World Chess Championships 2013: First blood to Magnus Carlsen as Anand flounders in game 5

World Chess Championship 2013 – Anand speaks to the media after the loss

A typically drawn out end game, the kind of which Magnus Carlsen has built his sizeable reputation upon, helped the Norwegian pierce a dagger into the heart of his rattled opponent to draw first blood. The World Chess Championship took on a very different look as Carlsen pushed Viswanathan Anand to the limit in another long game. Anand was driven so far down the road by the relentless pressure from his young opponent, that he forgot his lines and floundered at the end to become the first man to surrender in this best of twelve match. Game 5 of the FIDE World Championship 2013 seemed destined for a draw, but Carlsen used a lengthy end game to his advantage to strain Anand into an unseemly error that cost him the game.

The loss might cause significant damage to Anand’s chances of retaining his World Championship unless he produces a great recovery game like he had in both 2010 and 2012. Luckily for the Indian, his next two games shall be played with white and offer him an opportunity to redeem his chances. The great man has done it in the past – against Veselin Topalov, Anand won the second game after suffering a reverse in the very first game. Last year, Vishy repeated the trick when he overcame a stinging loss in the seventh game when he toppled Boris Gelfand in the next game.

Carlsen abandoned the idea of opening with the Knight, having gained no real edge in his two previous games with white. Even as it was taking shape as a Queen’s Gambit declined (1. c4 e6 2. d4 d5), Anand made a statement of intent by riding his knight to c3 to adapt the Noteboom variation. The world champion hadn’t used this before in a match of this order and excitement started to grip those present at the Hyatt and the many that were glued to the rather dismal telecast by the public broadcaster.

The game was evolving rapidly, changing shape and form with every move, the players more than happy to transition into untested bylanes with the gay abandon of a fearless bird eager to taste the pleasure of flight. Carlsen despatched his King pawn to the fourth rank (4. e4) as the game transposed into a Slav Defense gambit with many emphatic possibilities.

Carlsen castled on the 12th move, and the experts believed Anand would follow suit soon enough. To their utter dismay, when Anand hauled his Bishop to c7 on the 13th, they were left wondering aloud on Twitter about what may have been the motive. Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna, providing his valuable insights through this championship, felt that it was an unnecessary initiative for black. Especially considering Carlsen’s taste for the prolonged end game, Hari felt that Anand might have been better off castling the King rather than work his Bishop.

However, it was clear that neither player had a substantive edge, even though white was perceived to enjoy the slightest opening to possibly push for a result. A pair of Bishops were exchanged even before the game progressed into a phase during which Anand displayed remarkable accuracy and stoic defence, almost turning the game dead even by the 34th move. Anand himself though was quite unhappy with his move – Rook to d4, possibly filled with uncertainty within himself. Many onlookers though felt that the errors crept in much later.

As Hari explained the biggest slip came with the clock inching towards the five hour mark. The blunder was so obvious, it found unanimous disapproval from several quarters – including from Abhijeet Gupta, who made a brief appearance in the broadcast studio, the decisive stumble came at the 45th move. Hari described why Anand nailed his own coffin when he let his Rook wander to c1 even as the a1 square looked on longingly offering the strong possibility of a draw. At this point, American GM Hikaru Nakamura simply expressed his shock by tweeting thus – “Truly baffled by each of Anand’s moves from 39 onwards. But especially 45…Rc1??”

It was all downhill from there, with Carlsen consolidating his passed pawns to gain a decisive edge as the game headed for a Rook and Bishop ending. Finally, Anand was left with no choice but to resign on the 59th move. While it must hurt for Anand to loose the game from a position that seemed even for a long time, his team will even more worried about the manner of his defeat. Anand’s concentration and his ability to calculate seemed to obviously dim after a while, especially late in to the fifth hour of play.

The reigning world champion was a shadow of his staunch defender avatar that held his probing opponent at bay for nearly two thirds of the game as he slipped into making the shocking error that catalysed a stinging defeat that left a lingering scar of pain on the morose visage of Anand as the duo stepped out to face the press immediately after the game.

Now, with seven games left to play and back to back whites in the sixth and seventh games, it is almost a case of now or never for the Indian stalwart. After a few early jitters, Carlsen can be content with his game and enjoy a good night’s rest before seeking to strengthen his chances in the battles that lay ahead.