Down With Materialism

Viswanathan Anand, as befits his position as the incumbent world champion, won the intercontinental tournament recently held in Mexico and Spain. But in racking up his top score, Anand did manage to lose one game. Anytime a world champions loses a game, it is a sensation in the chess world. What happened, and why? It seems that his encounter with Levon Aronian revolved around the eternal question in chess: what is more important, possession of a material advantage or possession of the initiative? In this instance, it turned out be the initiative.