Anand, the Grandmaster of World Chess

New Delhi, Oct 30: 'I just did it', was the message sent by Viswanathan Anand to his wife after retaning the world chess crown defeating Vladimir Kramnik of Russia in Bonn on Wednesday, Oct 29.

Viswanathan Anand retained the world title with a 24-move draw against Russian Vladimir Kramnik in the penultimate game of the 12-game World Chess Championship final in Bonn, Germany. The Indian, playing with white pieces, took an unbeatable 6.5-4.5 lead to retain the title. Anand earlier won three games -- the third, fifth and sixth -- and lost the 10th game in a match that looked one-sided till Kramnik brought back some life with a win in 10th game. In the 11th game on Wednesday, Oct 29, Anand had a 1. e4 start and led to a Sicilian-Najdorf, which Kramnik rarely plays. Kramnik went all out for a win and tried to create wild and unstable positions to throw Anand off-guard, but the Indian Grandmaster was upto the task.

In fact, as Kramnik overstretched in a do-or-die battle, he actually allowed Anand greater play. But in the end the game ended in a 24-move draw.

According to the pre-match rules, the two players share the purse of 1.5 million Euros equally.

Family reacts...

While the proud Dad exulted in the win of his son, his wife Aruna Anand is waiting to return to India to celebrate the victory in style. Asked what is Anand's target after having won in all the formats of the game, Aruna said "it's up to him but henceforth no finger will be pointed at him".

OneIndia News