@R. Mutt: Antoaneta Stefanova was only paid for doing live commentary, not for being present at the press conference :)

Reminds me of an anecdote at the Corus bookstand some years ago: I bought a NIC issue which had a picture of Stefanova on the cover. The bookseller said "this one sells best", to which I replied "better than that one (pointing at another issue with Anand on the cover)?" "YES!"
My further comment was "I buy this one for the content, I can see the person next door" (Stefanova was playing in the B or C group that year).

What a come back. Apt title for the main news ''Anand Strikes Back''......good game Vishy.

ANAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND! :D

Standing applause to Anand. What a great comeback!

ANAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

ANNAAAAAANNDD!!!!

Topalov forgot his watch at home

Vishy rocks!

Justice

Great guy Anand, simply the best!

topalov clearly needs to visit the toilet more often

a deserved win… go on Vishy !

Anand just has to avoid the Rybka 4 cluster proof opening perp. Anand was suffering in both games in the openings.

Yesterday I wrote comments referring to the Spasskij-Fischer WCC clash in 1972; today I´m very glad to see the fullfilling of all my hopes as to Anand´s COMEBACK!
Maybe the 2010 WCC chess match is going to top the whole history of all the WCC matches of the past. What a(n) (r)evolution! The next games will be very exciting!

Can someone explain me for doing what came that bodybuilder on the stage before the beginning of game one ? I don't understand, it seems another attempt to ridiculise our game…

A nice way to get to 1-1 as opposed to say..... 2 uneventful draws.

patzer wch ship. both games were decided by patzers.

but 1:1 is better than 2:0 :)

One question to the experts,

When did Anand came out of Rybka's book?

Seems like he chose the same strategy as Kramnik: patient and long game to exhaust Topalov who cannot stand this kind of positional and subtle games... But Topa should know this strategy and be prepared for it... Mystery... We'll see if that happens again. Again great versatility from Anand!

I am really happy that both are there to fight for the win.

Yesterday only preparation.
How long was the preparation today - anyone knows?

I am a fan of Vishy so I am very happy about the result today, but the opening looked like risky for Anand (early pawn sacrifice - later doubled pawn on a-file). I hope the preparation of Vishy is good enough.

Bien Wishy!! Mexico te apoya.

15.Qa3! and 16.bxa3! will no doubt find their way into textbooks on dynamic vs. structural advantages. Very nice!

I'm so glad to see that Anand won this game it great style. He is such a gentleman and a great human being and I hope he retains his title.

Pozzi, Peter Doggers said today on cheefm that the knight sac from Topalov was home prep as well. Topalov admitted that on Bulgarian TV.

i dont think 15.Qa3 was prepared. he chooses and founds it over board. yes?

I think I am beginning to understand the specific logic of match preparation. It's all about trying to reach, as White, a double-edge or an unclear position which you have analyzed prior to the game. The only real advantage Anand had after Qa3 was probably the fact that he was familiar with the position and its topical moves. The same was the case with the famous 14. ...Bb7 in his match against Kramnik: the position is far from being in Black's favor, yet Anand knew its specifics, and Kramnik didn't.

In a nutshell, it's not about discovering new moves in known positions. The key is to find whole new set-ups which are objectively dubious, but are tricky to play unprepared.

Another interesting thing is Anand's ability to transform the nature of his play. When playing Kramnik, he excelled in positions in which Topalov would excel; in today's game, however, his opening choice was closer to Kramnik himself.

Anand played a Kramnik on Topalov today with great style: open with the Catalan, take the queens off the board, and slowly grind the positional advantage. Topalov must have been thinking "Oh no, not again".

The bodybuilder (Coleman) wasnt suposed to enter on stage, but who can stop this truck?

I think they wanted to bring an ostrich on stage instead of the bodybuilder, but the zoo wouldn't let them.

@Alexander

I invite you to read the discussion I had with Zeblakob in the Game 1 Comments (page's bottom). http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/world-championship-g1/#comments

There it seems to me that you describe Anand's views on preparation. Not Topalov's who always tries to win immediately with the opening and and his preparation: kind of super-Kasparov, over-prepared. This logic seems to go this way : 1) tremendous opening's preparation confering 2) and overwhelming position 3 then think of tactics or combinative motives to end it quickly.

That's rocket style: fill, target, burn, K.O.

I quite like Korchnoi-Shirov's conception. Consider theory accurately to identify spots that open field for huge tactics and complications on the board, forgetting about hopes of an overwhelming opening advantage -- Close Combat style.
Or Karpov-Kramnik's : prepare a subtle move, so subtle that it will not confer an obvious advantage but that may slightly disturb the situation and lure the opponent into false security until he awakes up (kind of Re1! in his match again Anand) -- Poisonous Style.

Give Nigel Short a break. Nearly all grandmasters (including the great Kasparov himself) were critical of Anand's 15th move, with perhaps the notable exception of Peter Svidler on ICC who said it was a good practical decision. GMs commenting live are giving their spur-of-the-moment feelings about a position, not a deep analysis. Even if these feelings are proven wrong with hindsight, they are still interesting as such. If most Grandmaster misjudged Anand's 15th move, it is quite possible that Topalov himself misjudged it too, and for that alone listening to Nigel Short's comments was worthwhile.

So far so good... Topalov is much better at preparing the openings very deeply, whilst Anand is better at simply playing chess... Who will prevail?

I fully disagree with Alexander above... I do not see the dubious side of Anad's play today, nor even in his ...Bb7 Meran against Kramnik (which as far as I know has not been refuted)...

Anand just needs to play chess, sidestepping heavy opening discussions. He should teach Topalov that chess is not only computer + tactics, that there is a lot more about the royal game...

