World Chess Championship 2008
Anand defends the unified title against Kramnik in Bonn — the first championship match held entirely under the post-2006 unified cycle.
- Year
- 2008
- Format
- Best of 12 classical games
- Venue
- Bundeskunsthalle
- Prize fund
- €1,500,000
- Cycle
- unified
Following the 2006 Kramnik–Topalov unification match in Elista, the world championship reverted to a single annual line under FIDE administration. Anand had won the 2007 Mexico City tournament-format championship, the first under the unified cycle. The 2008 match against Kramnik in Bonn was the first head-to-head championship match held entirely under the new unified system.
The Match
Played to 12 games at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn from 14 to 29 October 2008. Anand opened with the Slav and the Meran and won three of the first six games — including back-to-back wins in Games 3 and 5 with the Black pieces. Kramnik won Game 10 with the Slav but the match was effectively decided. Final score 6.5–4.5 in 11 games.
The Anand Reign
Anand became the fifteenth world champion at 38 — the first Indian player to hold the unified title. He defended the title successfully in 2010 (Topalov), 2012 (Gelfand), and lost it in 2013 to Magnus Carlsen. His total of 7 years as world champion across two cycles (FIDE 2000–2002, unified 2007–2013) is among the longest of the modern era.