Chennai: It was yet another draw between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen in the fourth game of the world chess championship match 2013 here on Wednesday. The hard fought game, where the defending champion survived a potentially minus position, ended in 64 moves with less than one hour left for the end of play.
After four rounds, the two are tied with 2-2 score. Eight rounds remain to be played in this 12game series. After another day of rest, Carlsen will start Game Five with white pieces on Friday .
Playing a main line in the Berlin defence game, Carlsen went for a poisoned pawn (Bishop X a2) in the queen side, which gave Anand the chance to advance the king side pawns with élan. The third game pattern followed with Carlsen moving his queen side bishop six times to go back to its original square of c1 this time.
This forced bishop trip never allowed the challenger to unite his rooks. But, the world no. 1 had one extra pawn.
When Anand made a sub-optimal 27th move, where he positioned his knight on the fifth rank with no apparent immediate threat, the challenger probably took it easy and looked at the other side of the board.
Computer analyses showed that the world no.1 should have maintained his initiative by sending back the knight by attacking it with a pawn. Instead Carlsen further dislodged his rook and was forced to retreat it to the last rank later in the game despite holding two pawns more now.
The Indian prudently advanced his king pawn and at one stage went up till the seventh rank to keep the pressure on, as all his pieces were flexibly placed in the centre. In the melee, Carlsen gave back a pawn to get his rooks out.
Now, the balance shifted and suddenly, he was again holding an extra pawn and a slight initiative despite Anand's king pawn on the seventh rank, waiting for an opportunity to queen. Carlsen, soon combined his rooks on the third rank and slowly began his manoeuvring technique and settled down for a long grinding game.
In the three pawns versus two pawns and two rooks each endgame, Anand played accurately to reach a clear draw where only a pawn of Carlsen remained with rook and king each. The Norwegian, who did not accept the draw that easily and kept waiting for a mistake from the five-time world champion even after playing for six hours, finally signed the peace treaty.
“Something went wrong in the opening and I made one illogical move after another. I was basically lost. I am sure, he had a win. Even in the endgame, with four rooks on the board, it was scary. But once we crossed the second time control, we reached a safe draw position,” Anand said.
Carlsen too agreed that the position was definitely winning, but he couldn’t find them on board. “There were so many tactical resources. Anand may have just walked into a mate in time trouble. So, I kept playing,” he added.
Fide feels heat on Kasparov’s seat
Fide feels heat on Kasparov’s seat
DC/ TN Raghu
Chennai: Garry Kasparov's two-day visit to Chennai during the world chess championship has created more controversies than he would have expected. While trying to clear the air on Fide's attitude towards the Russian, an official of the world chess body has put Viswanathan Anand in an embarrassing situation.
Fide deputy president Georgios Makropoulos said on Wednesday that “Team Anand had requested the local organisers not to provide Kasparov, who had made his support to Magnus Carlsen public during his visit here, a seat in the first two rows of the playing hall for round three on Tuesday."
The fire-fighting exercise by Fide, the world chess governing body, on the Garry Kasparov issue only succeeded in pouring more petrol into it. As a result, Viswanathan Anand, who is involved in a nerve-wracking world championship match with Magnus Carlsen, has become an unwitting pawn in Fide's political battle.
Fide deputy president Georgios Makropoulos told a press conference on Wednesday that Team Anand had requested the local organisers not to give Kasparov a seat in the first two rows during Tuesday's third round. When an intrepid foreign reporter asked Anand whether his team had made such a request, the Indian said: “No”.
Later, Fide’s press officer told the reporter that the question should have been directed at Anand’s team and not the player himself. But the collateral damage had already been done.
The revelation of Makropoulos was a clear attempt by Fide to divert attention from the flak it had been copping for making the Russian legend a persona non grata in Chennai. Team Anand’s request wasn’t meant for public consumption, but the Fide deputy president saw it fit to announce it to the media. It was a revelation Anand could have done without.
Kasparov had declared his moral support for Carlsen and Anand had reason to be wary of the former world champion’s presence in the front rows. Fide’s disclosure has put Anand in a spot because he had made a conscious attempt on Tuesday to make light of Kasparov’s presence at the venue of the match.
Earlier, Makropoulos said the world chess body had “respect for Kasparov as former world champion and Fide presidential candidate”.
“He can’t be a chess tourist here. At the same time, the question of not welcoming him with the red carpet and flowers didn’t arise as he hadn’t informed us
about his visit. The stories that Fide didn’t respect Kasparov are the creation of the media, which wanted something after two notso-interesting rounds,” he added.
But Makropoulos admitted that the local organisers were apprehensive that Kasparov might use the world championship platform to make political statements.
When asked why the commentary team was instructed not to allow Kasparov inside and the media centre was declared out of bounds for the former world champion, the Fide deputy boss feigned ignorance. “I’m responsible for making statements on behalf of Fide. Did I say something?” he said.
