FIDE World Chess Championship Carlsen-Anand 2014 - Game 6 CARLSEN WON, ANAND MISSED BIG CHANCE by Johannes Fischer 11/15/2014 – The sixth game might turn out to be the crucial one of the entire match. Magnus Carlsen won but he could have lost. After getting a good position from the opening he gradually exerted pressure but then overlooked a simple tactical trick with which Anand could have gotten the better position. However, Anand missed his chance. Unable to put up much resistance afterwards he lost without much of a fight. As Carlsen said in the press conference: I was very lucky. Round six In the last game before the half-way mark World Champion Magnus Carlsen played with the white pieces - the first of his two white games in a row. After all, the rules of the match stipulated that the player who had the black pieces in the first game would play games six and seven with white. With a score of 2.5-2.5 one could expect that Carlsen would try to use these two games to put Vishy Anand under maximum pressure. Carlsen decided that 1.e4 was a good way to do so. After 1...c5 2.Nf3 Anand went for a Sicilian with 2...e6, which had brought him a comfortable draw in game four. But this time Carlsen was willing to steer the game into the lines of the Open Sicilian, and instead of the somewhat restrained 3.g3 of game four, he ventured 3.d4. A couple of moves and an early exchange of queens later a strategically interesting position was reached. White had the pair of bishops, a spatial advantage, and hopes to exploit weaknesses in Blacks camp and on the d-file, but in return White had to accept doubled c-pawns and a compromised pawn-structure. But the position seemed to be easier to play for White and Carlsen gradually gained an advantage on the clock while Anand protected the weak points in his camp by putting his rooks on h8 and g8 and his knight on f8. But though Carlsen was better he had problems to create threats against Blacks solid defensive set-up. However, White seemed to have a safe and superior position and maybe this caused World Champion to feel too secure which in turn led to a grave oversight which could have had disastrous consequences: Carlsen had just played 26.Kd2? presenting Black with the golden opportunity to play 26...Nxe5! turning tables completely around. The point is that after 27.Rxg8 Black has the zwischenzug 27...Nxc4+ securing a huge advantage. But Carlsens short attack of chess blindness infected his opponent who also missed 26...Nex5!. After thinking for one minute Anand played 26...a4? and after 27.Ke1 White was fine again, harboring a safe advantage. However, both players immediately realized what they had done after they played their moves and this must have influenced the further course of the game. Carlsen possibly felt lucky and confident again, while it is hard to imagine that Anand was not upset about missing such a chance. At any rate, the remainder of the game was very one-sided. Carlsen gradually increased his pressure while Anand was not able to offer serious resistance. He resigned after 38 moves. After his oversight, Magnus played focused again and won his second game in the match. He now leads by 3,5-2,5.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 17:20:24 +0000
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