Anand Strikes First

Anand's win in game nine of the 1995 PCA World Championship match is remembered as the moment he first rattled Kasparov's composure over the board, and the decisive idea is a single move: 27.Rd5!?, offering the exchange so that after 27...Nxd5 28.exd5 White would have a protected, connected passed pawn deep in Black's position. It was a piece of home preparation that Kasparov, by his own account, had not anticipated from a player he still regarded as the less experienced of the two.

The sacrifice paid off slowly rather than immediately. Anand's d-pawn tied down Black's pieces for the rest of the game, and when Kasparov tried to generate counterplay with 29...e4 Anand simply kept advancing, pushing 33.d6 and mopping up material with 34.Qxb7. Kasparov resigned rather than continue a position with no active pieces and an opponent's pawn one square from promotion.

The win put Anand a game up in the match, and it is usually cited, along with his other results in this event, as proof that by the mid 1990s Anand had become a genuine threat to Kasparov's dominance, even though Kasparov went on to win the match comfortably in the end.