Anand: This is a heavy blow

Anand falls to Carlsen’s ‘little trap’
Chennai, November 16, 2013
Updated: November 16, 2013 23:13 IST
World Chess Championship 2013

The second successive defeat, this time with the white pieces, shatters the Indian

Late into the fifth hour of play, the camera zoomed in on Viswanathan Anand. With a second successive defeat staring in the face, the champion’s eyes looked moist. Clearly, Magnus Carlsen had again succeeded in torturing Anand and hitting between the ears.

Before long, a hapless Anand extended his hand, acknowledging the youngster’s superiority. A defeat hurts. But, for any chess player worth his salt, a loss when playing with the white pieces hurts much more. No wonder, the pain on Anand’s face reflected the champion’s almost unbearable agony.

“This is a heavy blow,” was how a devastated Anand described it. He could not have put it more appropriately.

As things stand at the halfway stage of this 12-game World Championship match, Carlsen leads 4-2. So far, the energy of Carlsen has proved far more effective than Anand’s experience. Now it is for the Indian to stop the challenger from gaining another 2.5 points off the next six games. Carlsen only needs to stay undefeated in five more encounters to take the title away.

Solid position

“Today, I got a pretty solid position early on. But, I thought I should try to capitalise on Friday’s win. I wanted to press him a little bit today, there was really not much to risk. Fortunately, I got a little bit lucky and won in the end. I have won two games and with six games to go, it’s obviously a healthy lead,” said Carlsen, after scoring his fifth career-victory over Anand in 11 decisive battles.

In contrast, Anand’s reaction was understandably brief.

“After the opening (phase), I wanted my major pieces to get fairly solid positions. But, one mistake after another… and it goes…”

Indeed, Anand’s position fell apart gradually. Apparently, Anand missed a certain draw following his wrong choice on the 57th move. As he explained later, the ploy to put Carlsen’s king under rook-check was “a mistake”. He realised that, had he threatened Carlsen’s lone queen-side pawn instead, the continuation would have led to a draw.

Carlsen agreed that the position headed for a draw until his “little trap” (of bringing the king out and enticing Anand to give a rook-check) changed the course of the game.

Asked whether Friday’s defeat had anything to do with the result on Saturday, Anand said, “Yes, probably.”

Full article here.