Magnus Carlsen of Norway is the World Chess Champion!
Magnus Carlsen of Norway became the new World Chess Champion after defeating the previous champion Viswanathan Anand of India by 6,5-3,5 in the match that was held from 7th November in Chennai, India.
The last 10th game (out of 12 possible) finished in a draw after 65 moves of play and Carlsen accumulated the necessary 6,5 points to claim the title.
The match was sponsored by the Tamil Nadu state and organized by FIDE and AICF.
The 10th game started with the Sicilian defence. Anand attempted a sharper line with black, possibly Naidorf, but Carlsen stirred the play into quiet waters with an early trade of the light-squared bishops.
In the relatively stable pawn structure the players maneuvered the pieces until a careless queen move (28…Qg5) by Anand permitted a cute combination that would net a pawn for white.
Carlsen continued correctly (29.e5), but then released the tension too quickly when 30.Nc3 would have piled the pressure. Anand was allowed to win the pawn back.
After the massive exchanges on d6 a knight endgame appeared on the board.
Expecting a draw offer, the press room was getting ready to meet the players. However, the fight continued beyond the first time control.
New queens appeared on the board, one for each player, but the equilibrium was not ruined. Draw signed on move 65.
Replay: Live game G10
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Game 9
The ninth game of the FIDE World Championship Match, sponsored by Tamil Nadu state and currently ongoing in Chennai, finished in Magnus Carlsen’s favour after 28 moves of play.
The defending champion Viswanathan Anand made the first move 1.d4, which was greeted with enthusiastic applause in the playing hall. The challenger and world’s top rated player responded with his trusted Nimzo-Indian defence.
Anand repeated the line that he already used in the match with Vladimir Kramnik in Bonn 2008. Black was obviously well prepared, as he made a rare recapture on move 7 (exd5 instead of more common Nxd5) and then immediately closed the queenside with 8…c4.
The experts from the Norwegian lounge claimed that this line was analysed among the members of the national team.
Indian GM Abhijeet Gupta said that the pawn structure demanded that players expand on opposite flanks.
Anand got an impressive pawn mass rolling towards the black king, while Carlsen created a passed pawn on b3, deep within opponent’s territory.
Anand spent around 30 minutes to calculate complicated lines before going all in with 23.Qf4.
White went directly for the checkmate and black promoted a new queen on b1. However, playing too quickly Anand erred with 28.Nf1, which effectively concluded the game after Carlsen’s reply 28…Qe1.
Carlsen is now leading 6-3 and needs only one draw in the remaining three games to claim the title of FIDE World Champion.
Replay: Live game G9 / All games with analysis
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Game 8
Carlsen - Anand 1/2-1/2
Carlsen leads 5-3
The eighth game of the FIDE World Championship Match, sponsored by Tamil Nadu state and currently ongoing in Chennai, finished in draw after 33 moves of play.
The challenger and world’s top rated player Magnus Carlsen changed his opening strategy and went for 1.e4 this time. The defending champion Viswanathan Anand echoed Carlsen’s repertoire and defended with Berlin Ruy Lopez, to the surprise of everyone in the press room here in Chennai.
Carlsen does not like to enter the Berlin endgame often with white pieces, and instead played the less frequent 5.Re1. The resulting pawn structure is symmetrical but with more pieces on the board.
Only two months ago Carlsen had a similar position with black against Hikaru Nakamura in Saint Louis. In 2010 Carlsen and Anand already tested the system, with same colours, in Kristiansund and Nanjing. All these games were drawn.
After the massive exchanges on the open e-file, the game ended in a draw on 33rd move. Carlsen spent only 20 minutes for the whole game. The current score is 5-3 in favour of the challenger.
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Game 7 The seventh game of the FIDE World Championship Match, sponsored by Tamil Nadu state and currently ongoing in Chennai, finished in a draw by repetition after 32 moves of play.
The defending champion Viswanathan Anand once again allowed the Berlin Ruy Lopez, despite achieving little against this system in earlier games in the match.
This time Anand quickly gave up the bishops pair to double the black pawns on c-file. Earlier this year he employed the same idea against Karjakin in the Norway Chess Tournament.
