Carlsen - new World Champion!

[Adam Cormier]

Re: World Chess Championship 2013

I really underestimated Anand's talent for sucking any life out of a position that is given to him. In the first game his refusal to continue when computers say he has a slight edge and forced a repetition instead I view as him being scared to play long game's against Carlsen.

Anand forced the repetition again, however I believe Carlsen could have kept playing with an early Ra7 Bd8 to avoid the repetition and computers says its basically equal and this would have given Carlsen good chances to get some small edge with his minority attack, but he decided to accept the repetition instead.

So far not the greatest opening to a world championship, not due to the draws as much as the length of the games (move-wise and time-wise).

[Mathieu Cloutier]

Re: World Chess Championship 2013

We'll see how it goes, but so far, it's as good as it could possibly be for Anand.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: World Chess Championship 2013

I couldn't sleep last night so I watched the first 18 moves. That was enough to put me to sleep.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: World Chess Championship 2013

World Chess Championship Chennai 2013

Game Two

Anand, Viswanathan – Carlsen, Magnus
WCH 2013, Chennai IND 2013.11.10
B19 Caro-Kann, Classical (7…Nd7)

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. h4 h6 7. Nf3 e6 8. Ne5 Bh7 9. Bd3 Bxd3 10. Qxd3 Nd7 11. f4 Bb4+ 12. c3 Be7 13. Bd2 Ngf6 14. O-O-O O-O 15. Ne4 Nxe4 16. Qxe4 Nxe5 17. fxe5 Qd5 18. Qxd5 cxd5 19. h5 b5 20. Rh3 a5 21. Rf1 Rac8 22. Rg3 Kh7 23. Rgf3 Kg8 24. Rg3 Kh7 25. Rgf3 Kg8 0.5-0.5
++++++++

Susan Polgar and Ramesh say that by the rules, the contestants have to arrive at least ten minutes before the start of play. They discuss the game until Lawrence Trent and Tania Sachdev come to replace them and almost at the same time there is a repetition of moves and the game is drawn. I calculated that Vishy had used 42 minutes and Magnus 25 minutes.

At the press conference Magnus said there was nothing to play for. Vishy said that after move 12 the position was a very sharp one and that Magnus knew the continuations better than him so Vishy took a more solid line and after the queen exchange there was nothing left. He applied the emergency brake and the game ended.

The press asked questions which all boiled down to the same thing – why were the first two games so short? There are about 150 journalists and they all have to write something for their newspapers. The photographers too are outside the soundproof glass wall trying to get their pictures. The glass is not 100% soundproof because when Vishy played 1.e4 the audience applauded and Chief Arbiter Vardapetyan heard the noise.
++++++++++

Viewers Comments –

- I am not feeling inspired by the start of the WC match in India. One thing Kasparov always understood is that chess needs to be a show. (Nakamura)

- Indeed I like the coverage, the WCC this year is superb job compared to last year. Ramesh is great, and I would recommend also GM Vidit / IM Hambleton in text here http://www.chessdom.com/category/live/ for slower following of lines

- Anand did initially did go for a relatively sharp line with opposite castling, but "pulled the emergency brake" (queen exchange followed by move repetition) when he realized that Carlsen was better prepared. As to why Anand didn't go for 3.e5 - first this is what Carlsen may have expected (it's currently +- the main line), second Anand rarely played it before. Hard to believe that the Caro-Kann surprised Anand, even if he said so in the press conference - but then again he might tell the truth as his play wasn't impressive.

- In the next black game, Carlsen will draw with the French, then the Petroff, then the Nd7 Caro-Kann, then the Alekhine and then the Scandinavian, and at the end of the match Anand will know how to beat all these defenses...:)

- Chess is dead. They should play Fischer 360 / Random chess!

- it is tough for us American fans, I get up at 4am put on coffee find toothpicks for my eyelids watch short draws and wonder if I should go back to bed or stay up LOL

- This world championship is a very tough match where both player want to win. They are not here to play entertaining chess, they are here to win the match. If that means drawing 12 games and going into the rapids, that's their strategy and you cannot ask them to change it.

