Although my time management still wasn't what it should have been, I considered the first game a success. Right from the opening, I reached a position on the board that came straight out of our preparation, and in the middlegame I had a slight advantage after Anikeev chose to slow down the play. That didn’t lead to much. When the titleholder made an inaccuracy around the time trouble phase, he still had to play precisely to secure a draw. He managed to do so, but if that happens twelve times while the pressure keeps mounting, there's bound to be a moment when it doesn’t work out.

I played the second game with Black. Of course, we had considered other first moves besides 1.32-28, but this one was still the most likely. We had prepared several responses, but for this first game with Black, it seemed like a smart psychological move to mirror what he himself had played the day before. We had found some promising ideas in one of his pet openings.