But Carlsen deviated on move 6 by getting his light-squared bishop out to pin the white knight.
Anand again allowed massive exchanges that soon brought about an endgame with queens and knights. Neither of the players was ambitious to press on and the game finished with moves repetition.
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Game 6
The sixth game of the FIDE World Championship Match, sponsored by Tamil Nadu state and currently ongoing in Chennai, finished in Magnus Carlsen’s favour after 67 moves of play.
The defending champion Viswanathan Anand opened with 1.e4 and the challenger Magnus Carlsen responded with the Berlin Ruy Lopez, which almost brought him success in the 4th game of the match.
Anand deviated from the early queens exchange and went for the more complicated 4.d3. He already used this line earlier this year to defeat Russian prodigy Sergey Karjakin.
On move 10 Anand played a novelty 10.Bg5, improving over his earlier encounter with Levon Aronian. The idea was to pin the black knight on f6 taking advantage of the fact that Carlsen’s dark-squared bishop is outside the pawn chain.
Carlsen responded with trading the light-squared bishops and then regrouping the knight from c6 to d7, like in Breyer Ruy Lopez, to reinforce the Nf6 and break the pin.
White maneuvered his knights to get hold of the central light squares d5 and d5, while black cleared the a-file and stood by for the possible d6-d5 break.
In a somewhat surprising turn of events, Anand traded all minor peaces and entered the endgame with three pairs of heavy pieces. The position looked equal, but Carlsen found a way to compromise white’s structure with c5-c4 advance.
White was left with doubled isolated pawns on the e-file, raising the comments that Carlsen will have another long endgame where he can gradually press for victory.
Instead of slowly suffering in the slightly inferior position, Anand decided to drop one of the pawns, trade the queens, and transpose into a rook endgame where he would have active play as compensation for the pawn.
There was also unanimous verdict that the endgame should be drawn, but Carlsen kept posing problems to his opponent. He gave up the queenside pawns in order to force the way for the passer on the f-file.
In the critical moment Anand erred with the slow 60.Ra4 when immediate advance 60.b4 was needed. Carlsen jumped on the opportunity and sealed the victory to take the 4-2 lead.
Sunday is the rest day, the match continues on Monday.
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Game 5
The fifth game of the FIDE World Championship Match, sponsored by Tamil Nadu state and currently ongoing in Chennai, finished in Magnus Carlsen’s favour after 58 moves of play.
The challenger started the game with 1.c4 and after sidelining several popular openings, from Semi-Slav to Noteboom to Marshall Attack, the relatively rare 6.Nc3 brought about an interesting position that resembled Nimzo-Indian pawn structure.
The difference was that a pair of central pawns were exchanged and white dark-squared bishop had better scope.
Black ‘won’ the bishops pair and isolated one of the opponent’s pawns, but white completed the development and was ready for action.
One careless move by black – 13…Bc7 – allowed Carlsen to perform convenient exchanges and transform the structure to his advantage.
Both players had pawn weaknesses but white pieces enjoyed greater activity.
White was slightly better and, as the official commentator Susan Polgar said then, “In this position Magnus can push all night long. He has no risk and Anand has to be accurate.”
Anand’s bishop was passive but it successfully protected the entry points on the 7th rank. Black also activated the rook along the 5th rank, according to the old Capablanca’s recipe.
White couldn’t break in and black pieces gradually gained activity. However, Anand still had to find the best moves just to stay in the game. He did so for some time until a careless check 45…Rc1+ cost him the a-pawn.
In the resulting rook endgame with ‘a’ and ‘h’ pawns white pieces were ideally placed to force the quick advance of the passer. Anand resigned after Carlsen got the second passer going.
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Game 4
The fourth game of the FIDE World Championship Match, sponsored by Tamil Nadu state and currently ongoing in Chennai, finished in a draw after 64 moves of play.
Anand started the game with 1.e4 and Carlsen responded with the Ruy Lopez Berlin defence. The opening earned its rock-solid reputation during the famous Kasparov – Kramnik match in London, 2000.