- We can say we want. But Vishy has punished Caro Kann with white against even Ling Diren, Judit Polgar and other top players and had to play carefully here yesterday against Elo 2870 Carlsen.
We can theorize and say anything with chess engines here but it is a different there. Any small mistake would be punished by Magnum power with consequences for the title.

- This is a disgrace. The players just have a million reasons not to take chances. Just poor excuses for fear.
Please god, put Aronian or Nakamura in the next match!

- The Caro has not the best standing nowadays, but almost exclusively due to the Advance variation. I really wonder why Vishy didn't prepare 3.e5. It's a little bit of an exaggeration, but in recent games it almost seemed like playing 3.e5 with Nf3 and Be2 is pretty much game over for black...

- Two very strong players face each other. They play two games. In the first, the player with white is outmaneuvered by his opponent, who obtains a small advantage, but nothing to write home about. In the second, the player with white feels that his opponent knows more about the position than he does, and chooses to avoid hari-kiri.

What is so wrong about that? There are another ten games to play, and plenty of opportunities for them to knock lumps out of each other as the match progresses. Why presume that all these games will be 'easy', or that a well-played draw is a failure?

- 12 games are too short to take any risk for one side nowadays, and Anand and Carlsen are not to blame for this. Remember how fascinating the matches in the past used to be, could one imagine just 12 games Alekhine-Capablanca, Tal-Botwinnik, Fischer-Spasski or Kasparov-Karpov etc.? How much the chess world would have missed! These matches were real clashes of ideas, producing great ideas and creating milestones of chess history.


And besides, I think with 24 games you could also get rid of this completely ridiculous tiebreak format crowned by this horrible armageddon game (hope it will never happen!). In a 12-12 tie the champion should retain his title, in my opinion it´s impossible to try to play for 24 straight draws. And if the contender doesn't succeed the match in 24 games, well, than he just doesn't deserve to become the new world champion, as simply as that. Don´t think this should be regarded as too unfair, after all it´s much easier to motivate oneself as a contender, and one she old give the champion this little privilege

- The commentators are subpar in my opinion.
 Give me Nigel Short any day over these two (Ramesh and Tania). Nigel understands, like these two don't, that half of it is to put on a show.

- Utterly disgusted with how boring this turned out to be. I had heard that this was supposed to be very exciting, and what do we get? Two guys sitting at a table moving small wooden figures!

- I agree, the pieces should be bigger and made of plastic.

- Those decrying chess in general and this championship in particular because of drawn games are instant gratification seekers. Their comments have little to do with appreciation of the nature chess and the fascination of watching two outstanding practitioners locked in combat. They have twelve games in which to circle each other, to probe and test their opponent. It is like any competitive sport in this regard. Drawn games have a unique interest and highly instructive fascination. Anand and Carlsen, both of you, stop feeling the need to apologise at your press conferences. You are masters of something that is very special. You are playing a five-day test match, not a 20/20 match. Honour chess for what classically it is meant to be. Do not let the sponsors, the publicists and the attention deficit disordered pressurize you into games that do not flow naturally.

- It's written "Chennai" , pronounced " Tshe-nah-ye"

- No, it is not. It is and it should be pronounced the way it is written. "Che" as in Chess, middle "n" to stress "n", "nai" as in Nairobi or as "Kni"ght.

- That's exactly what I meant :)
Che- of chess is "Tshe", as opposed to She
"Nah-ye" is the same as the "Kni" of Knight :)

- I am going to stop watching this live. Don't see the point at all.

- What is all this drivel and nonsense about Magnus not having any WCC experience? It's completely irrelevant.
Look: Neither did Fischer and see what he did to the Russian chess machine!

- Looking at the live feed this morning, there was basically a scrum going on outside the glass wall. Carlsen was watching it. I am sure it must be pretty distracting for the players, even if they can't hear it

- I genuinely think Anand is going to win this. Carlsen has no idea what he's let himself in for playing in Chennai.

