Beating Kramnik at Bonn was important for Anand

He is known to be composure personified even under immense pressure and Viswanathan Anand, who is gearing up to defend his world title next month, gave ample proof of it in the 2008 edition against Vladimir Kramnik when he outwitted the celebrated Russian to clinch his third World Championship.
Although he had won two world titles in knockout and tournament formats, Anand still had to win the world championship in a match.
The opportunity came after he won the championship in a tournament format in 2007 at Mexico City, setting the stage for a much-awaited clash against Vladimir Kramnik of Russia at Bonn in 2008.

The big match was designed to give Kramnik a second chance to win the World Championship he had unceremoniously lost in the preceding match tournament.
As part of the contract signed to reunite the chess world, Kramnik was assured of this match against the winner of Mexico match-tournament convincingly won by Anand.
More than the Mexico victory, that put Anand firmly on the top of chess world, some were already looking at the match in Bonn a year before it was to happen.

As early as the final press conference at Mexico a question popped up at Anand, "Are you ready for your match with Kramnik?"

"I've just won the world title, can you give me five minutes?" replied Anand.
Although a World champion in Knockout and Round-Robin format in 2000 and 2007 respectively, Anand had yet to win a World Championship in match format.
One-on-one battles are more than chess itself. They are often a clash of personalities and nerves.
Many believed Kramnik would be much better in matches as he had beaten the 'invincible Gary Kasparov' in 2000 in the Braingames World Championship clash and had followed it with another title triumph over Peter Leko of Hungary in 2004 before beating Bulgarian Veselin Topalov in 2006.

Anand, on the other hand, had never won the final match till then. In 1991, he lost to Anatoly Karpov of Russia in the quarterfinals, in 1995 the Indian went down to Kasparov and then in 1998 again he lost to Karpov.