Magnus Carlsen simply knows how to win and Viswanathan Anand's inexplicable gamble hurried the extended reign of the new chess king from Norway.
Opting for the Berlin defence in the 11th game of the 12-game World Championship match in Sochi, Anand was doing quite well till the 27th move. But in a moment of stretched optimism, he opted for an exchange sac (giving away rook for bishop). It backfired in a big way to hand over Carlsen his third win of the match and with that the title.
The last game became irrelevant because the 23-year-old world No. 1 took a 6.5-4.5 lead against the 44-year-old world No. 6, a five-time champion himself. Carlsen is set to earn around Rs 48 million for his win while Anand will get Rs 32 million.
It was a fascinating battle till Anand's thinking process went haywire. "I can't say why I decided to go for the exchange sacrifice. I didn't notice anything really," said Anand. In the pivotal Game 9 in Chennai last year, Anand had made a monumental defensive error with white pieces to trail 0-3 which practically ended his reign. Sunday's game was a similar soft error, albeit offensively.
Carlsen showed respect for the way Anand gave him a tough fight this time. But he was also forthright to point out his illustrious rivals' mistake. "Anand needed to do something in Game 8 and Game 10 when he had white pieces. But he spilled his chances there." "I believe in material (advantage). So I generally like to grab it. I didn't see enough compensation for black. I didn't play well from move numbers 18 to 23. That allowed Anand good counter play possibilities.
But I am happy to put myself together after playing badly in that phase. After his exchange sac, I played forcefully and he didn't get any chance. Once I put away his powerful bishop away, I was confident of winning the game." Was Carlsen expecting to wrap things up today? "Little bit. I didn't particularly want to come back with black pieces for the (must-draw) 12th game." It was the fourth Berlin defence game played by Anand with black pieces in this match.
The defence was made popular by Vladimir Kramnik when he dethroned Garry Kasparov in their 2000 match. Kasparov had failed to breach Kramnik's wall in five games then. But Carlsen had done that in two games in Sochi. He had taken the lead by winning the second game in the same opening.
Of course, Anand had found some new lines in Berlin. He deviated from the earlier games and played 9...Bd7. Pune-based WGM Soumya Swaminathan commented on the live feed: "Anand played 12...c5 less popular and his 14...Be6 novelty!" Dutch GM Anish Giri's tweet, early in the game, was loaded. "Exciting, with the setup Anand chose, the chances of the match ending today double, but so do his slim winning chances."
