Behind by two points with a maximum of four rounds left, Anand had to attack with the white pieces in round 9 because he faced the grim prospect of never having another opportunity to make the first move as a World Champion again. Vishy chose “pawn to d4” as his first move in, what will probably become, his most memorable game ever. Unfortunately, for Viswanathan Anand, this most memorable game included his devastating blunder on move 28. In the heat of the battle and at the peak of his attack, the reining king of chess dropped his sword. Now, it is Magnus Carlsen who looks down upon Anand and only needs but one draw to clinch the World Chess Championship.
[Event “World Chess Championship”]
[Site “Chennai”]
[Date “2013.11.21”]
[Round “9”]
[White “Viswanathan Anand”]
[Black “Magnus Carlsen”]
[Result “0-1”]
[Eco “E25”]
[Annotator “Chris Torres”]
1.d4 {Anand enters with the sword in his left hand for this fight.}
Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 {This is what chess players refer to as the Nimzo-Indian Defense. The difference
between this and the other Indian Defenses is that black does not immediately
fianchetto his bishop. Instead, his bishop pinning the knight on c3 prevents white
from playing pawn to e4 and gaining total control of the center.}
4.f3 {Alexei Shirov taught us all respect for this line back in the 1990’s.}
d5 5.a3 {White attacks the annoying pin quickly in what is known as the Samisch Variation.}
Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 c5 {Black has no problems with opening up the center because he has better development and is ready to castle.}
7.cxd5 exd5 8.e3 c4 {This move signals that Magnus Carlsen is aware of the latest developments in
the Samisch Variation. Viswanathan Anand must have realised by this point that
he did not catch Carlsen out of his preparation.}
9.Ne2 {White has collected some nice wins by moving the g-pawn here.}
( 9.g3 Nc6 10.Nh3 Na5 11.Ra2 Nb3 12.Re2 O-O 13.Bg2 b5 14.O-O
a5 15.e4 b4 16.e5 Ne8 17.Bb2 bxc3 18.Bxc3 Nc7 19.a4 Bd7 20.f4
Qc8 21.f5 Bxf5 22.Nf4 Qd7 23.Ref2 Bg4 24.Qc2 Rad8 25.h3 Bf5 26.Qe2
Qxa4 27.g4 Be6 28.Qe3 Qd7 {…1-0, Berkes Ferenc (HUN) 2706 – Saric Ante (CRO) 2489 , Neum 6/ 5/2011 Ch Bosnia & Herzegovina (team)}
) ( 9.g4 Nc6 10.Bg2 Na5 11.Ne2 Bd7 12.O-O Nb3 13.Ra2 h6 14.h3
Bc6 15.e4 dxe4 16.fxe4 Nxe4 17.Ng3 Nxg3 18.Bxc6+ bxc6 19.Re1+
Kd7 20.Bf4 Qh4 21.d5 c5 22.d6 Rae8 23.Re7+ Rxe7 24.dxe7+ Kxe7
25.Qd6+ Ke8 26.Bxg3 Qe7 27.Qc6+ Kd8 28.Qa8+ Kd7 {…1-0, Yudkevich Mikhail (RUS) 2200 – Demianjuk Alexander (RUS) 2313 , Moscow 3/ 5/2012 Ch Moscow (1/2 final)}
)
Nc6 10.g4 {White’s pawn structure makes it hard for black to make use of his developmental
advantage but also prevents white from developing comfortably. In practice,
black has been doing pretty well from this position.}
O-O {Carlsen’s other choices were also good. The exception being 10…h6, which
Kasparov employed in his win against Judit Polgar.}
( 10…Na5 11.Ng3 h6 12.Ra2 Bd7 13.a4 Qb6 14.Ba3 O-O-O 15.Be2
Rde8 16.Kf2 h5 17.g5 h4 18.gxf6 hxg3+ 19.hxg3 Qxf6 20.f4 Bf5
21.Bf3 Qe6 22.Re2 Nb3 23.Ree1 Be4 24.Bxe4 Qxe4 25.Qg4+ f5 26.Qxg7
Rxh1 27.Rxh1 Qxh1 28.Bd6 Qh2+ {0-1, Sisatto Olli (FIN) 2236 – Alekseev Evgeny (RUS) 2659 , Rogaska Slatina 9/25/2011 Cup European Club}
) ( 10…g5 11.Ng3 h5 12.e4 h4 13.Nf5 dxe4 14.Bxg5 Bxf5 15.gxf5
exf3 16.Qxf3 Qe7+ 17.Qe2 Qxe2+ 18.Bxe2 Ne4 19.Bd2 Na5 20.Ra2
O-O-O 21.Rc2 Rhg8 22.Bf3 Rde8 23.Be3 h3 24.Ke2 Nd6 25.Kf2 Nxf5
26.Bf4 Nh4 27.Bg3 Nxf3 28.Kxf3 Nc6 29.Rb2 Re6 30.Re2 {…0-1, Santos Latasa Jaime (ESP) 2399 – Inkiov Ventzislav (BUL) 2460 , Creon 8/ 1/2012 It (open)}
