World Chess Championship: Viswanathan Anand running out of moves

Sochi (Russia): A well-prepared Viswanathan Anand managed the easiest of draws with black pieces in his ninth round match against Magnus Carlsen on Thursday, but the Norwegian inched closer towards retaining his World Chess Championship crown as he leads the Indian by a full point.The scoreboard reads 5-4 in favour of the defending champion, who could just seal it with another win in the next three rounds.

Anand, expectedly, did not go for any risky ventures with black pieces. While many had expected Carlsen to press for a victory on the day, he was simply taken aback by the Indian’s preparation in the Berlin defence. The shortest game of the match so far was over in just close to an hour, lasting a mere 20 moves and the last five of those moves were just repetition.

The players again blitzed the opening moves and Anand was on top during the initial phase of the game, especially after he uncorked his 12th move that forced Carlsen to ponder his next move.

The position was not a new one with a few games already being played but Carlsen was not happy when it was played on the board.

As it turned out, Carlsen played his next move after a 13 minute gap and following Anand’s move — which was a new idea — again sank in his chair for 26 minutes.The ‘new idea’ was in fact a brilliant find by Anand and his team that probably changed the evaluation of the position at that time.A game-changer it might have been, but Anand did not divulge further on it.

“It is something I would rather not discuss,” he said in the post-game conference.Carlsen, on his part, quickly conceded that playing for a win from this point was futile. He just made a routine pawn move, and gave repeated checks to the black king to sign the peace treaty.

With three games left, Anand will now play with white pieces in the 10th game on Friday. It will be followed by a rest day, before the penultimate game of this World Championship.