WCC Bonn: Aronian's take and impressions

World Chess Championship in Bonn

The World Chess Championship is taking place from October 14 – November 02, 2008 in the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn. The match consists of twelve games, played under classical time controls: 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 61. The prize fund is 1.5 million Euro (approximately 2.35 million US Dollars) including taxes and FIDE license fees, and is split equally between the players.

The games are being broadcast live by FoidosChess, with video and commentary for €10 per game; and on Playchess.com. Details are given at the end of this report..

Levon Aronian: My take on the games

GM Levon Aronian, number seven in the world, analysing with ChessBase editors

Game three

How long will this feast continue? Today we had a very tasty dish, filled with new ideas and very sharp play. Surprisingly it was Anand who came up with an interesting novelty in the Slav Defence – Kramnik's bread and butter! I have no doubt that Kramnik knows how to play in that line, just remembering such a sheer amount of variations is tremendously taxing. In the game it seemed that the sacrifice he made would lead the game to a calm haven, but Anand found a brilliant way to continue the play, and gained the upper hand. Kramnik could have produced more resistance, however he crumbled under the pressure – and we saw the first scalp of the match.

Is there more to come, or will our magnificent chefs will cook something simple?

• Replay and download the game in PGN
• Replay and download annotations by IM Malcolm Pein

Videos and pictures from the press conference

Video reports by GM Robert Fountain and Gérard Demuydt for Europe Echecs

Lev Aronian, one of our favourite guests in the ChessBase office

Game four

Once again we have a fascinating encounter! Afrter a very popular opening – at least for World Championship matches – it seemed for a moment at least that Anand had managed to keep the game from drying up. At that very moment Kramnik came up with yet another remarkable (in this match) defensive idea! His kingside pawns lift was a new word in this kind of position, and it worked well to maintain equilibrium. A very instructive game.

• Replay and download the game in PGN
• Replay and download annotations by IM Malcolm Pein

Video reports by GM Robert Fountain and Gérard Demuydt for Europe Echecs

Picture Gallery

Press conference after the games, with GM Klaus Bischoff moderating

Vladimir Kramnik in a pensive mood after the unexpected loss in game three

Anand explains what happened during this exciting game...

... and enjoys an exchange with a GM colleague from France

Kramnik lightens up in the course of the press conference (see Europe Echecs video above)

World Champion Viswanathan Anand, the winner in round three

Later that night four well-known chess experts discuss the game

Georgios Makropoulos, Deputy President of FIDE and Supervisor of the Organisation Committee

Prof. Dr. Robert K. Freiherr von Weizsäcker, President of the German Chess Federation
and of the Organisation Committee

Nigel Freeman, FIDE Delegate from Bermuda, member of the Appeals Committee

Israel Gelfer, Israel, Honorary Vice President of FIDE, member of the Appeals Committee

The French corner: Bachar Kouatly, Lebanese–French grandmaster, editor of
Europe Echecs; and Igor Nataf, one of the most entertaining GMs of our aquaintance

Ashok Alexander, Director of the Indian section of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation

Ashok is an avid chess amateur, who is keen on increasing his 2235 FIDE rating to 2300 or even, some day, to IM strength, and is taking lessons from Igor Nataf ("the world's greatest chess teacher") to achieve this aim. He has know Anand since the days when he played next to the Indian superstar, who at the time was around eleven years old.

All photos by Frederic Friedel in Bonn

Live broadcast

The games are being broadcast live by FoidosChess, which provides five parallel video streams to present the players and commentary by grandmasters in German, English, Spanish and Russian. The cost is €10 per game. The games are also being broadcast live on Playchess.com (without videos and commentary, but also without time delay).

If you are not a member you can download ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access to Playchess. Owners of Fritz 11 or Rybka 3 automatically get a full year's subscription to Playchess. You can also use all these programs to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.