Day three – Kramnik wins fifth Advance Chess in León

Dawn breaks on Sunday in León, with the church bells ringing and the storks streching in the early morning sun. Can you imagine a more beautiful setting for an Advanced Chess event?

It is judgement day for Vishy Anand, the world's most competent chess software user – certainly amongst players rated 2700 or higher. He is trailing by one loss against Big Vlad Kramnik and has only today's games to catch up.

Last night, during games three and four, there was a giant blitz tournament in the Junta de Castilla y León.

Even young girls have discovered a love for chess in Spain

Vijay Kumar

This is a friendly Indian gentleman who turns up at all tournaments that Vishy Anand plays in. He totes a professional video camera, which has shrunk dramatically in size over the years. Vijay Kumar spends most of his time filming from somewhere in the background – and the rest of the time trying to be as unobstrusive as possible. But this man reaches more people with his film reports and all the other journalists put together. His TV company Doordarshan reaches 0.8 billion Indian viewers – and plenty more in the surrounding Asian countries.

Today Vijay asked me of one of his usual interviews on Advanced Chess

Game five

This game is under way, a Queen's Gambit Accepted, following lines that Kramnik has recently played against Kasparov. Here's a video of the start.

This very interesting game ended in a draw. First commentary is up for you to replay on our Javascript board (link below). Note that these annotations are later revised and improved.

The commentary team (who have been bringing you annotated games minutes after they have ended): Zenón Franco Ocampos, Sergio Estremera Paños, Francisco Sánchez Goirado.

Game six

Anand had to win, whatever it took. But in this final game Vladimir Kramnik, who was feeling more and more comfortable with the computer (as he told us in the press conference after the game), did not allow anything adverse to happen. "It was quite easy for Black to hold," he said. "I had to make relatively simple moves, while Vishy had to find a complicated plan to improve his position."

An exhausted Kramnik after game six

So in the end it was Vladimir Kramnik who, playing for the first time, was able to win the fifth Advanced Chess match in León.

Busy journalists in the press centre, working on their live reports

Games five and six with commentary (in Spanish)

Frederic Friedel

Schedule

• Official web site
• Previous Advanced Chess event (2002)