Game 5 is Drawn; Anand Leads 3-2
Friday, April 30, 2010 at 12:41PM
Dennis Monokroussos in Anand-Topalov 2010

Anand again drew comfortably in the same line of the Slav tested in game 3, though with an odd twist. Anand varied first with 15...h5, and after a series of logical moves that looked like normal prep, Topalov made a tactical error that allowed Black to equalize immediately. Ironically, Topalov simply forgot his preparation on move 22, as Anand did on move 23 in game 1. Instead of a nagging edge, he got nothing, and while Black's unambitious play almost gave Topalov a second chance to start torturing him, the accurate 36...Rd7! maintained the balance, and a draw was soon agreed.

Anand thus leads 3-2 and will have White in the next two games. If he can make use of this to gain another point, Topalov will be in huge trouble. We'll consider this a bit more, later; for now, here's today's game, with my annotations.

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