Kramnik vs Anand, Bonn 2008: game five

The fifth game of the World Chess Championship in Bonn, played on 20 October 2008, brought Vladimir Kramnik back to an unresolved question. Three days earlier, he had lost with White in a Meran against Viswanathan Anand. After a draw in game four, both players returned to the same opening. Kramnik was still looking for his first win; Anand already had one.

In a match, returning to an opening also means testing the work done away from the board between games. The opponent has had time to examine the first encounter, but the winner is under no obligation to repeat every decision either. Anand brought forward 15...Rg8, ahead of developing the bishop to d6. This was neither a fresh game from the outset nor a replay of the previous one: a change in move order was enough to pose different problems.

Malcolm Pein’s report recorded a specific explanation from Kramnik: he had chosen the c-file on move 18 because he was concerned about a black queen manoeuvre towards c5 and d5. That statement helps explain a decision about the position, but it cannot reconstruct all his private analysis. Nor does it justify assuming that Anand’s victory had been calculated in advance all the way to the end.

White developed the pieces, sought activity on the queenside and exchanged a pair of rooks. The g-file ceased to be the immediate focus of the struggle, but Black’s rook found another way in. Understanding this phase depends less on the opening’s name than on the ability to change plans without losing coordination. The game continued to demand decisions after the initial surprise.

The finish overturned a familiar assumption: exchanging queens does not guarantee safety . During the liquidation, White recovered material but failed to resolve the king’s exposure. Anand turned that lack of coordination into a promotion threat; Kramnik resigned after 35...fxe3. The queenless position had not extinguished the attack but given it another form.

The 3.5-1.5 score left Anand with two wins, both with Black, and Kramnik with a two-point deficit to overcome. The match was not over. What distinguishes this fifth game is how an opening already debated became a second competitive problem: preparation set the terrain, but the victory still had to be built through decisions and calculation.