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Anand played his first World Championship match in 1995, in New York, against Garry Kasparov. The first eight games of the match ended in a draw, but then Anand won the ninth game and took a 1-0 lead. However, Kasparov immediately hit back and won the tenth, the eleventh, the thirteenth and the fourteenth game to win the match 10½:7½.
In 2000 Anand became FIDE World Champion and in 2007 – after the reunification of the Professional Chess Association and FIDE – he won the World Championship tournament in Mexico City. Anand finished one point ahead of Kramnik and became the 15th World Champion in chess history.
But to fully legitimize himself as World Champion in the tradition of Steinitz, Anand still had to win a match against Vladimir Kramnik, who had become the 14th World Champion by defeating Garry Kasparov in a legendary match in London 2000.
The World Championship match between Anand and Kramnik took place in Bonn in 2008. Anand won with 6½:4½ and surprised the experts by his choice of opening: Anand had always been a 1.e4 player, but against Kramnik he opened with 1.d4 and was surprisingly successful.
In his "Finish Line" interview with Saurav Ghosal Anand talks in detail about the 2008 World Championship match: he reveals how he came up with the idea of playing 1.d4, he talks about match strategy, and explains why this was one of the most important matches of his career.
The interview with Anand starts after about 1 minute and 45 seconds.
