Viswanathan Anand after tasting success with the Catalan Opening against Veselin Topalov in the second round of the World Chess Championship in progress at Sofia was hungry for more!
Nightmares are best forgotten while pleasant encounters need to be repeated. Viswanathan Anand after tasting success with the Catalan Opening against Veselin Topalov in the second round of the World Chess Championship in progress at Sofia was hungry for more!
So out came the Catalan in the fourth game once again with both players wanting to prove a point.
While Anand wanted an encore, Topalov wanted to wipe out memories and show that in all probability, the second round loss might just be an aberration and he was well equipped to fight and win in this Opening.
Topalov may have lost a crucial point here but he has lost much more in terms of confidence and would be under tremendous psychological pressure, which was evident at the press conference after the game. He was preoccupied and kept shaking his head as if in denial mode, wanting to mentally erase the mistakes he committed on board. A few questions to him had to be repeated but the Bulgarian had no hesitation in singling out his bad move, the pawn one, on the 20th turn.
The game was a far cry from the second one where Anand demonstrated his positional prowess with a clinical and precise play victory. The fourth game was much more exciting. Anand was at his tactical best, his killer instinct aroused and was a far cry from the strong, solid and cautious approach he adopted on Tuesday where the game ended in a draw.
Anand was at his attacking best and ripped up a whirlwind attack to inflict a crushing loss on his opponent after the players spent most part of the Opening on the queenside. Anand sacrificed a pawn and diverted Topalov's pieces onto the queenside. After Topalov's queen was pushed back to the corner at the other end, Anand's queen invaded Topalov's territory by shattering his castle with a knight sacrifice.
"After the knight sacrifice on the 23rd turn, I didn't see any defence for Black" said Anand. Though the knight sacrifice was a pretty sight, the 'killer move' according to most experts was the innocuous looking pawn move on the 25th turn by Anand which virtually shut off all escape lines for Topalov's King.
