World Chess Championship: Chennai nightmare extends to Sochi for Vishy Anand
by Ashish Magotra Nov 10, 2014 16:12 IST
We’ve starting to see a trend at Sochi – one that has continued from Chennai 2013. Viswanathan Anand gets out of the opening fine… the positions are almost equal, then Magnus Carlsen slowly starts activating his pieces, looking for combinations, and then suddenly the Indian GM is under the cosh, in a fight to save himself and grab a draw.
This has happened over and over again. The problem for Anand is that once he allows Carlsen to pile on the pressure, there is almost no way back; almost no way to win and even tiny miscalculations can lead to defeat.
In Game 1, Anand saved himself with a brilliant move 44. Qh1 – something that most experts and engines had overlooked. But in Game 2, some might argue that he did nothing majorly wrong but there were small miscalculations which piled up. According to GM Susan Polgar, “20…Bxf5 is the beginning of the wrong direction for Anand.”
GM Jonathan Rowson felt that Anand’s problem was miscalculation. “He evaluated position after 23.Rc3 as close to equal, but it’s close to lost,” Rowson tweeted.
But even then the mistakes were tiny. Black was in a tough position but there was no clear win for White. And slowly, Anand had come to a situation where it had seemed like he might just have slipped out again. But then the blunder on the 34.h5 gave the game away. It was brain freeze at the worst possible moment.
“It is a pity I threw it away. I almost got back in the game. It is a pity..” said Anand after the game.
The scariest part of the situation as it played out was that it seemed as if the Chennai nightmare had extended to Sochi for Anand.
Full article here.
He needs to dial 911 for Nakamura immediately. He’s the only one who knows how to solve Carlsen problem.
Naka! You mean fabiano carauana
I think anand used to have very talented seconds but for chenni and now he did not choose good seconds. Probably saving money.
2. Anand resigns when he senses hopeless situation whereas Carlson continues to play it. If anand was black in game 1 he would have resigned by move 20.