Safety-first at tactics from Anand-Kramnik

Their appetite whetted by Saturday's fluid draw and expecting fireworks from Vladimir Kramnik who went into the fifth round chasing Viswanathan Anand, a goodly crowd had turned up on Monday, at Art and Exhibition Centre of Federal Republic of Germany.

But they were disappointed as Anand maintained his psychological edge over the Russian, playing white, and tried to reopen recent wounds by opting for the same system that gave him victory with black in Game III. However, on the 25th turn, Anand moved his queen instead of taking a pawn with his knight. Experts felt that gave Kramnik a slight edge.

The players virtually blitzed through the first 15 moves and though Anand deviated slightly from the third game, he soon returned to the line they played on Friday. However, Kramnik spent lot of time checking out his intentions after the 15th move and chose a safe line.

Kramnik offered his queen pawn but Anand declined and went for the Slav Defence, the best option against Queen's Gambit Declined in which black gets a balanced pawn structure, can develop the bishop on the queen-side and also later take the pawn offered by white without actually weakening the position.

On Monday, Anand again cut out risks and it seemed he was ready with some home preparation in this system and had no hesitation in tackling any novelty that could be thrown by Kramnik.

Unwilling to take unnecessary risks, Kramnik though did nothing of the sort.

Though he was behind on the clock and had nearly half the time as Anand at his disposal, the position on the board was such that he didn't have a lot to worry about.