Miskolc Day 1: Anand wins, takes the lead

Peter Leko vs Anand in Miskolc, Hungary This Rapid Chess event is taking place in Miskolc from June 2-7, 2009. The year’s most prestigious clash in Hungary is being organized at the National Theater, 1 Déryné str, Miskolc. The number one Hungarian grandmaster, Peter Leko takes up a duel of eight games against the Indian World Champion Viswanathan Anand. The games will be played at a rate of 25 minutes for all moves with a bonus of ten seconds per moves. Colours change at half-time. In case of a 4-4 draw blitz games will decide the winner. The arbiter of the Match is WGM Zsuzsa Veroci, Head of Communication of the Hungarian Chess Federation. At the end of each day of play there will be a press conference of 10-15 minutes with both players. On the final day the press conference will last 30 minutes.

Miskolc 2009 – Day one

The start of the first game in the 2009 Miskolc Rapid Chess Match between Peter Leko...

... and World Champion Viswanathan ("Vishy") Anand

The start of game one in a bird's eyeview

Leko,Peter (2751) - Anand,Viswanathan (2783) [D97]
Miskolc Rapid (1), 03.06.2009 [Meszaros/Berkes]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5. First surprise of the match! Anand played the Gruenfeld Defence with black seven years ago against Karpov. 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Qb3 dxc4 6.Qxc4 0-0 7.e4 a6. This is the "Hungarian Variation", which was used by Hungarian grandmasters succesfully in the early of seventies. 8.Bf4 b5 9.Qxc7 Qxc7 10.Bxc7 Bb7 11.Bd3 b4 12.Na4 Nxe4 13.0-0 Nf6 14.Rac1

Anand ponders his 14th move

14...Nbd7 15.Ne5

15...Rfc8! 15. Ne5 was a novelty, but Anand found the best plan. The a8 rook defends the a6 pawn and Black is still waiting for all of his posibilities. 16.Rfe1 e6 17.Nb6 [17.Bd6 Bf8 18.Bxf8 Kxf8 19.Nc5 Nxc5 20.dxc5 Bd5 with counterplay] 17...Nxb6 18.Bxb6 Nd5 19.Ba5 [19.Bc5!?] 19...Bh6 20.Rc4 Rxc4 21.Nxc4 Bf8 22.g3 Rc8 23.Ne5 Nf6. Black has slightly better position and time to improve his standing with Bd6, Kg7, g5, h5, and after this or h4 or Bb8-a7. Anand wants to use his advantage too quickly. But White's position is strong enough. 24.Bf1 Bd5 25.Nd3

25...Rc4?! Consequent but dubious. After the game Peter said that here he calculated three moves (Nf4, Pb3 and Bd8), but he had only three minutes left... 26.Bd8?! [26.b3! Rxd4 (26...Rc2 27.Re2!+/=) 27.Bb6 Re4 28.Rc1 Nd7 29.Be3 +/=] 26...Ne4 27.Nf4 Rc8 28.Nxd5

Anand had only half minute (against two and half for Leko) and maybe for this reason he offered a draw. 1/2-1/2. [Click to replay]

The start of game two in the beautiful National Theatre

Anand goes for an aggressive line which is a speciality of his second Ganguly

Anand,Viswanathan (2783) - Leko,Peter (2751) [D85]
Miskolc Rapid (2), 03.06.2009 [Meszaros/Berkes]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 The second surprise of the match: the Gruenfeld Defence again, but with reversed colours! 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.e4 Nxc3 7.bxc3

Anand has just played 7.bxc3

c5 8.Be3 Kramnik's favourite variation, which played as Black very succesfully by the Indian grandmaster Ganguly, who is member of Anand's team. 8...Qa5 9.Qd2 0-0 10.Rc1 Rd8 11.d5 e6 12.Bg5! A very strong move, but it is not exactly a novelty. Anand's idea is to create some weaknesses in Black's camp after 12...f6, or disturb the development of the black pieces.

Peter Leko ponders his response to Anand's strong 12.Bg5!

12...Re8 13.d6 Bd7 14.Bh6

14...Qd8 Not a bad idea, but Black has no time to build up his defence. It is very difficult to offer a better choice, because we don't believe in the move 13...Bd7. Now the fans of the Gruenfeld must to show something good against White's hyperagressive plan! [14...Bf6 15.h4 (15.e5 Bh8) 15...Bc6 16.h5 Nd7 17.Ng5-> Palo-Ivanchuk, Skanderborg 2003 ; 14...Bh8 15.h4 Bc6 16.h5 Bxe4 17.Ng5 Bd5 (17...Bf5 18.Be2 +/-) 18.Nxh7! with attack.] 15.h4 f6 16.e5!+/- +/-. After this move Black never can play Pg5 and open the dangerous b1-h7 diagonal. 16...Bc6 17.h5 g5 18.Bxg7 Kxg7 19.exf6+ Qxf6

20.h6+! The final nuance: the black K must go into the corner, and the endgame is winning for White. 20...Kh8 21.Qxg5 Rf8 22.Qxf6+ Rxf6 23.Ne5 Rf5

The current position on one of the two the computer projection screens in the theatre

24.Nxc6 Nxc6 25.Rd1 Rd8 26.Rh4!+- The best place for the rook: White threatens with different manouvres, for example: Rg4-g7, or to push ahead his passed free pawn, or attack the black pawns on the queenside. 26...Rf6 [26...Rd5 27.Rxd5 exd5 28.Rf4 Kg8 29.Rf6+-] 27.Bb5 Ne5 28.Rh5 Nf7 29.Rxc5 Rxh6 30.d7

The rest is simple. 30...a6 31.Bf1 Kg7 32.Rc7 b5 33.Rc6 Kf6 34.Rxa6 Rh5 35.Rb6 Rc5 36.Bxb5 Rxc3 37.a4 Ke7 38.a5 Rg8 39.Kf1 Ra3 40.a6 Nd8 41.Be2 Rg5 42.Bc4 Rc5 43.Bxe6 Rca5 44.Bc4 Ra1 45.Rxa1 Rxa1+ 46.Ke2

So Anand leads 1.5-0.5 after the first day, with good play. 1-0. [Click to replay]

The final move of game two: Anand plays 46.Ke2 and...

Peter Leko resigns. Anand has chalked up the first victory in this match

Peter discusses the games he has played on day one, very eloquently and well phrased...

Our commentator Ferenc Berkes being interviewed by Vijay Kumar for Indian TV

Vijay's reports also appear in Europe Echecs. This one includes interveiws with Anand and Leko

Standings

Photos by Frederic Friedel and Gabor Veroci

Schedule of the Rapid Chess event

Links
Lékó & Anand official web site All games in PGN All ChessBase reports from Miskolc 2006 Leko vs Karpov Miskolc 2007 Leko vs Kramnik Miskolc 2008 Leko vs Carlsen The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.
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