Anand-Carlsen World Championship Match (2013)

The match between Anand and Carlsen took place at the Hyatt Regency Chennai hotel in Chennai, India, from 9 to 22 November 2013. Twelve classical games were scheduled, each starting at 3 pm local time. Had the match been tied after the 12th game tie-break games would have been played.

The prize fund was 2,650,000 Euros, of which 60 percent would go to the winner and 40 percent to the loser if the match ended within the 12 regular games. If the match went to tie-breaks, the winner would have received 55 percent and the loser 45 percent. The match was sponsored by the Tamil Nadu state and organized by FIDE and AICF.

Magnus Carlsen (Norway, World No1. in the FIDE rankings) won the Candidates Tournament 2013, played in London in the beginning of the year, after the thrilling finish to become the official challenger of reigning World Champion.

Ask about its lack of match experience Carlsen said: I don’t think it is going to be a decisive factor. I do not have any match experience, true, or very little, but at the same time I’ve already played in top tournaments for six-seven years now, and I think that should amount to some useful experience. And I’ve played Vishy so many times as well. You can see, for instance, that when Karpov and Kasparov played their first World Championship match they had actually basically not met in tournaments at all, so maybe that is part of the reason for the difficult transition for Kasparov. I have played Vishy in almost every tournament I’ve played since I was sixteen-seventeen years old, so we certainly already know each other quite well.

Game 1

Game 2

The defending champion Anand started with 1.e4 and the challenger Carlsen responded with Caro-Kann defence, which was a slight surprise.
Carlsen rarely used Caro-Kann before, the last time being back in 2011.
Anand had recent experience in this line as he won a nice game against GM Ding Liren, but this time he deviated on move 14 by choosing the seemingly sharper 14.0-0-0.

Game 3

Carlsen was ready to enter the opening discussion by repeating the setup from the first game. Only this time he made an early c2-c4 advance, before committing with the d-pawn.
Anand responded by taking on c4 and the play was definitely heading to a different structure, compared to the earlier game.
Black seized the space in the center with e7-e5 and the position was finally formed as Sicilian Dragon Reversed.
White had some issues with the pieces’ coordination, but he solved the problem by conceding bishops pair and opening the a-file.
Carlsen maneuvered his queen around until the piece landed on the ‘unusual’ h1-square. But the Norwegian already had his queen on h1 in one game earlier this year.
However, Anand immediately started advancing queenside majority, to which Carlsen answered by opening the play in the center.
Anand could have snatched a pawn on b2, but he preferred to keep the initiative going with 29…Bd4. As the commentators on the official website pointed out, the opposite-coloured bishops and presence of the heavy pieces favour the attacking side.
In the mutual time trouble black lost the track and white was able to conveniently bring the queen back into game. Further, black lost the extra pawn and the game soon ended in a draw.

Game 4

Anand started the game with 1.e4 and Carlsen responded with the Ruy Lopez Berlin defence. The opening earned its rock-solid reputation during the famous Kasparov – Kramnik match in London, 2000.
Anand entered the main line where the queens are exchanged and black forfeits the castle, in addition to having doubled c-pawns.
Earlier this year Anand scored a very nice victory against Karjakin in the 4.d3 sideline.

Game 5

The challenger started the game with 1.c4 and after sidelining several popular openings, from Semi-Slav to Noteboom to Marshall Attack, the relatively rare 6.Nc3 brought about an interesting position that resembled Nimzo-Indian pawn structure.
The difference was that a pair of central pawns were exchanged and white dark-squared bishop had better scope.
Black ‘won’ the bishops pair and isolated one of the opponent’s pawns, but white completed the development and was ready for action.
One careless move by black – 13…Bc7 – allowed Carlsen to perform convenient exchanges and transform the structure to his advantage.
Both players had pawn weaknesses but white pieces enjoyed greater activity.
White was slightly better and, as the official commentator Susan Polgar said then, “In this position Magnus can push all night long. He has no risk and Anand has to be accurate.”
Anand’s bishop was passive but it successfully protected the entry points on the 7th rank. Black also activated the rook along the 5th rank, according to the old Capablanca’s recipe.
White couldn’t break in and black pieces gradually gained activity. However, Anand still had to find the best moves just to stay in the game. He did so for some time until a careless check 45…Rc1+ cost him the a-pawn.
In the resulting rook endgame with ‘a’ and ‘h’ pawns white pieces were ideally placed to force the quick advance of the passer. Anand resigned after Carlsen got the second passer going.

