Anand wins, match even at 1.5 pt each

A sharp start from Anand

In game 3, Anand made a combination of elegant opening moves forcing Carlsen into ‘thinking mode’. Like in Game 1, the Norwegian took a lot of time to reply to Anand’s moves.

A confident Anand made a flurry of moves in quick succession unsettling Magnus in the beginning. At one point Carlsen was almost half an hour behind the clock. It seemed like Anand was playing in ‘blitz’ mode leaving Carlsen a little bit worried.

Anand successfully pushed his ‘c’ pawn to the penultimate row thus cramping Magnus’ queen. While on the other hand Anand’s queen was actively participating in the game.

But even though Anand had a better position and also more time on the clock, the game remained almost even until move 17. In the seventeenth move, Anand played Ng5 (Knight to g5) which compounded Magnus’ problems. He wasted almost 35 minutes before going ahead with his next move.

Chess commentator @susanPolgar tweeted, “It seems that Magnus is surprised by 17 Ng5. Perhaps he was expecting Nd2.”

Carlsen thinking after 17th move.

Polgar continuted to tweet, “Magnus has both hands over his face. He is in deep thought. Difficult decision to make on how to proceed.”

This huge pause created a time crunch for the Norwegian and also a slight positional advantage for Anand. But still the ‘chess engines’, which are generally used for analysing chess positions, still said that the game is even.

Mid-game tactics

From move 18 to 25, Vishy continued to dictate terms. He put his active queen to good use and moved it up the board. The Norwegian was almost 45 minutes behind Vishy on the clock by move 25. This allowed Anand a lot of time to make his moves.

But in the past Anand had squandered away strong positions by making blunders against Carlsen, from a very strong postion. This was highlighted as a cause of concern for the chess observers around the world.

But slowly Magnus started to lose time and eventually resigned with just 32 seconds left on the clock. Magnus, known as ‘boa constrictor’, for wearing down his opponents by slowly putting pressure on them and extracting mistakes, found himself on the on Tuesday.

Anand made him think for every move which finally worked with Magnus finding himself out of time after move 34.

Post-match press conference

A sad faced Carlsen said in the press conference, “It was a poor choice of opening, he was very well prepared. It was difficult.”

When asked what this victory means to Anand, which he secured after a long time against Magnus in classical chess he said, “Obviosuly i’m quite pleased.”

When asked about Anand’s preparation for game 3 he said, “I have been preparing for sometime, also went to gym for a while to unwind. I prepared three to four hours.”

When Magnus was asked the same, he said,” Well, I did spend a lot of time in preparation, but he was well-prepared and i’m surprised at it, yes.”

Magnus added, “When something goes wrong it’s pobviously my fault so it’s okay”.

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com