Chennai: Defending champion Viswanathan Anand survived by the skin of his teeth, steering the fourth game of the World Chess Championship to a gruelling draw against Magnus Carlsen of Norway, here today.
With eight games still to come in the 12-game affair, the scores are tied at 2-2 and the battle is really heating up if the last two games are any indication.
Anand was pushed to the wall for the first time in the match and this happened soon after he was seen pressing for a win in the third game that ended in a draw yesterday. It showed that Carlsen has got steely nerves.
The Norwegian also changed his opening with black and it turned out to be a good ploy after his Caro Kann in the first black game.
The Berlin defense became famous after Vladimir Kramnik used it successfully to beat Russian compatriot Garry Kasparov in the Braingames World Championship match in 2000 at London and since then it has found a stronghold in the elite chess circles.
Anand himself has played the opening with black successfully and he definitely had an idea up his sleeves. However, Carlsen was the first to spring a surprise as early as on move 10 when he moved his Bishop.
While it was not a new move, it was indeed a surprise as it had been played just four times prior to this and three out of those four games were played by Jon Ludvig Hammer, trusted friend and second of Carlsen. More recently, Navara David of Czech Republic also played it successfully to get a draw with Lenier Perez Dominguez of Cuba.
Anand did not get much out of the opening and, while looking for complications, sacrificed a pawn on the queen side, that to the bare eye looked like a poisoned pawn.
Known to never avoid complications, Carlsen took the bait and it was backed by some brilliant intuition as the later part of the game revealed. While Anand got some compensation, Carlsen opened up the king side for his rook's invasion and it looked like his extra pawn would count.
Making things worse was the clock as Anand also ran a little short of time in the final phase of the first time control. The mutual mistakes however continued.
Carlsen sensed a win somewhere as he started to play fast and Anand pounced on an offered chance to sacrifice another pawn that gave some play. The Norwegian gobbled the second offering too but could not digest it so well as he returned favour almost immediately by making the decisive error.
It was the 37th move. Anand paused for some time, then his body language showed huge positives as he sprang to a straight pose and this was enough giveaway that the defending champion was back in the game.
The errors did not end according to the chess engines but the position was back to normalcy.
There was still a lot of work to be done, but from staring at a defeat, this was much easier, especially, as Anand is known as one of the best defenders ever.
The game progressed to a rooks and pawns endgames, Carlsen still had an extra pawn but it was not-so-relevant. The Norwegian obviously did not settle for an immediate draw and played on.
Anand had to do a lot of hard work after the first time control even though the position was just a draw. It was the amazing fighting spirit of Carlsen against Anand's control and efficiency to find the resources.
At one point Anand was down to last 90 seconds with three moves to make but the Indian ace made them to reach the final time control.
The position remained within the boundaries of a draw when the second time control was reached. It was close to six hours already in this longest game of the match thus far and Carlsen finally decided that he was not going to break through. The peace was formally signed after Anand's 64th move. For records, the game lasted five hours and fifty five minutes.
I was lucky twice, I came out of a lost position: Anand
I was lucky twice, I came out of a lost position: Anand
Chennai: Defending champion Viswanathan Anand today conceded that he came out of a lost position in the fourth game of the World Chess Championship match against Magnus Carlsen of Norway, which ended in a gruelling draw here.
"Something went wrong in the opening. I made one illogical move after the next and then I missed something with this knight move. And then I was just basically lost," Anand said at the post-game press conference.
"I am sure he had many wins in what he played. Towards the endgame it was a little bit scary in this four rooks endgame but finally when I gave a check on a8 and then moved my rook, I was safe," Anand said.
"I was lucky twice. Just before the time control I could give a check and made my next move and reached the time control. It happened twice."
Asked whether he missed losing the pawn, Anand said: "I didn't really miss it. If I didn't play Ne2 what do I do. I was just being consistent."
Carlsen was pretty happy with the way things went for him today.
"I was doing pretty good, and then when I won the pawn I was very optimistic. He kept on finding resources and I was missing some little things. He really fought very well. It's bit of a pity to have spoiled such a good position but it was a very good fight," he said.
Carlsen was all praise for Anand in his usual ways. "He kept finding very good resources that at least I could not deal with. I didn't see any clear win. Anyways you have to do something and right before the time control I thought I might be winning but it was not the case. It's not so easy, there were many tactical possibilities. I was just trying to navigate through them," he said.
On a lot of energy going in these long games the Norwegian showed his funny side.
"It's a rest day tomorrow and we are playing a world championship match. On move 56 Anand had one minute, there is a chance that he will fall in to checkmate," explained Carlsen on why he was continuing in a level position.
Anand said something similar about Carlsen. "Magnus too kept on finding resources when I thought it should be a draw. I was lucky that I could play last two moves quickly when down to one minute."
The match will resume after a rest day tomorrow and Carlsen will have white pieces in the fifth game.