A great come back by Anand! To be honest, I was a bit worried that he might be out of form, but I am glad that my worry was unfounded. I mean, this is a world championship match, we want to see both players at their best.

I think Anand's strategy prevailed, as Guillaume stated. According to Kraminik,this is one area Topalov is not strong suit (as the level of current no.1 of course), so it was good for Anand to go for positional play. Does Topalov prepared for Catalan? Or did Anand side stepped his preparation somehow? I am not so sure. I would love to hear them speaking about that aspect.

Is Toalov's preparations going to prevail, or Anand's versatility? After one victories for each in two games, we have a lot to expect from here.

Thank you ChessVibes for great coverage!

how Topalov could become number 1 and 2 in the world, when everyone says he can not play positional games like today and is impatient? a rumour?

very nice game by Anand, congrats! However, I think if Topalov played a bit more precisely the end might have been very different. Anand made a few inaccuracies in the beginning according to some experts.
Hope we see more fighting chess on Tuesday and no draws :)

it is hard to imagine topalov getting a better position as black after anand's Qa3, and yet he could not even secure a draw. pretty devastating for him.

What, no KID from Topa? Seemed like a good time to go for broke. But maybe he has reserved that kind of opening for must-win situations.

To me the first two games looked like the player with white's each dream game (and nightmare game for black) ...

The novelty 15.Qa3 came after a long thought by Anand, so it doesn't seem to be part of his preparation. It was severely criticized by Nigel Short and Susan Polgar doing live commentaries ... so the final verdict on this move is still unclear (at least ?! by those experts, !? by Peter Doggers, ! by Arne Moll in the comments here, who's objectively right??). It worked out fine in the game ... .

@GuidedByVoices: I think you misunderstood Alexander a bit - "double edged" or "unclear" is not the same as "dubious". Roughly the difference between !? and ?!, I would say.

@everyone: I vaguely remember earlier examples of queen exchanges conceding doubled pawns in exchange for other advantages (more space, controlling open lines, weakened squares in the opponent's camp), at least at GM level. I think there was even an entire article on this topic in either NewInChess or the German magazine "Schach". Can anyone help me: Which game(s) could I have in mind? :)

thomas

where have you seen the live commentaries by Short and Polgar?

@T. Goto: Topalov prepared the QGD as his answer to 1.d4, so _of course_ he will have prepared for the Catalan -- it's one of the most critical approaches for White.

Topalov has most likely prepared nimzo against Nc3 and against Nf3 some sharp variation of the QGD, maybe Vienna variation or something. Catalan seems like the right choice, especially since it might bring back some nasty Ellista memories for Topalov.

I do hope we get to see some e4 games, I really wonder what both players have prepared there!

@luis: Susan Polgar's live commentary is on her blog, Short was - I think - on ICC and quoted by acirce on Dailydirt:

""I am speechless. 15. Qa3 is a shockingly bad move. White has no winning chances whatsoever after this. Black wasn't threatening anything, so why exchange off the queens, ruin your pawn formation and make things easy for Black all at one go? And this dubious decision has come VERY early in the game." -- Nigel Short

thomas

many thanks

Looks like Anand "just" needs to stick to strategical games and avoid tactics and he'll have a comparatively easy match win. Humiliating defeat for Topalov.

It's so cool to read these intense discussions on moves (Qa3) and playing styles, making us forget about veiled accusations and bodybuilders popping up during a moment of deep concentration right before the game.

Today's game reassures me in two ways:
1. Anand is able to put aside external pressures having to do nothing with chess
2. At the highest level, points can still be scored by playing quite well over the board (as opposed to applying home preparation, which is obviously also a major and legitimate tool)

I hope both players will show excellent chess, with the most decisive points being scored over the board and hopefully a clear winner after just 12 games.

Susan Polgar is a mouthpiece for Team Topalov. She is pro-Topalov and it was quite obvious from her biased opinion during Elista match.

Thomas, Luis:

Short is commenting the games of this match live on http://www.chessgames.com/ . While they are going on, you have to be a premium member to access the live gamepage, but afterwards they are open for all.

So that's just one of many comments he made. The last thing he said before logging out was, btw, "15.Qa3 was an awful move. The fact that he eventually won doesn't change a thing."

Which may very well be true. It is clearly the case that people tend to annotate by result an "awful" lot.

(I do think he probably exaggerated slightly, but I have a very hard time believing it's a good move...)

@Thomas: Johnathan Rowson touched the issue dynamic vs. structural advantages in a nice article for New in Chess 2010/1. He showed two examples with the similar themes as Anands 15.Qa3!! (Quoted from Rowsons book "The Seven Deadly Chess Sins") : Rozenthalis-Appel, German Bundesliga 1993/1994, 29.Qa3! and Smyslov- Reshevsky, World Championship Tournament 1948, 26. Qh4!

“”I am speechless. 15. Qa3 is a shockingly bad move. White has no winning chances whatsoever after this. Black wasn’t threatening anything, so why exchange off the queens, ruin your pawn formation and make things easy for Black all at one go? And this dubious decision has come VERY early in the game.”

No wonder Nigel Short doesnt get to play in a World Championship match......

The comments from Short and Polgar about 15.Qa3 don't convince me, nor does Giri's "?!" at ChessBase.
I mean, of course Qa3 looks horrible. Even a 1200 player sees that. And I think we can be pretty sure that Anand saw it as well. Yet he played it! Why? It would be more interesting if those GMs hypothesized on this question rather than condemn the move out of hand (though I must admit I haven't watched their live commentary so perhaps they have tried to answer this question.)

where can i read the comments of master Kasparov about the games?