World Championship 2008: Anand – Kramnik
Having won the crown in a 2007 tournament, Anand faced the man he had displaced — Kramnik — in a proper match to silence any doubt. He won twice as Black in the same razor-sharp Semi-Slav, took a commanding lead, and closed it out in eleven games.
◈Legitimacy on the line
Anand had taken the reunified title by winning the 2007 Mexico City tournament — the first time since 1948 that the championship was decided by a tournament rather than a match. Kramnik, the man he had overtaken, was granted the right to challenge in a one-off match.
For Anand it was a chance to prove his crown in the traditional way, head to head, against a former champion widely regarded as one of the hardest players in the world to beat.
◈The Semi-Slav strikes twice
Anand won games three and five as Black in the same sharp variation of the Semi-Slav, then added a third win with White in a Nimzo-Indian to build a 4½–1½ lead that all but ended the contest. Kramnik struck back in game ten — when Anand needed only a draw — but the champion held the eleventh to seal it.
The final score was 6½–4½; the scheduled twelfth game was never needed. Anand's win confirmed him as the undisputed classical champion, a title he would go on to defend against Topalov and Gelfand.
◈Cross Table
1 win · ½ draw · 0 loss — click a game number to replay it.