The Carlsen years (1): A new era begins

Almost the youngest

After barely winning an incredibly dramatic Candidates Tournament in March 2013, Magnus Carlsen got to challenge then world champion Viswanathan Anand in Chennai. The match took place on November 9-22 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Twelve games were scheduled, but the match was decided in ten encounters, as Carlsen had already secured overall victory after scoring three wins and seven draws.

The Norwegian was the pre-match favourite, but that did not take away from the shocking effect of his victory — after all, the Norwegian had just become the second-youngest world champion in chess history, only surpassed by Garry Kasparov, who was a bit farther away from his 23rd birthday when he clinched the title.

Kasparov himself confessed that he was rooting for the youngster, noting in an article for Time Magazine that “the guard has been changed at the top of the chess world”. Clearly, the period of Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov and a few more fighting for top spots both in round-robin tournaments and the World Championship cycle seemed to be coming to an end.

A young, witty Norwegian, who had been modelling for G-Star Raw since 2010, was the new king. In an article for Indian Express, Nigel Short went as far as to describe the match as “the biggest chess clash since Bobby Fischer vs Boris Spassky in 1972”.  

A nervy start

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Going into the match, most pundits considered Carlsen — already world number one at the time — to be the clear favourite, albeit with some caveats. Anand had won the World Championship multiple times and under different conditions, even at times when he seemed to be having problems in elite tournaments. Moreover, the Indian was known for his stupendous opening preparation. Thus, there was a chance that the perfect combination of experience and theoretical knowledge might end up giving the defending champion yet another victory.

The other relevant factor was the home (dis)advantage. It was not clear whether playing in India, an enthusiastic country which had Anand as a national idol, would end up benefitting or harming the champion’s performance — handling that level of pressure is something football or basketball players are more used to than even the best chess players in the world.

Once the match started, both contenders needed some time to quiet their nerves, as they kicked off the contest with two rather quiet draws. A young Carlsen was dealing with a new challenge, while Anand tried to find focus amid a swarm of fans wishing to get a chance to celebrate their hero on home soil.

The first one to get winning chances in the match was, in fact, Anand.

Black is better in this position, but he must now decide if it is a good idea to grab the undefended pawn on b2. Anand shied away from capturing and played 29...Bd4, fearing his opponent’s counterplay while trying to keep all his positional trumps. This turned out to be a missed chance, as the text move gave White time to regroup and eventually save a draw.

Anand missed his chance in game 3 | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

Another draw followed, with Carlsen eventually getting good play with black out of a Berlin Defence. Anand recovered from his missed chance by showing excellent tactical awareness in a couple of critical positions to keep the balance.

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Long endgames favour the (young) challenger

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Carlsen had climbed to the very top of the world ranking by showing incredible persistence in positions that some of his colleagues would simply consider as fully equalized — i.e. while others played a couple of inertial moves before agreeing to a draw, Carlsen kept on looking for potential imbalances.

This factor, added to the fact that Anand almost doubled his opponent’s age, was crucial in games 5 and 6. The young challenger won back-to-back encounters by outplaying his opponent in lengthy, tricky endgames that were decided past the fifth hour of play.

Poised — Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

In game 6, Anand erred on move 60.

Black will advance his h-pawn on the next move, freeing his f-pawn to continue marching down the board. Precise calculation is needed here to figure out that 60.b4 is the only way to get a draw with White, while Anand’s 60.Ra4 was responded by the aforementioned plan of 60...h3 61.gxh3 Rg6, when White’s counterplay is way too slow. Carlsen 4 - 2 Anand.

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The sharp ninth game

An experienced fighter, Anand decided to get his head in the right place in the following two games, playing principled chess that led to clean draws after the two back-to-back, painful losses. The Indian noted in the press conference after game 8 that he would “liven it up” in the next encounter.

And that is exactly what he did in game 9, responding to Carlsen’s Nimzo-Indian with a sharp, attacking system. 

In an impressive cold-blooded defensive effort, Carlsen here played 26...b2. Facing an extremely menacing attack, the Norwegian had correctly calculated from afar — he foresaw this whole line from an earlier point in the game — that after 27.Rf4 (threatening Rh4-Qh7#) he had 27...b1Q+ 28.Nf1 Qe1, preparing to sacrifice the new queen to avoid mate and eventually win the game with his extra material.

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Moreover, the line with 28.Nf1 was not the sharpest in the position. Had Anand played 28.Bf1, Carlsen would have responded with the remarkable sequence 28...Qd1 29.Rh4 Qh5

The only defence! Now after 30.Nxh5 gxh5 31.Rxh5 Black has 31...Bf5, defending the h7-square just in time. In the game, Anand resigned after 28...Qe1.

Carlsen had a 3-point advantage with three games to go. Anand went for the Sicilian Defence in game 10, but he could not get much against the challenger, who in fact missed a few chances to fight for a win. A draw was agreed after 65 moves, and a new champion was crowned! A new era had begun.

Once the match was over, there was a lot of talk about Anand’s mistakes in games 5 and 6, with the newly crowned champ noting with a smile: “I would like to take some responsibility for his mistakes”. 

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Links

• All ChessBase reports on the 2015 World Championship
• World Championship Chennai: Reports and opinions