Anand entered the main line where the queens are exchanged and black forfeits the castle, in addition to having doubled c-pawns.
Earlier this year Anand scored a very nice victory against Karjakin in the 4.d3 sideline.
Carlsen was very well prepared to quickly roll out the moves in the rarely played 10…Be7 line.
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Both players continued to regroup the pieces. But while white was shuffling the knights, black grabbed the a2-pawn with his bishop.
That bishop was left offside, but there was no way to catch it. Nevertheless, white obtained some compensation by advancing the kingside majority.
Carlsen’s pieces were pushed back and lacked coordination, but one could argue that white was overextended a bit.
Black probed opponent’s structure with h5 and a5, while white built up the pressure on the c-file.
The position became extremely complicated. Anand found a fantastic resource in 35.Ne4! which helped him to finally open up the black king and equalise the play.
The defending champion was still a pawn down, but the material got reduced and white finally held a draw in the Rook endgame.
Game 3
The third game of the FIDE World Chess Championship Match, sponsored by Tamil Nadu state and currently ongoing in Chennai, finished in a draw shortly after the first time control.
Carlsen was ready to enter the opening discussion by repeating the setup from the first game. Only this time he made an early c2-c4 advance, before committing with the d-pawn.
Anand responded by taking on c4 and the play was definitely heading to a different structure, compared to the earlier game.
Black seized the space in the center with e7-e5 and the position was finally formed as Sicilian Dragon Reversed.
White had some issues with the pieces’ coordination, but he solved the problem by conceding bishops pair and opening the a-file.
Carlsen maneuvered his queen around until the piece landed on the ‘unusual’ h1-square. But the Norwegian already had his queen on h1 in one game earlier this year.
However, Anand immediately started advancing queenside majority, to which Carlsen answered by opening the play in the center.
Anand could have snatched a pawn on b2, but he preferred to keep the initiative going with 29…Bd4. As the commentators on the official website pointed out, the opposite-coloured bishops and presence of the heavy pieces favour the attacking side.
In the mutual time trouble black lost the track and white was able to conveniently bring the queen back into game. Further, black lost the extra pawn and the game soon ended in a draw.
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Game 2 The second game of the FIDE World Championship Match saw another repetition of moves and the draw was agreed on move 25.
The defending champion Anand started with 1.e4 and the challenger Carlsen responded with Caro-Kann defence, which was a slight surprise.
Carlsen rarely used Caro-Kann before, the last time being back in 2011.
Anand had recent experience in this line as he won a nice game against GM Ding Liren, but this time he deviated on move 14 by choosing the seemingly sharper 14.0-0-0.
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The pair of knights were exchanged in the center and then Carlsen advanced his Queen to d5 offering another trade.
To the surprise of the commentators and audience alike, Carlsen decided to accepted the trade instead of continuing to press with 18.Qg4.
The resulting endgame was equal.
Anand placed his Rooks on the kingside, probing the opponent’s pawn shield and forcing the repetition of moves.
Official website
Game 1 The first game of the FIDE World Championship Match started today at 3pm local time.
The challenger and world’s top rated player Carlsen started with the quiet 1.Nf3 and defending champion Anand responded with the solid setup that resembled the Gruenfeld Indian defence.
Carlsen wanted a game with slow development and long maneuvering but the opening soon transposed to the proper Gruenfeld Indian.
Anand initiated a clash in the center by trading the pawn on c4 and jumping Nb6 after which the play became more forcing.
Black installed his knight on c4 and white had to answer the opponent’s activity. Carlsen moved the Queen to b3 and Anand decided to repeat the moves to force a, as he said, “satisfactory draw with black pieces”.
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At 3pm local time (10:30 CET, 4:30 EST) the two players will start their first game of the match, Carlsen having the white pieces.
All games of the FIDE World Chess Championship will be live on the official site http://chennai2013.fide.com with computer analysis and video commentary. In a high-tech innovation, the match can also be followed on Android and iPad apps.
The FIDE World Chess Championship, fully sponsored by the state of Tamil Nadu, will be played over 12 games and is taking place from 7th to 28th November at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chennai, India.
