Clash of the Titans

Impressions on Game 7, Anand-Topalov world championship match, Sofia

I missed the start of Game Seven, as I was late returning home from a screening of The Hurt Locker. Frantic SMSs from a fellow chess friend had me rushing back to my laptop. Now the Hurt Locker, as slick a piece of American propaganda as ever made is about an American EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) team in Baghdad. Game Seven saw Topalov plant a lethal novelty in the opening, explosive enough to gladden an Iraqi insurgent's heart.

Anand, with White, reprised the Catalan. In three outings, he had won twice and drawn once. This time however Topalov was ready and waiting. The players were racing through their moves when Topalov detonated the first I.E.D. Building on an idea first proposed by the Ukrainian savant Ivanchuk, he sacrificed his rook for Anand's bishop. The sacrifice meant that Anand would lose his "Catalan" bishop, which had caused Topalov such grief in the preceding games. Anand went into deep think mode. The road ahead was littered with potential landmines. He had to defuse a roadside bomb, while all the time under enemy fire. What Topalov and Co. had taken months to prepare using computers now had to be solved by Anand over the board with the clock ticking. There can be no greater crunch time.

The Sofia match is being played under the classical time control. Under this each player has 2 hours to reach 40 moves, an hour after to reach move 60 and 15 minutes for the rest of the game (with 30 seconds per move added incrementally after move 60). All unused time is carried forward. So the first time control, making 40 moves within the stipulated time is the first oasis to be reached. For those into computer games, it is the first "loadpoint". Topalov was playing quickly because he had prepared all this at home, while Anand had to work patiently through all the myriad choices.

By the 17th move, Anand had a Knight extra but Topalov's attack was raging, his queen menacing the enemy king. There are various methods of dealing with strong sacrifices. One way is to decline it altogether; that was not an option here. The other way, which is usually the standard operating procedure is take as much as you can without actually getting checkmated and then return it in a fashion that at least gives you equality. To put it another way, it is like taking a large mortgage and then exercising your right to pre-pay (before the interest burden becomes too crushing).

By move 20 Anand had thought for an hour, Topalov for 3 minutes. Powerful pieces of software, called engines were spewing out variations after variations all of them resulting in disaster for Anand. Through them, like a golden thread was one line, a sequence of "only moves" which would guarantee Anand safety.

It was humbling as a chess player to watch Anand at work. All his faculties were at their peak - first to defend, and then to see if he could go on the attack. As Rice Plate Reddy would say it was "Tension, tension, tension da!" Vishy found the right path to safety and his 21st move nudging his king aside was a master stroke. It forced Topalov to think independently for the first time and he immediately went wrong. The position continued to hang on a precipice, but Anand was slowly consolidating. This meant that he would retain some of the material that Topalov had sacrificed but the position would be equal. Anand's 25th move could unlock the gates to victory but it did leave Topalov a way to salvation if he found the right, and only move. A sudden role reversal! And find he did.

After this the position was objectively a draw but Topalov was loath to give up. Disdaining a draw he kept trying. Anand in an interview characterized him as "someone who is very aggressive. He is pushing things quite a lot."

Incredibly, the balance began shifting as Anand found some strong moves leading to a situation where his extra piece could become decisive. However Topalov succeeded in pushing a pawn all the way down the board just a square away from queening. It's potential resurrection meant that Anand had to deploy his knight to guard from such a catastrophic eventuality. In this fashion, balance was restored and the peace treaty was signed after 58 hard-fought moves. Despite mistakes on both sides, this was the stellar game of the match so far, a flawed masterpiece.

Jaideep Unudurti is co-writing the Hyderabad Graphic Novel (http://hgnp.wordpress.com/)