Anand: “I didn’t get much from this one, but there are still two games with white pieces.”

The Eighth Game of the World Championship Match Ended in a Draw. Magnus Carlsen Leads 4.5-3.5

The eighth game of the World Chess Championship match between Magnus Carlsen (Norway) and Viswanathan Anand (India) was played on November 18th in the Main Media Center in Sochi. The former champion had White.

So far the players demonstrate exceptional devotion to their first move – Magnus Carlsen begins all his games with the king’s pawn advance, while Vishy Anand prefers to push the queen’s pawn. This time the Norwegian grandmaster responded by the Queen’s Gambit, but on the move 6 deviated from the variation that occurred in the third game. In that game Carlsen failed to solve his opening problems, and Anand eventually won.

The line played by Magnus is considered quite risky and did not occur at the highest level for a while. However, the World Champion prepared a strong novelty that will probably lead to a re-evaluation of the whole variation. Anand consumed a lot of time in the opening, but did not find obvious flaws in Black’s setup, and rejected the most ambitious plan connected with castling long. In the subsequent game he also went for the safest options without creating too much trouble for his opponent. Naturally, Anand took for granted that his opponent carefully analyzed everything at home. During the early phase of the game Carlsen almost did not think on his moves. For most of the game White had an hour less on the clocks than Black.

Following mass exchanges, a minor piece opening with a symbolic advantage to White arose. Magnus Carlsen demonstrated a certain degree of accuracy, and a draw was agreed on the move 41.

Vishy Anand: “I didn’t get much from this one, but there are still two games with white pieces.”

According to Magnus Carlsen, he was not in the best physical shape early in the game, but got some energy later. Answering about the doping test (that takes place today), the World Champion was sarcastic: “Doping control is always a nice surprise.”

The score of Carlsen-Anand is now 4.5-3.5 in the champion’s favor. Tomorrow, November 19th, is a rest day. The ninth game is played on Thursday, November 20th, at 15:00 local time. Magnus Carlsen has White.

Admission is free of charge. The official website of the championship www.sochi2014.fide.com broadcasts live grandmaster commentary in Russian and English.

The World Chess Championship match consists of 12 games with a classical time control: 120 minutes for 40 moves, then 60 minutes for 20 moves, and then 15 minutes plus 30 second per move until the end of the game. If the match is tied, a tie-break will be played on November 27th.

The 2014 Chess Championship match between incumbent champion Magnus Carlsen and challenger Vishy Anand will take place between November 7 and 28 in Sochi, Russia. The World Chess Championship is the most followed event in the world of chess. There are about 600 million chess players all over the world, with such well-known enthusiasts as Sergey Brin, George Soros, Bill Gates and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Tickets for the match can be booked at sochi2014.fide.com.

For more information:
Masha Kunica
Media, World Chess Championship
media@agonlimited.com