IN last week’s column we looked at the start of the 12-game match for the World Championship, in which Vladimir Kramnik had taken an early 3-1 lead over Veselin Topalov. Clearly an exciting contest was in prospect, but nobody, with the possible exception of Topalov’s controversial manager Silvio Danailov, could have guessed how matters would unfold.

Before the fifth game could be played, a letter of protest was delivered, concerning the amount of time Kramnik was spending in his private room.

It should be noted that each player was entitled to the unrestricted use of such a room under the agreed rules of the match, subject to video surveillance by the Appeals Committee for the prevention of any possible cheating, presumably involving the use of computers.

It was widely assumed that a professional and unbiased appeals committee would have thrown out this complaint with the ridicule it deserved, but unfortunately this one was composed entirely of functionaries of FIDE, the sport’s scandal-dogged governing body.

It must be remembered that Topalov is taking part as reigning FIDE World Champion, and is clearly “their dog in the fight”.

The outrageous result was that the surveillance tapes of Kramnik’s room were turned over to his opponent’s team, and his rights to the use of his private toilet were summarily curtailed.

Kramnik reacted by refusing to come out to play the fifth game, and was forfeited, again controversially, by the match referee. He now led officially by the score of 3-2, although the vast majority of world-wide chess opinion did not accept this as correct.

There followed a hiatus lasting several days, during which negotiations involved FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and, conceivably, the Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

The upshot was that Kramnik, in a surprisingly magnanimous move, agreed to play on from the official score, albeit under protest. He also announced that, whatever the outcome, he would be suing FIDE.

Opinion was split on whether this concession would undermine him psychologically. His supporters (by now almost the entire non-Bulgarian world, in a remarkable turnaround since the start of the match) were first heartened by two solid draws, but then distressed by successive losses in games eight and nine. He now trailed officially by 5-4, but was it all over? The tenth game was critical, and this is what happened.

White: V. Kramnik

Black: V. Topalov

1. d4, Nf6 2. c4, e6 3. Nf3, d5 4. g3, Bb4+ 5. Bd2, Be7 6. Bg2, O-O 7. O-O, c6 8. Bf4, Nbd7 9. Qc2, a5 10. Rd1, Nh5 11. Bc1, b5 12. cxd5, cxd5 13. e4, dxe4 14. Qxe4, Rb8 15. Qe2, Nhf6 16. Bf4, Rb6 17. Ne5, Nd5 18. Bxd5, exd5 19. Nc3, Nf6 20. Nxb5, Ba6 21. a4, Ne4 22. Rdc1, Qe8 23. Rc7, Bd8 24. Ra7, f6?

Identified by both players after the game as the critical inaccuracy.

25. Nd7, Rf7 26. Nxb6, Rxa7 27. Nxd5, Rd7 28. Ndc3, Rxd4 29. Re1, f5 30. Qc2, Rb4 31. Nd5, Rxb5 32. axb5, Qxb5 33. Nc7, Qc4 34. Qd1, Bxc7 35. Qd7, h6 36. Qxc7, Qb4 37. Qb8+, Qxb8 38. Bxb8, Nd2 39. Ra1, g5 40. f4, Nb3 41. Ra3, Bc4 42. Bc7, g4 43. Bxa5 <$>

Black resigned, and with one game to go the match was again officially tied. You will read about the finish here next week.