THE big ticket event of the year was the world title match where Viswanathan Anand defended comfortably against Vladimir Kramnik. That match and the huge interest it drew was an affirmation of the concept of title matches.
However, just as it seemed the title cycle was back on course after 15 years of confusion, a controversy exploded. A large part of the confusion is due to Fide’s continuing inability to attract stable sponsorship. Given the recession this is not a good augury for the future.
The Topalov-Kamsky match is on/off/on again and Anand will play the winner of that, assuming it does happen in February in Sofia. Topalov is a heavy favourite and a Topalov-Anand face-off would be fascinating.
But after that in-itself-uncertain set of events, the sequence is very unclear. The Grand Prix/World Cup system for selecting candidates is to be replaced or heavily modified. Several top players may walk out including golden boy Magnus Carlsen and the next cycle may have seriously lower credibility as a result.
One side-effect of the title match was Anand and Kramnik abdicating from normal play. As a result, their ratings, or rather rankings, faded. While the top five were clustered within 8 points of each other in the narrow range 2783-2791, Anand dropped to the bottom of that very select heap and Kramnik slid to no:6, at 2772.
Anand starts 2009 as No:2, while Veselin Topalov stays at no:1 after an excellent Olympiad and an outstanding first place at the just-concluded Pearl River Classic in Nanjing. Meanwhile, Grischuk and Gashimov lead in the ongoing Elista Grand Prix — the GPs continue despite loss of sponsors and scaling down.
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It will be interesting to see where the Oscar goes this year because that will be a pointer to the relative importance of being no:1 (which means outstanding tournament results and lots of activity) or title matches. Anand was of course, both no: 1 and champion until April when his priorities changed.
Of course, any mention of the year would be incomplete without mentioning the Dresden Olympiad where Armenia produced a killer team effort to retain gold and the Georgian women gave their war-ravaged nation some cheer by winning ahead of the PRC and Russia. Anand apart, several Indians had a very good year despite Olympiad under performance.
Abhijeet Gupta, Dronavalli Harika and Adhiban took the world Junior, Girls and Under 16 titles and Parimarjan Negi hit 2600 level. The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, (Topalov Vs Svidler, Nanjing 2008) is a classic exchange sacrifice. While plays 19.Rb5! Bf8. 20.a4Bxb5 Svidler takes, missing the 22nd and its consequences. 21.cxb5 Rd6 22.Qc3 Bg7 23.Qxc5 Rc8 24.Qxa7 b6 25.Qxc7 Rxc7 26.Rd1 Bf6 27.dxe6 Rxd1+ 28.Bxd1 fxe6 29.Bb3 (1-0) No defence for b6, e6.