TOPALOV MISSES FORCED MATE, DOWN 0-2

Topalov Misses Forced Mate, Down 0-2
Veselin Topalov will have to make a comeback reminiscent of Bobby Fischer in the 1972 World Championship Match to become the unified World Chess Champion—and he has only 10 games remaning.

To see GM Mihail Marin's excellent notes to Game 2 from the ChessBase website, click here.

With his first White of the match, the FIDE World Champion pressed Vladimir Kramnik as hard as he could, whipping up a fearsome mating attack against the Classical World Champion's king. He opened lines with 20.g4! and surely had Kramnik on the ropes. Before commencing with what seemed to be the final assault, Topalov did not even bother to protect his queenside pawns, Kramnik taking them both with 24...Rxa4 and 28...Rxb2. Topalov came up with the shot 29.hxg6!! with horrible mating threats. Kramnik saw that taking Topalov's queen for free with 29...Rxc2?? would leave his king defenseless. Instead, he played the forced and good 29...h5!

Topalov could have evened the match immediately after Kramnik played the horrible 31...Bxf8?? when 32.Rxg4+! Bg7 33.Qc7! wins, for if 33...Qf1+ then 34.Ng1.

Instead, Topalov played 32.Qg6+?? and eventually lost in the ending. It is very surprising that a 2800 player could miss such a mate, especially since the first move is a capture with check! However, blunders are typical in World Championship matches, as the tension is enormously high.

Monday is a rest day, and Game 3 will take place on Tuesday.