2008: Anand vs. Kramnik

Next on our list is the exciting match from 2008. Anand was champion, and Kramnik was the challenger.

Anand became world champion in a match tournament of 8, played in 2007 in Mexico City. Kramnik was in Mexico City, but  Anand dominated the field and won convincingly, with 9/14.

Because Kramnik didn’t win and thus lost his title from 2006, FIDE granted him a match with the new champion, Anand.
The match was played in Bonn, Germany, from 14th till 29th of October, 2008. Again it was a 12 games match, and in case of a tie, a rapid tiebreak was to be played.

Again, in my opinion, it was an exciting match, where we saw a big theoretical and tactical battle.
Interestingly, before the match, Kramnik and Anand played 51 games, and the result was 6-4 in favor of Kramnik.
But in the match, Anand played powerful chess and won by 6.5 – 4.5.

He dominated the match: after 6 games, Vishy led 3-0 with 3 draws. Until the end, Kramnik managed only to win game 10, but that was all.
Great win by Anand, who is 5 years older than Kramnik. Anand was 38 years old when he won, but that was not all!

The next match was Anand – Topalov in 2010 when Anand was already 41 years old. Who do you think won it? Stay tuned for the following video, where I will present the famous match from 2010.