It was an uncharacteristically nervous but decisive start to the eagerly-awaited World Championship tussle in Sofia between Veselin Topalov and Viswanathan Anand, as both combatants for the crown made decisive errors with the black pieces to come out of the first two games the match tied at 1-1.
In game 1, both players whizzed through 20-some moves of their opening preparation before Anand blundered big-time with 23 ..Kf7?? (23 ..Bd7 was correct, according to Svidler), after which Topalov struck home with the spectacular and crushing knight sacrifice with 24 Nxf6!! ICC members can see all of Svidler's analysis of the catastrophe in his Game of the Day below.
But it was "game on" again come game 2, as Anand immediately hit back to tie the match at 1-1 on Sunday, with a reassuring victory with the Catalan as Topalov made a number of inaccurate moves throughout the second half of the game. GM Alex Yermolinsky analysis this game in-depth in his guest spot on GOTD below for ICC members.
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On the opening weekend of the match, ICC was privileged to have 5-time Russian champion GM Peter Svidler on Chess.FM to give us his expert analysis and spin on the first two games from Sofia. The full rebroadcast of Svidler's analysis can be found below exclusively for ICC members, but for non-ICC members, to listen to what you are all missing out on by not being ICC members, we have given you two 15 minute previews of those not-to-be-missed shows.
So why not sign-up for ICC today (click here to join) to get the all best in chess commentary for the rest of the World Championship, as Anand and Topalov looks set now to be a close contest that's likely to go to the wire. And each match day on Chess.FM, we will also have GOTD and New In Chess trivia, where members can win ICC extensions and and a 1-year subscription to the world's best chess magazine, New In Chess.
