Baden-Baden GRENKE Chess Classic

Round five: Anand makes his move in Baden-Baden

The win felt long overdue, though the criticism World Champion Vishy Anand had received in some quarters for his previous four draws (with White only once) was absurdly overblown. It clearly wasn’t for the lack of trying, and in round five the dam finally burst. Of course that also had a lot to do with his opponent – Arkadij Naiditsch continued his record of providing the day’s only decisive game. It wasn’t, at least on the surface, about the opening.

Anand rejected the Berlin Defence and went for a complex Ruy Lopez that looked playable for both players. He noted afterwards that Naiditsch’s pieces were somewhat tied up on the queenside, but the whole game essentially revolved around Naiditsch’s strange neglect of his kingside cavalry. It was a puzzling sequence of play from the German no. 1, but today was all about the World Champion. You could feel what it meant to him: “I was trying very hard not to screw this one up. I’ve been tossing away too many of these.”

Video interview with Anand after the game

For much of the round it had seemed more likely we’d see decisive action elsewhere. Georg Meier has been struggling in Baden-Baden and remains in bottom place, but he pulled off the rare feat of leaving Mickey Adams in dire straits by move 12. Adams explained, “I think I was a bit casual in the opening and Black was on the edge for a long time”. He also credited his opponent, however, noting the direct plan with 6.Nc3 is rarer than the quieter 6.Qc2, while Meier said his 7.Bg5 was a novelty.

Daniel Fridman played the Petroff, but that opening has by now almost lost its drawish reputation, largely due to the variation we saw today where White castles queenside. Sergey Karjakin memorably once crushed Vladimir Kramnik with the white pieces, but on this occasion the German grandmaster knew exactly what he was doing.

So at the half-way stage of the GRENKE Chess Classic Fabiano Caruana continues to lead on 3.5/5, though Viswanathan Anand is back in the running only half a point behind. The full standings are:

Tuesday 12 February is the tournament’s only rest day.

Report by Colin McGourty, photos Georgios Souleidis, videos Macauley Peterson

Full video report of the round:

Schedule and results

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.