Game 6

The defending champion Viswanathan Anand opened with 1.e4 and the challenger Magnus Carlsen responded with the Berlin Ruy Lopez, which almost brought him success in the 4th game of the match.
Anand deviated from the early queens exchange and went for the more complicated 4.d3. He already used this line earlier this year to defeat Russian prodigy Sergey Karjakin.
On move 10 Anand played a novelty 10.Bg5, improving over his earlier encounter with Levon Aronian. The idea was to pin the black knight on f6 taking advantage of the fact that Carlsen’s dark-squared bishop is outside the pawn chain.
Carlsen responded with trading the light-squared bishops and then regrouping the knight from c6 to d7, like in Breyer Ruy Lopez, to reinforce the Nf6 and break the pin.
White maneuvered his knights to get hold of the central light squares d5 and d5, while black cleared the a-file and stood by for the possible d6-d5 break.
In a somewhat surprising turn of events, Anand traded all minor peaces and entered the endgame with three pairs of heavy pieces. The position looked equal, but Carlsen found a way to compromise white’s structure with c5-c4 advance.
White was left with doubled isolated pawns on the e-file, raising the comments that Carlsen will have another long endgame where he can gradually press for victory.
Instead of slowly suffering in the slightly inferior position, Anand decided to drop one of the pawns, trade the queens, and transpose into a rook endgame where he would have active play as compensation for the pawn.
There was also unanimous verdict that the endgame should be drawn, but Carlsen kept posing problems to his opponent. He gave up the queenside pawns in order to force the way for the passer on the f-file.
In the critical moment Anand erred with the slow 60.Ra4 when immediate advance 60.b4 was needed. Carlsen jumped on the opportunity and sealed the victory to take the 4-2 lead.

Game 7

The defending champion Viswanathan Anand once again allowed the Berlin Ruy Lopez, despite achieving little against this system in earlier games in the match.

This time Anand quickly gave up the bishops pair to double the black pawns on c-file. Earlier this year he employed the same idea against Karjakin in the Norway Chess Tournament.

But Carlsen deviated on move 6 by getting his light-squared bishop out to pin the white knight.

Anand again allowed massive exchanges that soon brought about an endgame with queens and knights. Neither of the players was ambitious to press on and the game finished with moves repetition.

Game 8

The defending champion Viswanathan Anand echoed Carlsen’s repertoire and defended with Berlin Ruy Lopez, to the surprise of everyone in the press room here in Chennai.
Carlsen does not like to enter the Berlin endgame often with white pieces, and instead played the less frequent 5.Re1. The resulting pawn structure is symmetrical but with more pieces on the board.
Only two months ago Carlsen had a similar position with black against Hikaru Nakamura in Saint Louis. In 2010 Carlsen and Anand already tested the system, with same colours, in Kristiansund and Nanjing. All these games were drawn.

Game 9

The defending champion Viswanathan Anand made the first move 1.d4, which was greeted with enthusiastic applause in the playing hall. The challenger and world’s top rated player responded with his trusted Nimzo-Indian defence.
Anand repeated the line that he already used in the match with Vladimir Kramnik in Bonn 2008. Black was obviously well prepared, as he made a rare recapture on move 7 (exd5 instead of more common Nxd5) and then immediately closed the queenside with 8…c4.
Indian GM Abhijeet Gupta said that the pawn structure demanded that players expand on opposite flanks.
Anand got an impressive pawn mass rolling towards the black king, while Carlsen created a passed pawn on b3, deep within opponent’s territory.
Anand spent around 30 minutes to calculate complicated lines before going all in with 23.Qf4.
White went directly for the checkmate and black promoted a new queen on b1. However, playing too quickly Anand erred with 28.Nf1, which effectively concluded the game after Carlsen’s reply 28…Qe1.

Game 10

The 10th game started with the Sicilian defence. Anand attempted a sharper line with black, possibly Naidorf, but Carlsen stirred the play into quiet waters with an early trade of the light-squared bishops.
In the relatively stable pawn structure the players maneuvered the pieces until a careless queen move (28…Qg5) by Anand permitted a cute combination that would net a pawn for white.
Carlsen continued correctly (29.e5), but then released the tension too quickly when 30.Nc3 would have piled the pressure. Anand was allowed to win the pawn back.
After the massive exchanges on d6 a knight endgame appeared on the board.
Expecting a draw offer, the press room was getting ready to meet the players. However, the fight continued beyond the first time control.
“At some point after the time control, the variations were simply getting too complicated. So I decided to shut it down and force a draw.” said Carlsen
New queens appeared on the board, one for each player, but the equilibrium was not ruined. Draw signed on move 65.

Carlsen: Vishy has been the world champion for so long, he’s one of the greatest of all time, I’m of course very, very happy to have got the better of him.

Anand: As for the match in general it’s clear that he dominated. At the start of the match I thought my chances depended on my ability to last long games without making a lot of mistakes, this year I’ve had a lot of problems with mistakes creeping into my play.

In an interview Anand said:

Magnus Carlsen has, at various points, mentioned that once he sits down on the chess board he doesn’t believe that anyone could beat him. He carried that same confidence into the World Championship match too. What were your thoughts at the start of the match? Did you feel invincible too?

I thought that if I had a good start, I would be able to play well. I thought that if I had a good start, I could force him out of his comfort zones. I was under no illusions that I would have to raise my game – but that’s exactly what I had worked so hard for. I knew I had a chance. I knew my recent shape had not been very good. But I was hoping that I had managed to turn all that around.

A match like this is always tough. In the sense, it almost feels like you are locked in a cage at times. At what point did you think it was over for you?

