Carlsen- Anand World Championship 2014 Game No.4 After game no.3 that saw Vishy beat Magnus in superb fashion, it was obvious that the World Champion would come out hard in the next game. After all he had the white pieces. The hopes of the spectators were raised beyond proportions when to 1.e4 Vishy replied with the most popular black opening in chess: The Sicilian Defence. Known as one of the most counter attacking openings, it seemed as if the viewers were in for a treat. But after getting a huge theoretical hit in game no.3, it was obvious that Magnus did not even venture close to an Open Sicilian. Instead he went for this positional setup with g3 Bg2 known as the Kings Indian Attack. People were angry. They wanted punches to be exchanged and here Magnus was jumping around the ring not even coming close to Vishy! But chess is not all the time about attack and defence. Sometimes its about playing those little moves which give the game an unforced character and the player with the superior understanding wins. When I finished annotating game no. 4, I realized that the number of variations were extremely low as compared to the first three games. On the other hand the amount of text had greatly increased. I think such games are very important for all of us to witness and learn. Because there are no clear best moves in the position. At every juncture one can choose from 5-6 options. And when that is the case, carefully going over the moves made by these great players is of can contribute in a huge way to our chess improvement. Coming back to the game, it always seemed like Carlsen had a small edge in the game but with accurate play Vishy was holding on. What was impressive is that Vishy did not struggle to make a draw, he was just trying to find the best moves in the position. It was a confident Anand on show today. There were small nuances all the time in the position but both the players were careful enough not to fall into any traps. Finally after 47 moves, the game was drawn. This according to me is an excellent result for Anand. After achieving a win in game 3, he consolidated himself with a solid draw with the black pieces. Carlsen looked extremely upset at the press conference and said that he was playing well below his usual standards. Of course he played poorly in third game but the fourth game was not such a bad show by the Norwegian. But he kept repeating that he was really playing bad. Experts say that this was a small mental ploy by Carlsen to show Anand that he was not playing the World Champion at the height of his powers! :) Of course an experienced Anand is not going to fall for such tricks. What will be extremely interesting is to see what Magnus plays in game no.5. After Anand confidently got an advantage against the Grunfeld in game 1, simply smashed the Queens Gambit Declined in game 3, what is Carlsen going to choose in game 5. My money is on the Ragozin Defense (d4 Nf6 c4 e6 Nf3 d5 Nc3 Bb4!?). But of course we have a rest day before the fifth game and we all need this break. After all supporting your national hero against arguably the greatest player ever is not an easy task! So take your well deserved rest and come back with a child like enthusiasm for the 5th game as it is going to be played on the Childrens day! (14th Nov) You can find the detailed analysis of game no. 4 done by me in the link below: sagarteacheschess.blogspot.in/2014/11/carlsen-anand-world-championship-2014_13.html
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 04:32:20 +0000