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Leader Anand will try his best to win today against runner-up Grischuk especially after yesterday Gelfand caught up with him.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 O-O 8.a4 b4 9.d3 d6 10.Nbd2 More common is a5.
10... Na5 11.Ba2 c5 12.c3 Nc6 This is something new, Rb8 has been tried so far without much success. Nc6 makes more sense, it brings the knight back to the fight for the center. (12... Rb8 13.d4 with 5/5 for white at good level)
13.d4 bxc3 14.bxc3 exd4 15.cxd4 Nb4 16.Bb1 Bc4 was also worth considering
16... Bg4 17.h3 Bh5 18.g4 Bg6 19.d5 Nd7 20.Nc4 Anand managed to misplace the Bg6 and created a nice support point on c4.
20... Rb8 21.Bf4 Nb6 22.Nxb6 Rxb6 23.Nd2 The Nb4 looks strong but actually it's a bit out of play... after Ra3 and Nc4 white is better.
23... Bg5 And with every exchange the Bg6 gets weaker. But in general it's good for black to exchange his bad bishop.
24.Bxg5 Qxg5 25.Nc4 Rbb8 The strong black queen holds the position together. The d-pawn is untouchable because of Qe5
26.Qd2 And Anand wants to exchange it... - a wise desicion
26... Qxd2 27.Nxd2 The position is equal.
27... f6 28.Nc4 Rfd8 29.f4 Bf7 30.Ra3 Niether side can improve seriously his position. It's a draw.
30... g5 Grischuk is fighting for some space on the kingside.
31.h4 gh4 looks best now
31... gxf4 32.Rf3 Be8 33.Rxf4 Kg7 White gets the chance to attack the extremely important d6 pawn after g5 and Rf6, a great idea, that black underestimated, otherwise he would have taken gh4.
34.h5 It's getting interesting, if black loses the d-pawn it will be a catastrophy for him.
34... Bxa4 35.h6+ Kxh6 36.Rxf6+ Kg7 37.g5! Anand doesnt want to trade his active rook and will capture on d6 with knight. He has a defitine advantage.
37... Rf8 38.Rxd6 Bc2 If he can push his pawns it will be over. That's why Grischuk is trying to create threats. The odd-looking Ne5 is really strong.
39.Ne5 Rf4?! An ambitious move despite the time trouble. But after 40.Rd7+ and Rc7 Black is almost lost... The very difficult Ba4!, admitting all previous mistakes was the only chance...
40.Rf6?! This is not bad of course, just not as good as Rd7+
40... Rh4 41.d6!? a very inte resting sacrifice of the e4 pawn. Grischuk may as well be crushed by the active white pieces..
41... Bxb1 42.Rxb1 Rxe4 43.Rf7+ Kg8 44.Re7! Now we can lly apreciate the depth of Anand's idea with 40.Rf6 and 41.d6! The d-pawn is extremely strong and black is on the verge of defeat. Rd8 is forced
44... Rd8 45.Rd1 After d7 it is over... Grischuk sank into deep thought, but it's too late.
45... c4 46.d7 Rf4 After Rf1! black can resign
47.Rf1 Rff8 And now everything wins...
48.Rxf8+ Kxf8 49.Rxh7 c3 50.Ng6+ An incredible game by Anand! In a seemingly harmless position he managed by a series of strong moves starting with 31.h4!, to break through the kingside to the weak d6 pawn... After he got two strong connected pawns, he made a very orinigal and beautiful sacrifice of the e4 pawn with 41.d6!! in order to push the d-pawn and activate his pieces. Only a few moves after this the game was over. The first reason for the trouble for black was that he took the wrong pawn with 31...gf4?, letting Anand to attack the key d6 pawn. A really instructive game...
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