Anand looking for a knockout to end contest in style

It’s crunch time in the world championship and neither player is backing down in a violent tactical confrontation in an opening system that both know well. Challenger Kramnik chose the highly complicated Moscow Variation of the Slav — this position has been disputed by these two before with the colours reversed.

In the Moscow move, black grabs the Queens Gambit pawn and hangs onto it, accepting several weaknesses in his structure during this process. White stays the pawn down and tries to swarm through with pawns storms that expose the black king.

Completely unclear situations result. Kramnik produced the first new idea with a novelty on 12. – Qe7 but this cannot have been a great surprise since it has been suggested before even if it hasn’t been played before in a match.

Anand exchanged off bishop for knight to accelerate his pawn storm against black’s kingside. Kramnik has the bishop pair and adequate defensive resources to stave off direct damage. The challenger also has counter-attacking chances with pawn breaks in the centre. Once again, the programs rate it as a balanced position with white possessing compensation for the material deficit.

It is however, the kind of dynamic equality that usually ends in a decision. Either white’s attack will break through or black will win on the counter-thrust. Anand is looking for a knockout because a victory today would end the contest, putting him ahead by an unassailable 6.5-2.5 in a best-of-12 match.

Kramnik is also playing for a decision as he must. A draw would leave Kramnik in the near-impossible position of seeking to win three in a row. In that sense, Anand’s risk-taking is unnecessary — he could have gone “rope-a-dope” and let Kramnik make the running.

However, this is a position the world champion considers part of his normal repertoire although he usually plays the other side. So he may be highly confident that he can negotiate the tactical complexity better than Kramnik.