Sochi G7: Unbreakable Anand

FIDE World Chess Championship Carlsen-Anand 2014

The FIDE World Chess Championship match between defending champion Magnus Carlsen and his challenger Viswanathan Anand is taking place from November 7 to 27, 2014 in Olympic Media Center located in the Adler City District of Sochi, Imeretinsky Valley, on the Black Sea.

The match is over twelve games, with time controls of 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 61. The games start at 3:00 p.m. Sochi Time, which is the same as Moscow time:

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Round seven

Today's round was a titanic struggle. Carlsen came with a deep opening idea in the most predictable of battlegrounds: the Berlin Defense of the Spanish Opening. The cunning pawn sacrifice had been used previously by top-notch grandmasters, but Carlsen's twist with 24.g4!? added an extra dimension of unpleasantness to Black's position.

Legendary journalists: Anastasiya Karlovich is FIDE's press officer while Vijay Kumar makes TV reports on chess for Doordarshan, which can be recieved all over Asia. His reports have on occasion been available to 400 million people.

Anand had to think long and hard about how to diffuse White's initiative, and how to go into an endgame where he wasn't worse by much. His brave and intuitive decision to sacrifice his bishop in order to reach an endgame where White had one knight, two pawns and a rook against Black's rook and four pawns seems sound, but it left everyone wondering if the position was actually drawn or if White could crack through Black's defenses. Over the board, it was impossible to tell, and even most of the commentators had no clue as to whether Black would hold or not, both in the practical sense and in the abstract, objective sense!

Anand had to brace himself for a long defense: 122 moves!

Grandmasters Shipov and Smirin were some of the confused commentators who wondered
how to evaluate the endgame. They were in charge of the Russian commentary.

The Berlin surprised no one, but Anand will have to make sure this line holds in future encounters.
His seconds will be hard at work looking at this game and trying to improve upon it.

Daniel King explains the critical positions in game 7

Komodo! The recently released engine claimed that on move 67 the game was already drawn!
Stockfish, even at a higher depth, gave White some winning chances.

Carlsen trying to torture Anand from a very unique pose

At the end of the day it was a hard fought draw

This draw was absolutely instrumental for Anand. It would have been a gargantuan task to lose two games in a row and come back from a two game deficit with only five games to go. As it is the Indian player will have three Whites in the last five games, and although he would like to win tomorrow, he can still think of not losing with Black and keep his three Whites to attempt at another win.

The match is still in Carlsen's hands, but Anand keeps fighting, he keeps finding resources and he is not about to give up. Tomorrow will see Anand try to come back with a vengeance!

Score

Summary of the game in Hindi by Niklesh Jain

राउंड 7 – आनंद का शानदार बचाव , पर कार्लसन की बढ़त बरकरार 4-3 से आंगे

आज तो विश्व चैंपियनशिप के सबसे रोमांचक मैच की उम्मीद थी और ऐसा हुआ भी एक अनिर्णीत मैच भी कितना रोमांचक हो सकता है आज एक बार फिर देखने को मिला । 122 चालो तक तकनीक , रक्षात्मक खेल ,और साथ ही साथ जीतने की हरसंभव प्रयास का अविस्मरणीय नमूना था आज का मैच , एक और जंहा आनंद ने पिछले मैच की गल्ती से उबरकर अपने जबरजस्त रक्षात्मक खेल से खेल को बराबर पर रोक लिया वंही कार्लसन के झुझारूपन ने सभी का मन एक बार फिर मोह लिया ।

जीतने के लिए खेलने की उनकी आदत और समझ उन्हे एक अलग ही स्तर पर खड़ा कर देती है । आनंद भी आज काफी उम्दा नजर आए वो तेज तो खेले पर आज उन्होने अपने रक्षात्मक पकड़ को पुनः साबित किया । आज खेल एक बार फिर बर्लिन ओपेनिंग से शुरू हुआ जल्द ही वजीर की अद्ला बदली से ये साफ हो गया था की खेल एक बार फिर एंडगेम की और बढ़ेगा और इस बार आनंद ने अपने मोहरो के खेलने को ज्यादा तरजीह दी ।यह मैच विश्व चैंपियनशिप के इतिहास का दूसरा सबसे लंबा मैच साबित हुआ इससे पहले कार्पोव और कोर्चनाई के बीच इससे पहले 124 मूव तक मुक़ाबला चला था

अगले पाँच में से 3 मैच आनंद सफ़ेद मोहरो से खेलेंगे इसका मतलब बेहद साफ है आनंद को किसी भी हाल में सफ़ेद मोहरो से जीत दर्ज करनी ही होगी । आज के ड्रॉ ने आनंद की उम्मीद अब भी बनाए रखी है देखना होगा आनंद की तैयारी काम आती है या कार्लसन की अनजान परिस्थिति में भी बेहतरीन खेलने की क्षमता । आज का मैच आनंद के ऊंट के बलिदान ओर शानदार बचाव के लिए जाना जाएगा ...भारत की उम्मीद बरकरार है देखते है कल खेल किसी दिशा में आगें बढ़ता है ॥ आपका निकलेश जैन

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Irina Krush: The female in the commentator team, several times US Women's Champion.		Daniel King: Well known, popular, experienced, and very good. Author of many Fritztrainer DVDs
Simon Williams: Englisher grandmaster, author of two popular ChessBase King's Gambit DVDs.		Chris Ward: Dragon expert and chess commentator at the London Chess Classic.
Niclas Pert: Grandmaster, trainer, and author of a number of excellent Fritztrainer DVDs.		Loek van Wely: Several times Dutch champion and quick-witted chess commentator.
Parimarjan Negi: Once the world's youngest grandmaster, author of books and DVDs.		Rustam Kasimdzhanov: The FIDE-World Champion 2004, former second for Vishy Anand

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