Anand still in driver’s seat, just a draw away from title

After another rest day, the battle will resume on Wednesday.

For the first time in the match on Monday, Kramnik came into reckoning in what had been a one-sided affair so far.

The Russian punished Anand’s reckless play in great style and proved his fighting qualities just while everyone thought that the match was over.

It remains to be seen if the loss has jolted Anand way too much. The Indian ace still has a very handy two points lead despite Monday’s loss and is only a draw away from retaining the world championship crown, he won last year at Mexico city.

The win by Kramnik, however, has renewed the interest in the match. There are just two games left under classical time control and the Russian needs to win them both to force a tie-breaker which will have games of shorter duration.

While it still looks unlikely that the tie-breaker will happen, at least the chess buffs, especially Kramnik’s supporters, have started talking about it.