The First Game of the World Chess Championship Ended in a Draw
November 8, 2014 – The first game of the World Chess Championship between the World Champion Magnus Carlsen and challenger and former World Champion Viswanathan Anand was played in the Main Media Center in Sochi on November 8th, 2014. The Indian grandmaster played White. Igor Levitin, the adviser of the Russian President, made a symbolic first move.
Facing the queen’s pawn advance, Magnus Carlsen opted for the double-edged Gruenfeld defense, which often leads to very sharp positions with active piece play. Vishy Anand, however, preferred a quieter plan, playing a modest, but rather poisonous continuation, where he prepared a new idea. The World Champion consumed a lot of time, but was unable to completely equalize in the opening.
As usual, Carlsen defended very tenaciously and successfully rearranged his pieces. Trying to maintain the evaporating initiative, Anand rejected trading the queens with an equal ending, but overestimated his chances. Black managed to trade White’s strong bishop and got an advantage – Carlsen had a better pawn structure, and his king was safer.
As Anand confessed at the press conference after the game, he even started to worry about losing. White’s position was getting worse, and on the 42nd move Carlsen had a strong maneuver that could create White serious problems. However, the World Champion missed it. Anand secured his king, transferred the queen to the center and forced a draw with a perpetual check.
The second game is played on Sunday, November 9th. Magnus Carlsen has White. The admission is free of charge; spectators have an opportunity to follow a live grandmaster commentary or to play speed chess with a unique chess robot. The official website of the championship http://www.sochi2014.fide.com broadcasts live grandmaster commentary.
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
Anand was lucky in Game 1. And he had to bleed to get a draw as it was clear from Carlsen Team that Anand would have to work extremely hard just to get a draw which would be a pacesetter in this game. The succeeding game would be quite dangerous for Anand as Carlsen prove that he is an all-around player and can take whatever surprises Anand has prepared against him. Catlsen now knows Anand strategy but in the end i still strongly believe that Carlsen will prevail. It would be interesting in this rematch every opening of the game but ultimately Anand will lose in the middle & end game. It only proves that no matter what Anand throw against Carlsen, Carlsen always had an answer and wont be caught off guard. Anand has already revealed his fangs but still cant win while Carlsen still has not shown us what he cooked for Anand. 🙂