- To be fair, I don't think Carlsen had much choice. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have agreed to it if it hadn't been a done deal..
+++++++++++

The next game, Game Three, is Tuesday, November 12.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: World Chess Championship 2013

World Chess Championship Chennai 2013

Game One

Carlsen, Magnus – Anand, Viswanathan
WCH 2013, Chennai IND 2013.11.09
A07 Reti, King’s Indian Attack

1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 g6 3. Bg2 Bg7 4. d4 c6 5. O-O Nf6 6. b3 O-O 7. Bb2 Bf5 8. c4 Nbd7 9. Nc3 dxc4 10. bxc4 Nb6 11. c5 Nc4 12. Bc1 Nd5 13. Qb3 Na5 14. Qa3 Nc4 15. Qb3 Na5 16. Qa3 Nc4 ½-½

10…Nb6 forces the play right away.
Carlsen spent 12 minutes on 12.Bc1
After 13.Qb3, I can force the draw (Anand)

Total time: White 1 hr 8 mins Black 1 hr 21 mins
+++++++++++++

The commentators were Lawrence Trent paired with Tania Sachdev and Susan Polgar with R.B. Ramesh. From the latter we learned there are 34 Indian grandmasters, 2 of them women.

The prize fund is $2.55 million dollars.

The play is in a glassed-in room. Carlsen arrives and sits waiting for Anand. He is visibly nervous. What if Vishy comes late? The zero tolerance rule is still in effect! He does come in though, there appears to be no handshake and Magnus makes his first move. Later it shown there was a handshake but it didn’t appear in the video.

A draw is agreed to on the sixteenth move, the players talk in a friendly fashion for a few minutes and leave the room.

After the game, there is the usual press conference with Anastasiya Karlovich. Vishy says it was a relief to play after waiting so long. Magnus said, “I was not thrilled with the way the game went. There was an immediate crisis. None of my options were particularly promising. I missed 13. Qe1 which allows Nb4, which is very strong and so I had to pull the emergency brake and go for a draw.

Both were asked if they had seen the article by Sergey Shipov in the latest New In Chess entitled How to Beat Magnus Carlsen. Neither had seen it nor read it!

The interested reader will find four sure-fire recommendations there for being Carlsen the next time you play him.

Just a personal note – I came down in the morning after anticipating the first game all night. I expected to enjoy the game over breakfast and found that my internet provider was having trouble and, after one hour, I only found that the game had been drawn and had to wait until much later in the day to get all the details.
+++++++++

Some viewer commentary:

We were expecting to get the mother of all firework displays but someone forgot to bring the matches (Nigel Short)

Don’t get too depressed with a slow start. Of my seven world championship matches, five started with a draw in the first game. (Garry Kasparov)

- You shouldn't believe everything Anand says ! Did you watch the video? Carlsen was extremely nervous, whereas Anand looked like Buddha ...

- To all those who were predicting an 'Easy Win" for Carlsen i present a nervous Magnus. His first move itself indicated that he acknowledges Anand's opening preparation superiority got into some weaknesses early on and seemed relieved to get a quick draw.

- As Timman pointed out, Carlsen's opening play is mostly concerned about avoiding an early crisis. Anand pointed out twice, in the press conference, that today he actually WANTED an early crisis, avoiding to "fall asleep" in a long manoeuvring game.

- Advantage Anand for sure. Carlsen was way too nervous and needs to settle. Speaking about pulling "the emergency brake" is not good psychologically, but it is only Game 1 and not too surprising that Carlsen would have been nervous. Having said that, the nerves got to him at the end of the Candidates, so I thought this would have been an area that he and his team would have prepared better for. Surely Anand will take the fight to him tomorrow and try to press for an early win with white. Then this match will really take off! I certainly did not think it would start like this! May the best man win!

