Anand-Topalov, Rounds 5-8

We've reached another critical point in the Anand-Topalov world chess championship match. The match is now tied, at 4-4, and there are only four more rounds left.

In round 5, Topalov as White played into Anand's Slav for the second time, trying to squeeze out an endgame advantage from the opening. Anand varied with 15...h5 instead of 15...h6 from round 3. Topalov achieved some advantage, but a tactic allowed Anand to equalize immediately, and the game ended in a draw. Despite the outcome, the fact that Topalov was willing to play on Anand's turf, rather than vary the opening, seemed to show Topalov's determination and confidence.

Round 6 had Anand as White use the Catalan yet again. Topalov returned to the variation he had used in round 2, but Anand varied with 10 Bg5. Topalov gave back a Pawn to achieve a curious Queenless middlegame in which White had two Knights and Black had two Bishops. Topalov then played aggressively but the draw was a logical outcome at the end, and it occurred. After rounds 5 and 6, Topalov was probably not feeling bad, because despite not winning either game, in two games he had managed to find ways to try for a win while Anand had the more passive positions.

Round 7 was extremely complicated. Anand used the Catalan again, but Topalov countered with a sacrificial line that got Anand thinking. In a very tense game, in which the computers might know it should be a draw, but humans could easily go astray, both players implicitly declined and offered threefold repetitions and played for a win until the draw was clear. Wow. By now, Topalov must have been pretty happy, because of how he had not only neutralized Anand's Catalan twice in a row as Black, but also had played more and more aggressively against it.

Finally, round 8 came. This time, Topalov invited Anand's Slav again, and Anand varied, but soon after he played 20...f5 for counterplay, he got into a bad position. Eventually, an opposite-colors-Bishop ending came about, but Topalov kept on pressing, until Anand blundered and summarily resigned! Wow.

From my point of view, Anand's 20...f5, even if objectively OK, was probably a psychological error. In the past Slav games, Anand had contented himself with safe, non-weakening, passive defense to draw. I imagine that Anand started losing patience and embarked on the faulty plan that included 22...f4? and then got thrown off after that. Topalov completely won this psychological battle. In fact, the last four games all had Topalov putting considerable pressure on Anand. Even without this win, I would feel that Topalov already had the psychological edge by now (even with a point behind). Now, I consider that Anand is in serious trouble, even with the score being a 4-4 tie. Topalov has a record of coming back from behind. He has proved in the last four games that he is capable of creating complications and aggression whether as White or as Black. If Anand just makes one more big error, I think he is through. I have to wonder whether he has run out of Catalan ideas as White and needs to do something different. And I have to wonder whether all the passive play as Black in the Slav is really to his taste. We'll have to see whether he tries to vary (either as White or as Black) in the remaining games of the match.