After an epic journey featuring volcanoes and hobbits, on Saturday night World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand sat down to defend his world chess title against challenger and local hero Veselin Topalov in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

A $2 million Euro prize fund was at stake and much was expected of the battle between the two dominant tournament players of the past five years.

World Championship games are expected to last four, perhaps even six hours. This one was over in little more than two. The Indian World Champion was destroyed; nay, humiliated. On Bulgarian television that night, Topalov explained that the entire game had been prepared by him and his team at home; he didn’t need to find a single original move to score a simple first game victory.

The next day Anand bounced back with a hard-fought win but the effects of the first game were still being felt; Anand admitted that he was feeling so pessimistic that he felt he was out of danger in the second game only at the point when the game was almost decided in his favour.

How had it come to this for Anand, the player who had looked almost invincible when taking the world title from Vladimir Kramnik in Bonn in 2008?

Track back ten days.

Anand and his team, travelling from various corners of Europe, found themselves stranded in Frankfurt thanks to the ash being spread by Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano. Frankfurt airport was closed indefinitely and even a private jet offered by one of Anand’s German supporters was not allowed to attempt the flight to Bulgaria.

Travelling to Sofia overland was also a major challenge because of the visas needed by Anand and others in his team to transit non-EU countries such as Serbia.

Eventually, with no end in sight to the closure of airspace, the eight-strong Team Anand headed out from Frankfurt on Sunday in a luxury Dutch minibus. 40 hours later, after travelling through Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, the group arrived in Sofia at 4am on Tuesday morning.

The trip, especially the lengthy detour through the primitive roads in Romania, was half nightmare, half adventure. “Don’t mention the volcano,” was the rule, said Anand’s manager and wife Aruna; “I did once, but I think I got away with it.” So the journey became an unusual team bonding exercise which, after conversation had waned, involved sitting through the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy on the bus’ DVD system.

Upon arrival in Sofia, Anand tried to catch up on lost sleep while the world body FIDE considered the returned king’s request for a three day delay to the start of the match. Jet-lag has known pernicious effects on competitive chessplayers, causing them to think more slowly and less efficiently, and the days of interrupted sleep suffered by Anand in Frankfurt and on the road would have had a similar effect.

Publicly the organisers argued against any delay, using diplomatic phrases such as, “we are bitterly disappointed by [Anand’s] derogatory actions and attitude towards the organizers…” Too inconvenient, too expensive to change anything, they said.

Privately the organisers agreed to the match starting one day late but no more, and this was the ‘compromise’ announced by FIDE.

Topalov, a take-no-prisoners competitor, picked up few marks for sportsmanship by refraining from offering any support for Anand’s request, as more gracious Grandmasters of the past such as Boris Spassky had done in similar circumstances.

Normally players prepare for the game as late as possible but on Saturday Anand arrive at the lavish playing hall in Sofia’s Military Club — formerly a palace for the father of Bulgaria’s last king, Simon II — half an hour early. The World Champion sat quietly at the side of the stage, quietly meditating, while Topalov arrived later and spent time chatting to the arbiters while both players waited for the arrival of the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, on whose behalf the start of the game had been delayed a further two hours.

As the hall filled up with spectators Anand eventually came to the board but there was no glint of nervousness or excitement in Anand’s eyes.

Borissov shook hands with the players and then introduced them to a chunky black man in shorts and t-shirt. Why American body builder Ronny Coleman was on stage at all was a mystery even to most locals, until it was remembered that Coleman and Borissov had opened a new gym in Sofia together on the previous day; here was a chance to promote the venture in front of more than 50 press photographers.

The plug for his gym over, Borissov made the ceremonial first move for Topalov… and the game went downhill from there for the Indian.

At the post-game press conference, after one of the heaviest defeats of his adult career, Anand looked shell-shocked. He denied that his long trip had caused his poor play but said little more than “I just played badly today. I mixed up my moves.”

Anand looked a little more sprightly the following day, despite confessing that his sleeping patterns were still far from normal; “The main thing after a [loss] like that is to sleep — which was impossible.”

Even though Anand has now levelled the best-of-12 contest, history is against him. Not since 1892 has a defending World Champion lost the first game of their match and hung on to the title.

