Rebel vs. Anand: Day 1                   by Jeroen Noomen

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The first game was scheduled at 11:30 on tuesday 21st of July. 

The time control being 5 minutes for the whole game, plus 5 

seconds for each move (Fischer method). On the first day 4 of 

these blitz games had to be played. After lunch there followed

two 15-minute blitz games.



In game 1 Anand replied with the Grunfeld Indian against Rebel's

1. d4. Black choose an unusual setup by means of ... Bd7!? When

I remember it well, this move was recently tried by Peter 

Svidler. Rb1!, the strongest reply, was still in Rebel's opening 

book. After ... Qc7 we were out of book, the expected move being

... Na5. The opening went well for Rebel and when Anand played 

... b6?? he got into deep trouble after the very strong Qa3! A 

few moves later Rxd6 won material and the game was over. An 

unbelievable start, I just couldn't believe we just beat the 

number 2 in the world within 30 moves!



In game 2 Anand was visibly nervous. He played rather passive

and when Rebel got a knight to d3 (in Holland we call this 

an 'octopus'), White was in trouble. Anand defended well, after

which Rebel shocked everybody by sacrificing a piece. After the

game we found out that f3! instead of Ng4? could have saved the

game for Anand. Look at f3!,Rc2! Qxc2,Bxe3+ Rf2! and you will 

find out that it is going to be a perpetual check.



After Rebel's ... f5! the position is probably lost for White

already. The only improvement we found was Nf4 instead of Rxd3?

But you can imagine Anand wanted to remove this annoying knight.

Now the game ended quickly. In the end there could follow Bxe6+,

Rxe6 Nxe6,Rf2+ followed by Rf1+ and Rxa1, also making a new 

queen. So after two games Rebel was leading 2-0. I thought 

'Am I dreaming or something!?'.



Game 3 the opening didn't go well for Rebel. It blocked the 

king's side instead of opening it, so Anand had his hands free

to act on the queen's side. He won pawn f4 and Rebel was showing

a score of around -0,70, the position being clearly lost. But 

somehow Rebel managed to get counter play, based on the 

weaknesses on a4 and c6. However, after winning back the pawn,

the ending still looked very good for Black. The passers on g6

and f5 look impressive. Anand failed to make use of this, his 

pawns being blocked by White's knight. Suddenly the White a-pawn

became a very strong passer as well and this proved to be 

decisive. That meant a 3-0 lead!



In game 4 Vishy finally fought back. Rebel played the opening

very unusual (I never would play that way, I'm sure this must

be good for White!), but nevertheless got a good chance for 

an advantage. The big mistake was ... Ng3?, instead the simple

... Nxc3 bxc3,Nd7 is good for Black, planning to transfer the

knight to c5. After ... Ng3? Anand got two very strong bishops.

Of course Rebel should have kept the queens on to retain some

chances. When the queens were exchanged, the game was over. 

Anand received a well-deserved applause from the audience. 

The score: 3-1 to Rebel.



Game 5 saw the first 15-minute blitz game. Before the game 

started nobody could find the guy who operates the digital timer

and no one else was able to put it on 15 minute blitz level. So

the referee decided to play with a normal clock. The game first

went well for Anand, but after ... Rc8?! (better looks ... Qc7) 

he had to think after Rebel's reply Nf5! The game became very 

tense, but Anand played extremely well, temporarily sacrificing

a piece. Rebel's score dropped, I was especially worried about 

the knight on b4. After Rebel's last move Qf5, something strange

happened. Anand thought for a few minutes, reducing his remaining

time to about 1 minute. Then he looked up and didn't watch the 

board anymore, after which his flag fell. Many people stormed 

to the board, claiming that the 15 minutes were not over yet 

and that the clock was wrong. The Rebel clock showed however

that the 15 minutes were clearly over. Anand correctly stated 

that the next game should be played with the digital clock 

again, so he could see the remaining time. An unfortunate ending

to a thrilling game, in which Anand played brilliantly in my 

opinion. In the final position Rebel gave a clear plus score to 

the Black position. Total score: 4-1 to Rebel.



In game 6 we saw a quiet opening, not quite to my taste. Rebel 

moved its queen to h6, but when Vishy played Bc1! the score 

dropped immediately (I remember it was around -0.80). In the 

further course of the game, Anand missed the 'zwischenzug' 

Bxg7+, simply picking up a pawn for no compensation. Now we 

approached an ending which was not clear anymore. Thanks to the

KryoTech machine Rebel found ... Bg8! in the last seconds, 

inevitably leading to a repetition of moves. With the third 

repetition coming up, I claimed a draw, stating that Rebel 

would play ... Bd5 again, leading to the repetition. Anand 

accepted, making the total score 4,5-1,5. 



Conclusion after day 1: The match had already been decided! We

simply couldn't believe this. I went to my room, sitting there 

shaking my head, just wondering if this was all a dream. But no,

it was not! Actually, Rebel was beating the number two in the 

world, having a FIDE ELO of 2795!



Of course I immediately realized that the real games, the 

tournament games, could tell a completely different story. 

Although I am often an optimistic guy, I also try to be 

realistic. So I expected Vishy to strike back very hard, 

expecting a clear 2-0 in the tournament games.