- Was it just me who felt Tania Sachdev was so awful and unnatural. I am not sure who asked her to put the false accent.
Contrastingly Susan, Laurent and Ramesh were pretty decent.

- please give Tania Sachdev a break. She was brave in giving her reading of the positions and predicting moves, which was her job. I thought that she was sharp.
As GM Ramesh said, she is very good and is will become a GM soon, a strong women player in years to come. This is her global stage to be visible. Let us grant her that latitude.

- The big Jayalalitha 'ad' poster in the playing area, just by the board is very unsightly and a definite distraction I believe. I'm surprised no-one has complained about it already.

- Peter Leko will be very satisfied with his boss today.

- I think the most telling moment on the press conference was Carlsen's gaze at the screen with the position, forgetting everything around him and starting to discuss it with Anand(!). I think this gives a different perspective on the so-called important non-chess issues.
It was a draw, but neither was close to losing, of course black is more pleased with it, but that's all. Let's play chess tomorrow.

- In classical, Vishy was 4-0 up. When Magnus became world number 1 in 2009, it is 2-3. Last two encounters, Magnus beat Vishy with white. Twenty draws in their 29 classical games. 6-3 lifetime in favor of Vishy.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: World Chess Championship 2013

Thnx. It was not a spelling error (site vs sight) but in vs on

Thanks for clarifying. I didn't realize there is such a show of force.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: World Chess Championship 2013

BTW, the guns are "on-site" or "in sight". So simple is English where similar words can have different spellings.

Thnx. It was not a spelling error (site vs sight) but in vs on

[Gary Ruben]

Re: World Chess Championship 2013

It is probably the first chess championship match with real guns on sight:

Hopefully they won't be fighting a duel.

BTW, the guns are "on-site" or "in sight". So simple is English where similar words can have different spellings. Hope you don't mind this comment as it not meant to be nasty.

[Nigel Hanrahan]

Re: World Chess Championship 2013

It is probably the first chess championship match with real guns on site ...

Yes, that's likely true ... although Fischer's famous re-match with Boris Spassky in 1992, which Fischer insisted on having advertised as the "World Championship", had some very unusual clauses regarding the conditions of the match. Both players were allowed, should the sound of gunfire get too close, to abandon a game for safety reasons.

I rather think there would have been guns for security in that situation. However, only in Fischer's delusional mind was it a championship match. Boris must have felt he was in some sort of looking-glass world in which the White Knight would start talking backwards ...

[Gary Ruben]

Re: World Chess Championship 2013

Yes. I'm glad I didn't stay up to watch it.

I hope Carlsen has more than he showed us today. 16 moves of nothing.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: World Chess Championship 2013

It is the World Championship, forget about fancy games etc. The history will remember only a winner, not their games during the match (almost, the Kramnik archeological dig out of the wall is appreciated till now LOL

[Paul Bonham]

Re: World Chess Championship 2013

Solid read. What a pathetic game.

Yeah... so much for the rejuvenation of chess. Andrew Paulson must have choked on his crumpets.

The two initial commentators expected Anand to respond to Carlsen's Bc1 with either ...Qa5 or ...e5, with plenty of complexity in either case according to them. Instead Anand chose the drawing line. But that's what I expect Anand to strive for in this match, frustrate Carlsen with drawish play.

[David Ottosen]

Re: World Chess Championship 2013

Just a short 20 minutes until the beginning of the first game, I have a feeling even if it ends in a draw, Carlsen is going to give it his all to grind out Anand and take a lead as quickly as possible.

Solid read. What a pathetic game.

[Adam Cormier]

Re: World Chess Championship 2013

Just a short 20 minutes until the beginning of the first game, I have a feeling even if it ends in a draw, Carlsen is going to give it his all to grind out Anand and take a lead as quickly as possible. However I believe Anand's experience will make this a difficult task even for the Mozart of Chess, as players like Kramnik believe he is as strong as Kasparov (when Anand was in his prime of course).

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: World Chess Championship 2013

It is probably the first chess championship match with real guns on sight: