trouble.” TWIC is supposed to have two feeds – a live feed of moves only and a delayed commented feed. As far as I can see the live feed is delayed. I cannot see their comments.

Position after 22 moves

White must be careful about this back rank.

Susan announces on her blog that she is going to do a press announcement setting out her ideas on how the world chess championships could be better. She says that a match lasting only a dozen games is too short. Meanwhile Topalov chases the bishop with his knight.

Position after 28 moves

The bishop retreats into the corner

Susan doesn’t like this very much: “A curious move by Anand. Yes, he wants to keep his Bishop. Yes, he wants to keep his Bishop on the h1 – a8 diagonal. Even though it is not a blunder, this is still an unexpected move.”
Alexandra expresses more confidence about this retreat: “Anand decided to stay on the long diagonal and moved his bishop to a8. He wants to keep his bishop on this diagonal in order to have the move f5 after White plays e4. White always has to keep in my mind this dangerous bishop who is looking directly at the White monarch.”

According to Alexandra, at this point the game is going into “concrete stage” of the game where general positional thinking is not enough. It is necessary to think through possible sequences of moves. Lo and behold, she is spot on. Suddenly the game goes complex and Anand advances his central pawns to open up the position for his bishop.

Surprisingly Topalov captures the advancing f-pawn with his e-pawn on the 31st move. This allows Anand to push forward his own e-pawn opening up numerous lines on White’s king. Susan says “This is very dangerous. Alexandra settles for the pithy: “o la-la” .

The TWIC site seems to have seized up. That’s the trouble with narrowcasting live sport on the internet – the system strain between peak and off-peak traffic levels. All three sites are now struggling to display. I have to return to the official site to discover what is going on.

I see that Topalov has not resigned. Perhaps Anand has been slightly inaccurate in finishing off his opponent. But the position looks completely horrible for him. Alexandra says that she can give no advice to white. Susan says she is still stunned that Topalov did not sense any danger whatsoever by opening up the h1 – a8 diagonal.

This is perhaps one of the biggest blunders in the final game of a world championship match.

Susan Polgar on Topalov’s 31st move

Position after 31 moves

O la-la

Black rips open white’s defences

Topalov’s king is chased up the side of the board. The commentators give several winning variations. But maybe the tension is getting to Anand. He has a won game but starts to play inferior moves. It just goes to show how psychological chess can be. The position after move 40 still looks very bad for white, but he is still hanging on. Susan says of Anand’s 40th move: “Incredible! Anand is letting Topalov back in the game!” Alexandra restricts herself to the more modest comment that the move by Anand “is not the best move.

Position after 40 moves

Topalov (White) is holding on, just.

I had backed Anand to win the match. However, Topalov is a very determined player and thrives in match games. Although Anand is the ultimate all-rounder and a stylish player, Topalov knows how to mix it up when he needs to. Topalov needed a victory and he knows it is virtually impossible to outplay Anand in a balanced position.

The moves are played quickly now as if they were forced. Topalov staves off the mating attack but has to give up his queen. The position after move 46 is interesting.

Position after 46 moves

Should white capture the bishop?

47. Rf7+ wins the queen!

White recaptured the bishop very quickly. There was still a chance to play the Rf7+ zwischenzug. The trouble is that after all the exchanges, black is winning in the king and pawn ending. Still it would have looked closer than what happened. Susan thinks that Topalov became more nervous than Anand: “Even though both sides made mistakes, Topalov was making more and bigger ones and this costs him the game.”

After 50 moves Susan states that Anand’s advantage is overwhelming and implies that Topalov should resign.

Position after 50 moves

Alexandra:
“If there were no pawns on the queen-side the position would have been different, but these pawns are here and White will not be able to protect them. Topalov’s idea here is to give away the knight for the c pawn and win the h5-pawn and then try to hold this endgame with the rook against the Queen, but of course Black will try to win the pawn on a4 as well.“

The mettle of a commentator can be judged from how they handle lifeless games. Cricket commentators have developed this into a fine art. John Arlott used to describe the clouds poetically; Henry Blofeld would discuss cakes. Alexandra became more of a pschotherapist and referred to a “dreamlike hope for a draw”. Susan was more blunt: “He is fighting on because it is the final game of the world championship.”

Final Position

White (Topalov) resigns

Congratulations to Vishy Anand on becoming a worthy World Chess Champion and Veselin Topalov for his spirited challenge which went to the wire.

Whilst this is being played, there is another victor on the same day: David Cameron who has just set up the first centre-right coalition UK government in 70 years. Interesting times.

P.S.
1. Susan had 130,000 followers for this game.