Anand, Carlsen draw fourth game after battle of nerves

Chennai, Nov 13 (IANS) A six-hour gruelling battle of nerves for the 64 square territory on the chess board between two lions here Wednesday ended in a draw after 64 moves, with the younger one from Norway getting somewhat tangled.

In the end, defending champion Viswanathan Anand, wearing a yellow shirt, showed his nerves were of steel, compared to Norwegian challenger Magnus Carlsen.

However, Carlsen did upset the champion’s original plans by going in for a pawn which is considered ‘poisoned’ at this level of game.

This turned the tide of the game for a large part, in favour of Carlsen.

The FIDE World Chess Championship 2013 sponsored by the Tamil Nadu government is underway at the Hyatt Regency here.

Anand started the game with his favourite move e4-pushing the pawn before his King two squares.

Carlsen pushed his King pawn two squares and the subsequent moves showed the challenger is going in for Berlin defence, a popular move at the top levels due to its solidness.

On the eighth move, Anand went for Queen exchange, which deprived Carlsen of a chance to castle, and he captured the enemy’s queen with his King.

The game was evenly poised, but for Anand’s queen side rook pawn on queen side which didn’t have any support.

“At this level the rook pawn is not generally taken and players do not consider that in their calculations. But here Carlsen seems to have taken Anand by surprise,” Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte told IANS.

“Certainly black’s 18th move of Bxa2 is the turning point of the game. Till that point, the focus of the players was on the centre of the board,” he added.

Concurring with him was another Indian chess grandmaster, who told IANS, preferring anonymity: “A similar move was played by Bobby Fisher against Boris Spassky long back, but on the other flank.”

Anand tried to trap the wily black Bishop which ultimately escaped and after some detour it went back to its square at c1 square.

“Anand seems to have underestimated the Bxa2 move which ended with him going one pawn down,” Grandmaster S.P. Sethuraman told IANS.

The game progressed with Anand trying to press forward his pieces on the queen side, trying to pressure Carlsen’s King.

On his part, Carlsen was handicapped with his rook and his white bishop holed up at the back rank opened up his King’s side and also activated his rook for some time.

He also gained a pawn and at the end of 36th move Carlsen had four pawns against Anand’s two.

But the champion was busy weaving a web against Carlsen’s King and protected his pawn on the e file.

Both the players were consuming their allotted time fast.

“Anand played some amazing moves like Ne4. It seems Carlsen got tensed up,” Sethuraman remarked.

He said though Anand was a pawn down, he had compensation in the form of active play against black’s King.

Towards the end, both the players had their two rooks on the board. Anand had two pawns, one at e7 square, while Carlsen had three pawns.

While Grandmasters said the game would end in a draw. Carlsen did not relent and tried to find a way to win. But the experienced Anand forced the moves so that the game ended without much prolonging.

In the end Anand proved that Carlsen may be strong in middle and end game but he is still the champion and could read through the moves.

At the end of four games, both the players have two points each.

Thursday is a day of rest.

Game 4

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. d4 Nd6 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. dxe5 Nf5 8. Qxd8+ Kxd8 9. h3 Bd7 10. Rd1 Be7 11. Nc3 Kc8 12. Bg5 h6 13. Bxe7 Nxe7 14. Rd2 c5 15. Rad1 Be6 16. Ne1 Ng6 17. Nd3 b6 18. Ne2 Bxa2 19. b3 c4 20. Ndc1 cxb3 21. cxb3 Bb1 22. f4 Kb7 23. Nc3 Bf5 24. g4 Bc8 25. Nd3 h5 26. f5 Ne7 27. Nb5 hxg4 28. hxg4 Rh4 29. Nf2 Nc6 30. Rc2 a5 31. Rc4 g6 32. Rdc1 Bd7 33. e6 fxe6 34. fxe6 Be8 35. Ne4 Rxg4+ 36. Kf2 Rf4+ 37. Ke3 Rf8 38. Nd4 Nxd4 39. Rxc7+ Ka6 40. Kxd4 Rd8+ 41. Kc3 Rf3+ 42. Kb2 Re3 43. Rc8 Rdd3 44. Ra8+ Kb7 45. Rxe8 Rxe4 46. e7 Rg3 47. Rc3 Re2+ 48. Rc2 Ree3 49. Ka2 g5 50. Rd2 Re5 51. Rd7+ Kc6 52. Red8 Rge3 53. Rd6+ Kb7 54. R8d7+ Ka6 55. Rd5 Re2+ 56. Ka3 Re6 57. Rd8 g4 58. Rg5 Rxe7 59. Ra8+ Kb7 60. Rag8 a4 61. Rxg4 axb3 62. R8g7 Ka6 63. Rxe7 Rxe7 64. Kxb3

(V. Jagannathan can be contacted at v.jagannathan@ians.in)