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Magnus Carlsen took the lead in the 12 game match with a thumping victory against Anand, who seemed like he was exhausted by the continuous pressure piled on him, blundering in the end. Anand’s match strategy to play a solid opening with black back-fired as Magnus never let him equalize and maintained the initiative throughout the game.
Viswanathan Anand, playing black, employed the Berlin defense against Magnus Carlsen’s Ruy Lopez. Coincidentally, today marked the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. Magnus Carlsen however side-stepped the Berlin variation by choosing the rarely played 6. Re1. Both came out of the opening with equal chances, however Magnus Carlsen’s 13. d4 was an interesting choice to take the initiative.
Magnus Carlsen makes his aggressive intentions clear
It was Carlsen’s turn to show that he meant business, and he made it obvious by making the aggressive move 14. Ra3. The plan was to target Anand’s King by swinging his rook to the king-side. Soon he was able to get his queen-rook-knight combination pointing at Anand’s King. The middle-game looked complex with lots of wild variations, but the position was defendable for someone of Anand’s calibre.
Anand’s first inaccuracy came at an early stage, when he played 18... Be6, with his plan being to keep the Bishop and play Qf7. However, he never got the chance, and ended up trading the bishop for white’s menacing knight on f5, thereby losing an important tempo. He agreed in the post match conference that it was the move that might have taken his position downhill.
Viswanathan Anand crumbles under pressure
Magnus had a comfortable position and instead of going for the flashy 20. Bh6 which would have led to a complex position with lots of tactics, he chose a more measured approach with h4. Anand seemed to realise that his position was going to be very tough to defend and chose to simplify by exchanging his bishop for knight on f5. All was not bad for Anand at this point, however it was clear that he would have to defend accurately to salvage a draw with a weak king and a weak pawn-structure.
Anand had once again entered the Norwegian’s territory, and it was going to be a long, slow torture. Once again it was all major pieces (Queen and two Rooks) on the board, which required good defending by black. With time running out, it was getting tougher for black to defend, and minor inaccuracies started creeping in and soon it was just a matter of time, before Carlsen wrapped it up.
Just when the game seemed to be spiralling out of control, Anand came up with the brave 28... b5 to find some counter. But it was a little too late as the pressure was too much, even for him. With just under 5 minutes left to make 6 moves to reach the first time control, he blundered badly with 34.... h5 handing Magnus a well deserved victory.
Anand and his team will have to re-group quickly and come-up with a strategy to stop a repeat of the previous world championship. Monday is a rest day which couldn’t have come at a better time for Anand to gain composure and come back strongly in game 3 on Tuesday. Will Anand unleash one of his deadly opening novelties to level the scores?