Anand, perhaps the greatest natural talent of the modern era, has a mountain to climb to stop Topalov taking the match title to Bulgaria for the first time. And I hate to mention it but he’s got to get over the volcano as well.

World Championship 2010 Game 1

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB9Cz8xrPA0&feature=channel[/youtube]

White: V.Topalov
Black: V.Anand

Opening: Grunfeld Defence

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5

A controversial choice, playing an opening against which Topalov has a massive score. Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov opined that the decision was “crazy”.

4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bc4 c5 8.Ne2 Nc6 9.Be3 0-0 10.0-0 Na5 11.Bd3 b6 12.Qd2 e5 13.Bh6 cxd4 14.Bxg7 Kxg7 15.cxd4 exd4 16.Rac1 Qd6

The first new move, but the idea was already common knowledge among top players and Topalov responded quickly.

17.f4 f6 18.f5 Qe5 19.Nf4 g5 20.Nh5+ Kg8 21.h4 h6 22.hxg5 hxg5 23.Rf3! Kf7?? Played after 26 tired minutes’ thought. “I must have mixed up my moves,” admitted Anand, who had likely prepared  23…Bd7 24.Rg3 Kf7! and simply played the moves in the wrong order.

24.Nxf6!!

Immediate punishment. “This is a typical sacrifice,” explained Topalov. “The moves are quite natural and White never has any risk so I was not worried.”  24…Kxf6

24…Qxf6 25.Rc7+ Ke8 26.Bb5+ Kd8 27.Rfc3! also gives White an overwhelming attack.

25.Rh3! Rg8 26.Rh6+ Kf7 27.Rh7+ Ke8 28.Rcc7 Kd8 29.Bb5! Qxe4 30.Rxc8+! 1-0

After 30…Kxc8 31.Qc1+ decides. “An easy game for me,” said Topalov.

World Championship 2010 Game 2

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wZ_Obg-SNM&feature=channel[/youtube]

White: V.Anand
Black: V.Topalov

Opening: Catalan

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3

A quiet system, necessary to calm the nerves after yesterday’s massacre. 4…dxc4 5.Bg2 a6

Looking to hang onto the pawn with 6…b5.

6.Ne5 c5 7.Na3 cxd4 8.Naxc4 Bc5 9.0-0 0-0 10.Bd2 Nd5 11.Rc1 Nd7 12.Nd3 Ba7 13.Ba5 Qe7 14.Qb3 Rb8 15.Qa3!!

The first new move and a highly unorthodox idea, heading into an endgame with a pawn less and a wrecked pawn structure.

15…Qxa3 16.bxa3 N7f6

16…Nc5 was later suggested as an improvement, but Anand was also ready for this.

17.Nce5 Re8 18.Rc2 b6 19.Bd2 Bb7 20.Rfc1 Rbd8 21.f4!

“Now I thought I had compensation for the pawn because I [discourage] him from making any …e5 breaks,” explained Anand.

21…Bb8 22.a4 a5 23.Nc6 Bxc6 24.Rxc6 h5?!

“Somewhere [here] it began to slip away for Black.” said Anand. “I think that Black should be able to hold somehow; maybe he should have just played 24…e5.”

25.R1c4 Ne3?

“I think this was probably bad,” said Anand. “I wasn’t even sure that I was threatening to take the d4 pawn because of [the possible response] 26…b5! followed by 27…Ba7.”

26.Bxe3 dxe3 27.Bf3!

“Now I was sure I was out of danger,” said Anand, “and then I realised that was actually a lot better.” Topalov was hoping for 27.Rxb6?! Rxd3!? 28.exd3 e2 with complications.

27…g6 28.Rxb6 Ba7 29.Rb3! Rd4?! 30.Rc7 Bb8 31.Rc5 Bd6

Too late Topalov realises that 31…Rxa4 loses to 32.Bc6. “Now I win a pawn and I keep my [super] knight on d3.”

32.Rxa5

The rest is easy for Anand who has an extra pawn and a position offering no targets for Black.

32…Rc8 33.Kg2 Rc2 34.a3 Ra2 35.Nb4 Bxb4 36.axb4 Nd5 37.b5 Raxa4 38.Rxa4 Rxa4 39.Bxd5 exd5 40.b6 Ra8 41.b7 Rb8 42.Kf3 d4 43.Ke4 1-0