Great defensive chess is rarely appreciated in chess. It has been observed that while brilliant attacking moves are often a joy to behold, brilliant defensive moves are often ugly, necessary things.

In today's game, Viswanathan Anand shows that great defense can also be beautiful. Facing a fearsome light-square assault, he finds a way to surrender material and hold all his key points. Once the counterattacking pawnslaught begins, Kramnik is in great trouble.

I've annotated this game below. I tried my best to paint a good picture of the course of the game without obsessing over smaller inaccuracies and accepting that complete truth in the analysis of such a complex game could only be achieved after days of analysis with the most powerful engines. This is by no means a definitive analysis

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Want more of Viswanathan Anand's games? Check out my previous videos!