Anand draws seventh game, still leads by three points

Bonn, October 23
Viswanathan Anand was unable to make it a hat-trick of wins, but nevertheless moved closer to retaining his world title with a draw in the seventh game that gave him a 5-2 lead over Vladimir Kramnik in the 12-game World Chess championship final.

With the match moving into the second half, Anand had white for the second game in a row. This is because the games are played in pairs and the regulations switch the day that the players have white in this pair at the half way stage.

NIIT Brand Ambassador Anand now needs just 1.5 points from five games to close the match and win the world title yet again. The draw gives Anand a 5-2 lead with the Indian needing just 1.5 points from five games to retain his world title. Anand has won the third, fifth and sixth games in the 12-game final.

The game opened in the slav defence, and Kramnik played a line which was more safer. Kramnik invited complications and no sooner had he done that, Anand decided he also wanted to fight.
Kramnik slowly began to look confused. By the 15th move, Anand had a little extra space and for the moment Black's knight is not on a great circuit.

Anand playing in a dominating manner, did so once again. Kramnik had to jettison the c pawn for counterplay. This however prevented any chances Black (Kramnik) may have had on the kingside. Ultimately, neither gave way and it looked like a fortress.

The duo finally agreed to split the point after 37 moves.

The World Chess Championship is taking place from October 14 – November 02, 2008 in the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn.

The match consists of twelve games, played under classical time controls: 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 61.

The prize fund is 1.5 million Euro (approximately 2.35 million US Dollars) including taxes and FIDE license fees, and is split equally between the players.

Moves of Game 7
Anand,V (2783) - Kramnik,V (2772) [D19]
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.e3 e6 7.Bxc4 Bb4 8.0-0 Nbd7 9.Qe2 Bg6 10.e4 0-0 11.Bd3 Bh5 12.e5 Nd5 13.Nxd5 cxd5 14.Qe3 Re8 15.Ne1 Bg6 16.Bxg6 hxg6 17.Nd3 Qb6 18.Nxb4 Qxb4 19.b3 Rac8 20.Ba3 Qc3 21.Rac1 Qxe3 22.fxe3 f6 23.Bd6 g5 24.h3 Kf7 25.Kf2 Kg6 26.Ke2 fxe5 27.dxe5 b6 28.b4 Rc4 29.Rxc4 dxc4 30.Rc1 Rc8 31.g4 a5 32.b5 c3 33.Rc2 Kf7 34.Kd3 Nc5+ 35.Bxc5 Rxc5 36.Rxc3 Rxc3+ 37.Kxc3 draw.
Source: Team Anand in Bonn