Vishwanathan Anand forces draw

After two decisive games in the first two rounds, a day’s rest had Veselin Topalov and Viswanathan Anand playing strong and solid moves in the third round of the World Chess Championship in Sofia. The game ended in a draw after 46 moves when the moves were repeated thrice.

Topalov had proclaimed that he would neither offer draw nor accept an offer from his opponent  in accordance with the Sofia rule while Anand had refused to play with this rule, citing “A World Championship should be played with World Championship rules.”

Anand should be satisfied with his draw result, especially with the black pieces. Most top level players prefer to strike with Whites and stay content with draw while playing with black pieces. The 12-game match series is tied 1.5-1.5.

On Tuesday, Anand opted for a solid line in the Slav Defence, a change from the sharp Grunfeld he played in the first game and ended on the losing side. For the first 13 moves, the players followed the Topalov versus Vladimir Kramnik game from their World Championship match at Elista in 2006 before Topalov deviated on the 14th turn.

Both players did not castle in this game, keeping their King in the centre after trading queens early on the 10th move. Anand will play with the white pieces in the fourth round on Wednesday.

Game 3: V Topalov vs V Anand
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 e6 7.f3 c5 8.e4 Bg6 9.Be3 cxd4 10.Qxd4 Qxd4 11.Bxd4 Nfd7 12.Nxd7 Nxd7 13.Bxc4 a6 14.Rc1 Rg8 15.h4 h6 16.Ke2 Bd6 17.h5 Bh7 18.a5 Ke7 19.Na4 f6 20.b4 Rgc8 21.Bc5 Bxc5 22.bxc5 Rc7 23.Nb6 Rd8 24.Nxd7 Rdxd7 25.Bd3 Bg8 26.c6 Rd6 27.cxb7 Rxb7 28.Rc3 Bf7 29.Ke3 Be8 30.g4 e5 31.Rhc1 Bd7 32.Rc5 Bb5 33.Bxb5 axb5 34.Rb1 b4 35.Rb3 Ra6 36.Kd3 Rba7 37.Rxb4 Rxa5 38.Rxa5 Rxa5 39.Rb7+ Kf8 40.Ke2 Ra2+ 41.Ke3 Ra3+ 42.Kf2 Ra2+ 43.Ke3 Ra3+ 44.Kf2 Ra2+ 45.Ke3 Ra3+ 46.Kf2 Draw.