He took a pawn on b2, which wasn't the computer's first choice. However, in the game it worked out well: soon Black managed to trade all the queenside pawns, and then it was not difficult anymore.
Still, the general feeling was that Anand could have put his opponent to the test a bit more in this game. Carlsen holds - I can't help thinking that if he'd been White in this middlegame Anand would be defending for a lot longer CarlsenAnand.
But then it hit me that it will be very hard to do anything with the knight on b4. After Rb7 it's basically just a draw. The ending looked pleasant to me but maybe Black has just enough resources. Carlsen agreed that this time he was well prepared. But he was also well prepared and knew the most critical way.
Maybe I could have played more accurately, I don't know. I think in general White is a bit better but it should be holdable. It turned out to be pretty complicated. At least none of us could find anything real after the queen swap. Maybe Black is holding. In a tournament that would be pretty bad but in a match it's OK. I'm only competing against one player. The situation is not too bad. So what is left is a seven-game match with four white games for Carlsen two in a row now!
That must be a nice starting point for the Norwegian, right? Re1 Rfc8 Carlsen is on his back foot but all of his weak points are defended. He will probably go for a trade of light squared Bishops and reroute his N to f3.
He also controls the only open file on the board, which is important. While White certainly doesn't have any plans for an advantage, it's a tough position for Anand to crack. Rd8 White can set up a very solid fortress after Bf3, Kg2, h4 on the Kingside. From there, even doubling rooks on the a-file may be enough pressure on Black's position to stop him from making progress.
At this point it's very hard for either player to make a mistake, and I don't think Carlsen is worried anymore. He looked worried during the middlegame stage! Black should contest the a-file with Ra8 and try to get his Queen involved with Qb4 at the right moment. Nd2 Be5 Qg4 h5 Qh3 Be6 Qh1 This kind of play is reminiscent of his victory against Karjakin at the Tata Steel The Queen on h1 is nothing new for Carlsen, even the pawn structure is identical to that game.
Ne4 A calm move like Kg7 avoids Ng5 arriving with check and prepares play on the Queenside, where it is safe to say Magnus' Queen will be slightly out of position. The main difference between this game and his encounter with Karjakin is that Anand has the 2 bishops and the a-file is also open, two things that work against Carlsen here. Kg7 Ng5 b5 An interesting choice. I expected Bc8 or Bd7 to keep the Bishop pair a little longer. But even the opposite coloured Bishop endgames can be quite dangerous for White, especially with the Bg2 attacking nothing important on the long diagonal and White's Queen very far out of play.
The c4 break can create a passed pawn very quickly Rxe3 Bd4 The Bishop is actually placed very well here, pressuring f2 and b2. It looks like Anand doesn't want to cash in his advantage for a pawn too quickly, preferring to keep the tension.
I like this decision, as things were far from clear after Bxb2 Rae1 with Bd5 coming and immense pressure on e6. Re2 c4 Carlsen is down to 10 minutes in an inferior position. The pressure is rising and it will be difficult to defend in time pressure.
Be4 c3 creates a passed pawn at last, but there would follow some pressure against the now exposed Black King. Safest is cxd3 and probably bring the Rook to the f-file and pressure f2 which was the intention back when Bd4 was played.
I like Be4 because it finally gives some life to the Qh1. Next should be Qf3 and Kg2 if there is time. Also, the control of the a8 square is preventing Anand from contesting the open file for the moment and Ra6 adds additional pressure to the weak e-pawn at any time.
Rd2 Magnus is also getting very short of time at this stage, and admittedly that is one of his weak points. He lost games in the Candidates because he was short of time and it's not a situation he often finds himself in. Anand can use the pressure of his position coupled with the time situation to look for more.
Qb4 Rad1 Bxb2 Although down 2 pawns, the d-pawn will fall and White will have to defend an uncomfortable position with an outside passed pawn. There are better winning chances for Black because all of the major pieces are still on the board, but as soon as White activates his Queen it will be hard to make progress.
Qf3 Bf6 If the pawn on e6 were on f7 here, there would be better winning chances, or even if the h-pawn had not advanced to h5 yet. For me , it is clash of two chess greats. Both equally matched in skill , class and knowledge! So , on the eve of the World Chess Championship in , let us look at some games between these two legends! Games - We will show two games of Vishy and Carlsen Winning and a draw game between them. And then Carlsen came with another small surprise: he did not go for the absolute main line with Nh5, which trades White's bishop for the knight, but went The whole system is known as quite safe for Black, but with his next few moves Anand refuted the idea that the QGD is the Berlin Wall of 1.
In no time he got is c-pawn one square from promoting! Everyone is saying this is a solid line for Black. As it turned out, the players were following the game Aronian-Adams, Bilbao Well, at least one player was.
Why did Magnus need 32 minutes on Ndf6, also played by Adams? That was the moment when the online kibitzers started to realise that Carlsen might not be too well prepared. Could very well be that Magnus remembers the game Aronian-Adams, and nothing more than that.
Not a good game to follow On his turn, Anand spent six minutes on the clock. He took on e4, and after only 45 seconds Carlsen took back on e4 with the knight. And that was wrong, very wrong. Without being aware of it, Carlsen still followed Adams' moves against Aronian, but when Anand improved on Aronian's game with Looks like Magnus forgot or mixed up his prep,because this was all widely known a year ago. Anand may make an early comeback CarlsenAnand. And so Anand got exactly what he needed: a promising position based on better preparation, combined with a minute advantage on the clock.
There was a small sigh of relief in the press room where the Norwegian journalists, Espen Agdestein and Henrik Carlsen were following the game together when Anand castled on move On Twitter Qa6 had been suggested, and it was the computer's suggestion. Was Anand giving his opponent a chance? Was he being too cautious? He will be extremely cautious in throwing punches here,trying to be precise and not missing the moment to strike. It was around that moment that the Twitter-sphere suddenly discovered something quite important.
Anand's sequence of moves, until Rc6, had all been played before! Well, sort of. The position after
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