Despite the draw, Anand seems ready to unleash surprises

The second game of the world championship ended in a tight draw on move 32. Both players were in time pressure with less than fiver minutes left for their next 8 moves and neither knew who was better at that stage. Vladimir Kramnik offered the draw and Viswanathan Anand accepted.

In the post-game conference, Anand said: “I had no idea whether I was better and I don’t know if I missed something. I could not see an obvious way to progress.” Kramnik said: “It was a strange position where I didn’t know whether to play for equality or try to win.” World no. 7 Levon Aronyan concurred: “The position where players agreed to draw seems to be double edged”.

On sight, the position is unclear. At the end, it looked as though Kramnik could mount an attack to maintain the balance. But white was a pawn up and the programs disagree with the human assessment, even that of really strong players. According to Rybka, Fritz and co, white does have an advantage and given time, he could play on without too much risk. However, programs do have a tendency to overestimate the value of material and certainly, neither party missed a clear win.

Kramnik had struggled after an inaccurate 21st move and he was forced to sacrifice a pawn to maintain active play. But the Russian defended brilliantly, keeping his knight, bishop and rooks active. Anand kept the extra pawn but he had a traffic jam with his pieces locked up on the queenside.

Despite the draw, the game made several things clear. Anand is prepared to unleash surprises and take risks with white. The world champion would be favoured if he manages to keep the tactics flowing because Kramnik doesn’t like tactics. Kramnik is solidly prepared with black and the Russian will try to impose his own calm style and play for a small, safe edge with white on the evidence of Game 1.

Both players have “wasted” one white (in top-class chess white scores around 55 per cent) so the honours are even. But Anand certainly generated more winning chances than Kramnik. On Friday, we’ll see who unleashes the first surprise.