Anand breaches Topalov defence to grab initiative

World champion pockets fourth game to take 2.5-1.5 lead at Sofia

Anand, who had lost the first game unceremoniously won the second in sparkling fashion and after drawing the third and winning the fourth game comprehensively, the fans are looking up to him to do what he did to Russian Vladimir Kramnik a couple of years ago at Bonn in Germany.

The scores are now on Anand’s side as he leads the 12-games match by a 2.5-1.5 margin.

It was a Queen’s gambit declined once again, something that Topalov has apparently prepared for this match which is not coming good given the fact that the Bulgarian has lost his second game with black on the trot.

Interestingly enough, it was yet again a replica of 2006 match that Kramnik won against Topalov as the latter went for the same system that he chose against the Russian in the previous match.

Surprising as it may sound, Anand won the second game using the pet line of Kramnik, drew the third doing the same and won on Wednesday simply by repeating the opening of the 2006 match.

And all this is possible after crushing Kramnik in 2008 clash. As it happened in the game, Topalov won a pawn in the opening, kept it close to himself for a long time and once Anand threatened to open up the king side he was left with no answers.

The Indian ace came up with a resounding sacrifice of a knight to rip apart Topalov’s king side and once he decided on that there was no respite for the challenger.
Anand simply squeezed out black’s resources with some high quality moves. Down a piece, the world champion created havoc in the Bulgarian’s territory with some deft manoeuvres and went on to score a memorable victory.

After the rest day on Thursday, Topalov will have white in the fifth game and the Bulgarian won’t leave any stones unturned for his comeback attempt. On Tuesday, Anand had to pull off all his resources to hold Topalov for a draw with black pieces, giving him  the chance to go on the attack with white pieces on Wednesday.

The champiohsip is being played in a round robin format with 12 games and the first player to reach 6.5 will win the world title.