Zee Media Bureau
Chennai: The World Chess Championship saw its first result as Norwegian Magnus Carlsen defeated Indian veteran chess player Viswanathan Anand in the fifth game of the tournament on Friday.
Carlsen who was playing with white pieces is now 3-2 up in the tournament.
It was first victory of the tournament as all the previous four games ended in draws. The match lasted for over five and a half hours. Anand was playing with black pieces while Carlsen held the advantage as he was playing with white.
It started with a Notebbom opening that went in to the Marshall gambit that never happened. Typical to his style of getting a position wherein he can just continue playing for a long time, Carlsen chose something that has not been seen in elite chess.
Anand equalised easily with some timely manoeuvres and it appeared that he had nothing to worry about while Carlsen still pressing for some advantage.
The hallmark of Carlsen's play has been to mesmerize opponents from seemingly innocuous positions and to make them commit mistakes. This was exactly what happened at the Hyatt.
Anand had a perfect balance on the board even after losing a pawn but what saved him in the previous game with his clock ticking away caused him the game today.
The world champion had said he was lucky to get some checks to the king before each time control in the fourth game, it was exactly a check that came to haunt him back on the 47th move.
While another move would have kept the balance Anand decided to buy a move and push the king away, but in the haste overlooked that the ensuing rooks and pawns endgame was simply lost for him.
Anand could not make corrections thereafter as Carlsen was simply at his best. The Norwegian is known to make things work for him and he was at his technical best to find the best moves, something that he missed in the fourth game.
Anand's defense was not as good as it is known to be and the Indian ace will now have to strike back fast. As the trend has been in the last few world championships clash, Anand has won the next game after a loss.
It happened in 2010 against Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria when Anand won the second game after losing the first. And then in 2012, he won the eighth game after losing the seventh against Israeli Boris Gelfand.
With PTI inputs
