Bundesliga Weekend With Anand
Sunday, March 18, 2012 at 6:24PM
Dennis Monokroussos in Anish Giri, Bundesliga, Pavel Eljanov, Viswanathan Anand

It's nice to see him the world champion in action again, as he has been keeping a low profile for a while now in anticipation of his title match with Boris Gelfand scheduled for May 10-31 of this year. This weekend he played two games in the famed Bundesliga; both draws. The first was a crazy battle against Pavel Eljanov in which Anand had good winning chances; the second a short draw with the black pieces against Anish Giri.

About the Eljanov game, you can find short interviews with both Anand and Eljanov on this page, and if anything's clear it's that both players knew that Anand was better until he played 34.Bd1, and other than almost everything was unclear! Here is the bare game score:

Anand,Viswanathan (2817) - Eljanov,Pavel (2683) [D31]

Schachbundesliga 2011-12 Bremen GER (12.1), 17.03.2012

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 e6 6.e4 Bb4 7.e5 Nd5 8.Bd2 b5 9.axb5 Bxc3 10.bxc3 cxb5 11.Ng5 h6 12.Qh5 g6 13.Qh3 f5 14.exf6 e5 15.f7+ Kf8 16.Ne6+ Ke7 17.Nxd8 Bxh3 18.gxh3 Rxd8 19.dxe5 Kxf7 20.Bg2 Nc6 21.0-0 Nxe5 22.f4 Nd3 23.f5 gxf5 24.Rxf5+ Ke6 25.Rh5 a5 26.Rxh6+ Ke5 27.Be1 N5f4 28.Bg3 Kf5 29.Rf1 Kg5 30.Rb6 Rab8 31.Ra6 Rf8 32.h4+ Kg4 33.Bf3+ Kh3 34.Bd1 Rg8 35.Rf3 Rbd8 36.Kf1 Ne5 37.Rxf4 Rxd1+ 38.Ke2 Rgd8 39.Rxa5 R1d2+ 40.Ke3 Ng4+ 41.Ke4 Re8+ 42.Kf5 Ne3+ 43.Kg6 Nd5 44.Rxb5 Nxf4+ 45.Bxf4 Rd3 46.h5 Rxc3 47.h6 Rb3 ½-½

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