OK I may be a bit daft, but what good does the minority attack do after b5, Ne6, Nc5?

Well, at this moment, Kibitzing is permitted, isn’t it? So I would like to think, off topic is permitted, till Topalov loses.

Well, my initial impressions were the same except that I would like to insert, “who is strong enough” after “any one”. Hope to make a meaningful post in the relevant thread on Sunday.

18…00. Now, my comfort level with white’s position is improving.

I think White's queenside play (minority attack, c-file penetration) comes a lot faster than a black kingside attack.  Doesn't it?

I agree about Black's knight being a better minor piece, but he has no reasonable defense against b4-b5.  Black could be in trouble here.

I'm not alone - like I say Susie P doesn't understand it either! But clearly Kramnik thinks his play on the queenside will be enough to force Black to defend over there instead of delivering mate in the east. We'll see if he's right.

It looks pretty critical already after 16...Nf6. Black has left it late to defend against the minority attack, I think. I am a child at defending against minority attacks, but I can't imagine any plan of defence involving ...Nf6. So it's going to be a question of how Black develops his counterplay on the kingside and whether he can get there in time. I'm not sure of the future for Black's king. If he's committing to counterplay then he needs the rook on h8, so I can't see him castling.

This reminds me of a game Belyavsky-Yusupov given in one of Dvoretsky's books. The pawns were the same bar the doubled g-pawns, and the knight turned out better than the bishop. Susan P is making the same point that the knight's better than the bishop - you put it on e4/g4 and it's hard to drive away since f3 is so hideous. But the doubled g-pawns would make a difference if it came to an ending one day.

OK, the e-pawn. I think contrary to the general blogging mood on the ones I look at (ie oh-God-a-couple-of-exchanges-usual-Kramnik-draw) we could see a very tense game here.

It's been surging for a while Keano, in a quiet sort of way.

Susie P says 13...dxc4 (really?) or 13...Nf6 were more normal, and that she wouldn't have played 14 00 either. Maybe none of us understands anything?

Mnb will be so happy. Finally a dutch structure

Well its certainly an interesting move - Topalov has taken a whole 11 minutes so far, which is a lot for him, so I think this is an over-the-board decision although he may have looked at similar ideas of course.