Viswanathan Anand's key asset in his world championship match in Sofia against Veselin Topalov is his experience, as he knows how to prepare for a world title contest. And in a pre-match interview given to The Times of India, Anand described the process as "you hibernate for six months and think only of one person."
And it is beginning to look now that during those six month's he has really got the measure of his challenger, as he seems to have discovered a major weakness in Topalov's game. In game two, Topalov was at a loss in how to handle the Catalan opening after being positionally squeezed into making a fatal mistake - and in game four, Anand again used the Catalan to turn in arguably one of the more memorable wins ever in a world championship match.
Watching the game unfold live on www.chessclub.com, the large online audience thought Topalov could hold with the obvious-looking 27 ...Bd5 - only for our Chess.FM commentator, GM Miguel Illescas, to uncork the stunning finale of 28 Qg6+ Kh8 29 Rc4!! Bxc4 30 Rd4!! Qxd4 31 Qg7 mate! As a member of ICC, you can listen to GM Illescas's not-to-be-missed amazing analysis of the game in GOTD below.
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It proved to be a crushing win for Anand, who now leads the best-of-12-game match 2.5-1.5 going into the third rest day. Chess.FM will be back on the air on Friday, with Macauley and GM Jon Speelman.
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? 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.