Well, it was staggered. The first few games were probably okay. I thought I held my own. The fifth game (his endgame errors cost game five) loss hit me really hard. It was precisely the thing that I had worked so hard on; the areas that I had sought to improve in my preparation and I was unable to execute. In that sense, I failed. The 9th game blunder didn’t change things very much – I didn’t see a win, it would have been a draw. The 10th game was really nothing.

So what is it about Carlsen? Did any aspect of his game surprise you?

He surprised me by changing so little. I know how he plays. But I expected him to come out and try something different. But he stuck to his guns – it was brave. It was also unexpected for me. Usually for a World Championship match, people work on something different… maybe something to surprise the opponent. Carlsen just stayed the same.

You have said that you couldn’t figure out Carlsen’s style. What does that mean?

I thought I could get a grip on him. I thought that I could force him to make mistakes. I thought that if I stayed with him in the early going, I would be able to match him. But his style makes it difficult. In a sense, he is an all-rounder. He can do everything well and he makes mistakes – but they aren’t big enough to take advantage of. He is also unconventional – there are times when he will play something and take it back on the next move… to the same place.

Did it feel like you were playing a computer?

His approach resembles… I hesitate to say… computer. Put him in front of one and he’d lose easily. But he is very confident of his calculating ability – so in that sense… yes, probably like a human computer – if that makes sense.

One of the things that were mentioned before the start of the match was that Anand was the openings specialist and Carlsen took over in the middle and end game. Do you think you did enough with that advantage?

So if Carlsen were to play Kasaprov – you have played them both – who wins?

One thing that is clear about Carlsen is that he is one of a kind. I am a big believer in comparisons. I would say both are very good, very strong.

But these are the kind of kind of comparisons that chess buffs all over the world make all the time. It probably just adds to the fun…

Well, Carlsen is a more all-round player. His strengths are harder to determine. Kasaparov was a specialist. He thought hard about his game and had very specific strengths. So if anything, I would Carlsen the edge there. Being an allrounder is not easy – you are backing yourself to keep up the level throughout the game but somehow Carlsen has managed it.

In interviews to the Norwegian press, Carlsen has criticised your approach, saying that you blamed tournament losses to preparation for the world championships. He has also said that he will never do that. Your thoughts?

I guess you have to put up with some snide remarks when you have lost. But honestly, what can I say…

Chessessentials.com:

The match itself confirmed the pre-match forecasts. After the first four games, in which Carlsen played cautiously with White (1.Nf3) and solidly with Black (the infamous Berlin Defence), he managed to open his account after outplaying Anand in typical Carlsen style in a Queen Gambit endgame.

Carlsen immediately built-up on his success in the sixth game, where he outplayed Anand in yet another endgame. This time, Anand avoided the Berlin endgame in favor of 4 d3, but didn’t gain any substantial advantage. In a resulting rook endgame, Carlsen skillfully built pressure, sacrificed his queenside pawns for activity, and exploited Anand’s error by creating a strong passed f-pawn that ultimately decided the game.

This win put Carlsen firmly in control. Anand, not giving up completely, switched to d4 and chose the very sharp 4 f3 system in the 9th game, obtaining precisely what he wanted; a sharp position with mutual chances.

However, Carlsen didn’t falter, defended brilliantly, and went on to win that game as well after Anand blundered in a very complicated position.

After a quick draw in game ten, Carlsen won the match ahead of schedule and became the World Champion. The chess public saw this as a logical outcome of his dominance established over the preceding couple of years.

Crowther in TWIC:

Magnus Carlsen has won the FIDE World Chess Championship in Chennai by a score of 6.5-3.5 against defending champion Viswanathan Anand. Carlsen required just 10 of the 12 scheduled games to win the title. It is too early to talk of the Carlsen era as defence of his title is scheduled in less than 12 months but this is the culmination of Carlsen’s domination of the game. First Carlsen has cemented himself firmly as world number one, then somewhat nervously he navigated the qualification via a Candidates tournament and in India he didn’t seem to have to exert himself to the maximum in becoming world chess champion. It seems entirely possible he will keep the title for some time.

Anand thought his chances in the match were down to being able to avoid a lot of mistakes and that execution of any match strategy was entirely dependent on that. He was happy to escape with a draw in game four but his first loss in game five came as a big setback and for him this was the turning point in the match. For Carlsen he felt that after a nervy first two games the play in games three and especially four gave him the confidence that the match wouldn’t require him to do much more than he was already doing in winning tournaments. Carlsen won games five and six and also yesterday’s game nine all after major blunders by Anand although both players pointed out that Carlsen had some responsibility in getting Anand to make them.

At the final handshake the players signed the board they played game 10 on and Carlsen remained on the stage a little longer than Anand eventually leaving not with a punch to the air as Kasparov famously did in 1985 but with a broad smile.

22 year old Carlsen went from amateur to champion in only 10 years. Carlsen (22 years and 357 days) is the 16th undisputed World Chess Champion and the second youngest behind Kasparov (22 years and 210 days).