World Chess Championship 2014 (10)
Carlsen holds a draw with black in game 10 to move closer to retaining his world title
Mark Crowther - Friday 21st November 2014
Carlsen and Anand discuss the draw afterwards. Photo © | http://sochi2014.fide.com
The tenth game of the World Chess Championship in Sochi, Russia was drawn in 32 moves in an equal position. Viswanathan Anand again played 1.d4 and Magnus Carlsen returned the Gruenfeld Defence he tried in game one.
Anand played the Russian Variation and tried a line one of his known seconds Radoslaw Wojtaszek tried against Ruslan Ponomariov in 2012. Carlsen seemed to be ready for this. Both players were rather cagey about talking of the early stages of the game as there is clearly room for future investigation of the line.
Carlsen played 14...Ne4 quite quickly but after 15.Nxe4 he took quite some time to reply. 15...Rxe4 certainly looks tempting but instead Carlsen eventually replied with 15...Bxe4 after which Anand started to think. 16...Qf6 was the point Anand felt comfortable discussing the game and Carlsen admitted that at first he thought he was out of difficulties until he started to properly consider the position after 19.Ng5.
Anand praised 19...Bd4 as precise, 24.Rd2 was criticised by both players (although Anand didn't really offer alternatives) and Carlsen said he felt comfortable after 24...Re8 taking the e-file, 26...Be5 was where Anand stopped discussing the game, after this move the game headed quickly to a draw.
The feeling during the game was that Anand did have the better chances and perhaps more testing continuations will be found in analysis.
So Carlsen survives one of the two games with black he needs to draw to retain his title. It's generally held that if an elite player wants to draw with white he can do so, we'll have to wait and see whether Carlsen wants to press for more during Sunday's game 11 where he has his final game with the white pieces.
Rest day Saturday.
"You just have to keep trying." Anand
Score Carlsen 5.5 - Anand 4.5.
Sunday 23rd November 2014. Game 11 Carlsen vs Anand. If Carlsen were to win this game he would win the whole match.
Anand during game 10. Photo © http://www.sochi2014.fide.com/.
Carlsen: "I was a little bit too optimistic at first I have to say. I thought that after Bg7 and Qc1 it would be immediately fine for black. I somewhat underestimated Ng5, I believed I would always have good resources there but after Ng5 I didn't find it easy at all. "
"With the two bishops he does have some pressure but whether it's enough to gain something substantial I don't know. I was relieved when he gave me the e-file because then I think my problems are solved."
Carlsen to Norwegian press. More seem to arrive each day. Photo © Tarjei J. Svensen https://twitter.com/TarjeiJS.
WCh Sochi | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Anand, Viswanathan | - | Carlsen, Magnus | ½-½ | 48 | D85 | Gruenfeld Defence |
Carlsen, Magnus | - | Anand, Viswanathan | 1-0 | 35 | C65 | Ruy Lopez Berlin |
Anand, Viswanathan | - | Carlsen, Magnus | 1-0 | 34 | D37 | QGD 5.Bf4 |
Carlsen, Magnus | - | Anand, Viswanathan | ½-½ | 47 | B40 | Sicilian Classical |
Anand, Viswanathan | - | Carlsen, Magnus | ½-½ | 39 | E15 | Queens Indian |
Carlsen, Magnus | - | Anand, Viswanathan | 1-0 | 38 | B41 | Sicilian Paulsen |
Carlsen, Magnus | - | Anand, Viswanathan | ½-½ | 122 | C67 | Ruy Lopez Berlin |
Anand, Viswanathan | - | Carlsen, Magnus | ½-½ | 41 | D37 | QGD 5.Bf4 |
Carlsen, Magnus | - | Anand, Viswanathan | ½-½ | 20 | C67 | Ruy Lopez Berlin |
Anand, Viswanathan | - | Carlsen, Magnus | ½-½ | 32 | D97 | Gruenfeld Russian |
WCh Sochi (RUS), 8-28 xi 2014 | |||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | Ti | NAT | Rtng | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Total | Perf | ||
Carlsen, Magnus | g | NOR | 2863 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | . | . | 5½ | 2828 | ||
Anand, Viswanathan | g | IND | 2792 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | . | . | 4½ | 2827 |
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TWIC is 29. First issue 17th September 1994.