Carlsen again defeats Anand, takes two point lead
IANS | Chennai
November 16, 2013 Last Updated at 21:02 IST
Norwegian challenger for the world chess title, Magnus Carlsen, comfortably outplayed defending champion Vishwanathan Anand in 67 moves in their sixth game of the 2013 FIDE World Chess Championship here Saturday.
With this, Carlsen is two points up against Anand and in a strong position to wrest the title from the Indian.
“I got a solid position in the opening,” Carlsen told the media after the game. According to him, the pawn sacrifice by Anand in his 44th move was a surprise. “I don’t think a pawn could be given like that,” Carlsen said.
Queried about his mood Carlsen said it is good to win two games. “With six games to go, it is a healthy lead,” he said.
Anxious may be but not ambitious to play aggressively for a win, is the one liner that experts say about Anand’s sixth game play.
Playing white, Anand opened the game pushing his king pawn two squares. Carlsen repeated the same with his king pawn. The subsequent moves resulted in what is called Ruy Lopez opening.
Anand’s 10th move Bg5 pinning black’s Knight made Carlsen go in deep thought about the plans the reigning world champ had up his yellow shirt sleeves. Moreover Anand is a wounded lion wanting to equalise the scores after his loss Friday.
“The Indian seemed to have come prepared with that move. Perhaps Anand was expecting Carlsen to play h6 to threaten the bishop. But Carlsen seems to have played strategically with Be6 though it is not an optimal move,” India’s number two ranked Grandmaster P. Harikrishna told IANS.
According to him, Carlsen’s strategy till now is very clear. Steer Anand away from theory, pre-game preparations with some move and make his opponent tax his brain further on a new line(s).
In order to simplify things to some extent, Carlsen exchanged his white bishop to Anand’s white bishop.
The game progressed steadily on an even keel with experts starting to predict a draw at the end of the 18th move though the major and minor pieces were on the board.
It seemed Anand was holding on to his pieces without trading so that he could put the challenger in a spot.
“But he cannot do so for long as Carlsen would have started to play for a win,” Harikrishna said.
That is precisely what Anand did by going in for exchanging minor pieces. At the end of the 24th move, both the players had their two rooks, queens and seven pawns on the board.
Four moves later, both the players traded one of their rooks.
And Carlsen entered his comfort zone – the end game phase – where Anand has to fight till the last move to earn a draw if not a win.
On the 38th move, Anand moved his queen to g3 square so that despite going a pawn down, the game would be theoretically a draw in a rook ending.
Both the players traded their queens as well.
“It is a huge psychological play on the part of Carlsen. Even though the position is drawish, Carlsen will continue to play to make Anand to think four variations for each and every move. Tire your opponent out or drain your opponent’s energy seems to the Carlsen’s strategy,” Harikrishna said.
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Too tough.