28 July 2008

A Fortress that Wasn't

This game, played at Corus 2007, was annotated by Anand in the March 2007 issue of Europe Echecs. The players have just captured loose Pawns on e5 and f3. Karjakin tried to set up a fortress with 33.Rc5 Qh1 34.Rc4 Qe1 35.Rf4, but Anand chipped away at the fortifications with 35...h5!

Wijk aan Zee 2007
Anand, Viswanathan

Karjakin, Sergey
(After 32...Qf1-f3(xP))
[FEN "6k1/6pp/8/4R1P1/1p5P/pP3q2/P1P5/1KN5 w - - 0 33"]

The game continued 36.gxh6 gxh6 37.Rg4+ Kf7 38.Rf4+ Kg6 39.Rg4+ Kf5 40.Rc4 h5 41.Rc5+ Kg4 42.Rc4+ Kf3 43.Rd4 Qe5 44.c3 Qh2 45.Rd3+ Ke4 46.Rd4+ Kf5 47.Nd3 Qd2. Anand gave his last move '?' and noted, 'Clearer was 47...bxc3 48.Rf4+ Kg6 49.Rf2 Qxh4 50.Kc2 Qd4 followed by the advance of the h-Pawn.' He won anyway on the 63rd move after clearing a path for the a-Pawn.

To play through the complete game see...

Sergey Karjakin vs Viswanathan Anand, Corus 2007
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1448263

...on Chessgames.com.

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