) ( 10…h5 11.g5 Nh7 12.h4 Nf8 13.Ng3 Ng6 14.e4 Qc7 15.Kf2 Be6
16.Nf5 O-O-O 17.Nxg7 Bd7 18.Be2 Na5 19.Rb1 Nb3 20.Rxb3 cxb3 21.Qxb3
Ne7 22.Qb4 Bc6 23.c4 dxe4 24.d5 Rh7 25.dxc6 Nxc6 26.Qc5 Rxg7
27.Qf5+ Rd7 28.Bf4 e3+ 29.Kg2 Nd4 30.Qe4 {
…1/2-1/2, Moranda Wojciech (POL) 2536 – Gajewski Grzegorz (POL) 2577 ,
Polanica Zdroj 8/21/2008 Memorial A.Rubinstein (cat.13)} )
( 10…h6 11.Bg2 Na5 12.O-O Nb3 13.Ra2 O-O 14.Ng3 Bd7 15.Qe1
Re8 16.e4 dxe4 17.fxe4 Nxg4 18.Bf4 Qh4 19.h3 Nf6 20.e5 Rad8 21.Qf2
Nh5 22.Bxh6 Re7 23.Nf5 Qxf2+ 24.Rfxf2 Re6 25.Be3 Bc6 26.Bf1 f6
27.Bxc4 Bd5 28.Be2 fxe5 29.Bxh5 exd4 30.Bg5 {…1-0, Kasparov Garry (RUS) 2820 – Polgar Judit (HUN) 2670 , Tilburg 1997 It (cat.17)}
)
11.Bg2 Na5 {Again, Magnus Carlsen shows that he is aware of the latest trends in this
variation. Viswanathan Anand must be a little dissappointed that his opponent is so well prepared.}
( 11…b5 12.O-O Na5 13.Ng3 Nb3 14.Ra2 Bb7 15.g5 Nd7 16.e4 Qb6
17.Kh1 a5 18.e5 b4 19.Bb2 bxc3 {1/2-1/2, Vlaic Branko (CRO) 2269 – Saric Ante (CRO) 2489 , Sibenik 5/19/2011 Cup Croatia (team)}
)
12.O-O Nb3 13.Ra2 {This and Rb1 have both been played ten times in the last year or so.}
b5 {I was anticipating pawn to h6 here. Pawn to b5 has only ever been tried on two
other occasions and I was not aware of it’s existence in high-level chess.}
14.Ng3 {This position occured by transposition in Vlaic, Branco – Saric, Ante, Cro-Cup 2011. The game ended in a draw on move 19!?}
a5 {!} {A quality innovation by the genius that is Magnus Carlsen.}
15.g5 {!} {This is a double edged position with extreme volatility on both wings.}
Ne8 {Magnus Carlsen is an incredible chess talent. At first I did not realise why he
retreated his knight to this square. Later, it became clear that Carlsen needed
his knight to have access to g7 in order to prevent Anand from playing pawn to f5.}
16.e4 {Viswanathan Anand is clearing the path for his bishop on c1.}
Nxc1 {So much for the bishop on c1. ;-)}
17.Qxc1 Ra6 {!} {We always hear chess caches preaching the value of a rook in an open file.
However, rooks in open ranks are pretty good as well. In fact, Carlsen rook can
be used to aid his attack on the queenside while simultaneously providing
defensive measures for his castled king on the opposite side of the board.}
18.e5 {Anand is ready to weaponize the f-pawn.}
Nc7 {!} {Carlsen really wanted to play pawn to g6 and then knight to g7. However, he saw
problems in that line and decided to place his knight on c7 in order to defend
the rook on a6. It is amazing that Carlsen was able to calculate so accurately
as to know that his knight would have time to return to the king’s defence.}
19.f4 b4 20.axb4 axb4 21.Rxa6 Nxa6 22.f5 {!} {Nobody should claim that Anand did not play aggressively after seeing this game.}
b3 {!} {Interesting that, for both colors, the pawns are the most dangerous weapons.}
23.Qf4 Nc7 {Carlsen’s knight must race back!}
24.f6 g6 25.Qh4 Ne8 {The knight returned to stop Qg7 mate.}
26.Qh6 b2 {Magnus could prevail in acquiring a second queen only to lose by being checkmated after Anand plays Rf4 followed by Rh4.}
27.Rf4 {!} b1=Q+
{!} 28.Nf1 {????} {Viswanathan Anand drops his sword in the heat of the battle. Play should have continued:}
( 28.Bf1 Qd1 29.Rh4 Qh5 30.Nxh5 gxh5 31.Rxh5 Bf5 32.g6 Bxg6 33.Rg5 )
Qe1 {!} {Now if Anand plays rook to h4, Carlsen’s new Queen will just capture it. Anand
put all of his eggs in one basket and then dropped the basket.} 0-1
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