The Seventh Game of the World Championship Match Ended in a Draw. Magnus Carlsen Leads the Match 4 – 3
The seventh game of the World Chess Championship match between Magnus Carlsen (Norway) and Viswanathan Anand (India) was played on November 17th in the Main Media Center in Sochi. This game started a second half of the match, and, according to the regulations, the players played with the same color as in the sixth game. Thus, the World Champion had White.
For the fourth time in this match Magnus opened the game with е2-е4. Vishy Anand rejected the Sicilian defence, in which he had suffered a loss two days before, and replied by 1…е5. The Ruy Lopez had already occurred in the Sochi match, but this time Carlsen did not avoid the principled theoretical discussion in the Berlin Variation. For the first 25 moves the players followed Giri-Radjabov game, played just two weeks before at the FIDE Grand Prix in Tashkent. That game ended in a draw, however, the computer shows that White’s play could be improved. We did not have a chance to see what Carlsen prepared, because the ex-World champion was first to deviate.
However, the game tempo did not slow down even after Anand’s novelty – clearly such course of events did not surprise Carlsen. White sacrificed a pawn, obtaining very active pieces in return – his rook was on the 7th rank, and the knight settled on f5. Anand thought for 35 minutes on his 31st move and made a very committal decision to sacrifice his bishop for two pawns, intending to set up a fortress. Later at the press conference the former World Champion said he found this plan at the board, although he had seen similar positions successfully defended before.
Carlsen’s task was to trade the rooks and keep his two pawns from exchanges. However, it was hard to achieve, as the black rook was not allowing the white knight settling in the centre, while supporting с2-с4 would expose the white king. Eventually Carlsen was forced to put a pawn on c4, because he could not make progress otherwise, but Black advanced his pawn to b5 and activated the king, threatening to exchange all the pawns. Soon Anand managed to simplify the position, achieving a book draw with a rook against a rook and knight.
The World Champion kept playing, trying to utilize minimal practical chances for a win. However, Anand demonstrated the required accuracy, and the game ended in a draw on the 122nd move, just three moves short from breaking the record for the longest World Championship game. The fifth game of the match between Anatoly Karpov and Victor Korchnoi in Baguio, 1978, ended in a draw in the 124th move.
Magnus said at the press conference that after the bishop sacrifice he was convinced that there would be a way to win the endgame. However, soon he realized that he could not make progress without pushing c4, which gave Black counterplay.
Vishy Anand was asked if it was frustrating to defend for so long. “It is not frustrating if I get a draw in the end”, replied the ex-World Champion.
The score in Carlsen-Anand match is now 4-3 in Carlsen’s favor. The eighth game is played on Tuesday, November 18th, at 15:00. Anand has White. Admission is free of charge. The official website of the championship http://www.sochi2014.fide.com broadcasts live grandmaster commentary in Russian and English.
The World Chess Championship match consists of 12 games with a classical time control: 120 minutes for 40 moves, then 60 minutes for 20 moves, and then 15 minutes plus 30 second per move until the end of the game. If the match is tied, a tiebreak will be played on November 27th.
The 2014 Chess Championship match between incumbent champion Magnus Carlsen and challenger Vishy Anand will take place between November 7 and 28 in Sochi, Russia. The World Chess Championship is the most followed event in the world of chess. There are about 600 million chess players all over the world, with such well-known enthusiasts as Sergey Brin, George Soros, Bill Gates and Mikhail Gorbachev.
Tickets for the match can be booked at sochi2014.fide.com.
For more information:
Masha Kunica
Media, World Chess Championship
media@agonlimited.com
The post-game conference would be a lot livelier if they change the lady interviewer. She’s good-looking and obviously knows her chess but her voice and manner of questioning put me to sleep. Carlsen and Anand both look annoyed and uninterested to discuss with her. The lady who did the Millionaire Chess event is much more entertaining.
Agreed. The way to market chess is not thru boring interviews like these. She’s simply not cut out to be an interviewer.
The post war rats who brought bad reputation to chess – Karpov, Korchnoi, Kasparov, Topalov. We will excuse Fischer – for all his tantrums he belived in fair play. He was lucky to get another Gentleman – spassky as his opponent.