3 ms·

I don't see the easier win after 36...Qd8 that several sites have mentioned. Any ideas?

• gjm11 17y ago
  37. Kh3 Qg5 threatening mayhem on g4. Best is 38. Qg1 to protect g4; then ...Re7 gets rid of the knight, one way or another, and g4 goes bang anyway. 37. Kg3 Qd6+; Kh3 or Kh4 Qh6 threatening mayhem on the h-file. 37. f6 Rf7 followed by hxg4 and g3+ and the WK has nowhere to hide. If, say, 38. Qf1 hxg4; Kg3 to stop this then Qd6+; Kh4 g3+ and White is toast. In some variations B can just play ...Rxf6 instead of ...hxg4, and again the WK ends up with nowhere to hide. (I'm a patzer, or more precisely a rusty club-level player; the above is the result of some experimenting with a strong computer program. I may have missed important things.)
  • akkartik 17y ago
    What's the strongest response to 37. Kxh5?
    • mquander 17y ago
      No computer, but 36... Qd8 37. Kxh5 Rc6 and then: 38. f6 Rxf6 39. Rxf6 Qxf6 looks totally hopeless for White, can't defend both h6 and g6 38. g5 Rh6+ 39. gxh6 Rh4+ 40. Kg6 Qf6++ Don't see any other plausible options to prevent 38... Rh6++.
• jsyedidia 17y ago
  36...Qd8+ only looks better to a computer. The idea is 37. f6 hxg4 38.Nxg4 gxf6 threatening ...Rh7+ or 37. Kg3 Qd6+ 38. Kh4 Qh6! But Anand's 36...g5+ is much easier for a human to play. It's easier to see White's reasonable responses and how to deal with them. Anand never made a move that let go of his winning advantage, and all the (mild) criticisms of his play are based on moves that computers think win a little faster; but a human should play to win as reliably as possible, and that's what he did. I am astonished though by Topalov's mistakes capturing the f and e pawns. They were inexplicable, because they're not really tactical errors at all; they simply show terrible positional misunderstanding.