28
In short, the key idea is to prevent white from playing h2-h3!
Bc4 forces the exchange of light square bishops, and thus, sets up Rh3 which blocks the h2 pawn and keeps both the h2 and g4 pawns weak.
Concretely, the only piece currently covering h3 is the light squared bishop on f1, so by trading the bishop with Bc4, which white cannot prevent as Bg2 leaves ...
22
From a YouTube comment section dedicated to the game (I did not find the primary source, so it may be untrue):
Anand was asked about this in the interview after. Smirin did not
play the opening Anand was expecting. In a finale like this, White
must win and so will play something dangerous to avoid Black forcing a
simple draw. When Anand saw that Smirin was ...
15
There have been some shorter ones, for instance
Kasparov-Kramnik (2000), game 7, draw in 11 moves.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1252046
Kasparov-Anand (1995), game 18, draw in 12 moves.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1241980
Karpov-Kasparov (1984), game 29, draw in 13 moves.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=...
13
first of all see here. here is a quote
Asked how many moves ahead he can think, Kasparov replied that it
depended on the positions of the pieces. "Normally, I would calculate
three to five moves," he said. "You don't need more.... But I can go
much deeper if it is required." For example, in a position involving
forced moves, it's possible to look ...
11
One of Anand's strengths relative to Carlsen is better opening knowledge, and Anand also had the better analysis team. (UPDATE: According to Carlsen in a recent interview, his team of seconds during the Chennai match consisted of Hammer, Fressinet and Eljanov.) To repeat openings was a natural match strategy for him, trying to turn the match into an opening ...
10
First, note that the final ratings depend entirely on the score of the match, not on the particular games. For example, if they each win a game, their ratings will change by the same amount as if they draw both games. This may seem like a coincidence but it's just a consequence of the way that FIDE ratings work.
Here is the entire table of possible results. ...
10
The answer is: Yes
Krishnan Sasikiran vs Viswanathan Anand
FIDE World Cup-C (2002), Hyderabad, rd 2, Oct-05
King's Indian Attack: Yugoslav Variation (A07)
1-0
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1357060
9
This is an ill defined question, similar to: what is my girlfriend thinking about when we ... ?
But to stab at an answer, it would be completely dependent on the position. If the position has many tactical variations possible, the answer will probably be very far, 5, 6 or more moves ahead.
If the position is very closed, and positional strategy matters, ...
9
Phonon's answer is great, and I might not otherwise try to add anything, but I thought that adding Anand's own words might be worthy. In particular, of note, is that his "bad" Be7 holds his position together while his rooks go to work. This is not uncommon in Sicilian lines with d6 and e5 (and f6), and worth remembering if you play similar lines.
So, here ...
8
Ah. I somehow missed that during live relay. Thanks for sharing.
Mikhail Tal comes to mind based on his Life and Games. He mentioned about 'forgetting' to stop his clock during tournament games for the sake of his time troubled opponents.
I don't know how many of us mere mortals could consider doing that. He must have been a jolly good fellow.
8
[FEN ""]
[Event "WCh 2014"]
[Site "Sochi RUS"]
[Date "2014.11.08"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Anand, Viswanathan"]
[Black "Carlsen, Magnus"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[Eventdate "2014.11.08"]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 ...
7
The game was ambiguous until move 28, there is no clear way to win but as you mentioned white has the attacking form.
Let see the game from move 18.e5
2bqnrk1/5ppp/r7/pp1p2P1/2pPP3/P1P2PN1/R5BP/2Q2RK1 w - - 1 18
White is attacking on king's side as Kasparov mentioned he could play 18.Rb2 to avoid black to make a passed pawn and keep pressure in both king ...
7
I watched the press conference. It starts at the 4 hr 13 minute mark in this video.
Some quotes from Anand-
"I should play Kd2."
"I suspect White is better"
"but my head was spinning"
"I decided not to tempt fate."
"I was already very tired. The game had taken a lot of energy. I didn't see anything terribly clear....
6
3...h3 is wrong. The key is 3...Kf6!
[FEN "8/8/5k2/4p3/4P1Pp/4KP2/8/8 w - - 2 4"]
Note that:
White's king has to stay in the h-pawn's square, so it can't try to walk around the pawns.
Once white's king gets to h3, black should always be able to answer ...Kg5. If he does, then white's king can only retreat, unless he tries f4 there:
[FEN "8/8/8/4p1k1/...
6
The pawn endgame is a draw. Black doesn't play h3 until white plays f4, for instance
[White "Karjakin"]
[Black "Anand"]
[FEN "8/8/8/4p1k1/4P1Pp/5P2/3K4/8 w - - 0 1"]
3.Ke3 Kh6 4. f4 h3! 5. Kf3 exf4
If white doesn't play f4, then black only needs to be ready to answer Kh3 with Kg5, but that is never going to be a problem.
5
It depends what you mean by "basically". He cannot actually force a draw in any given game (otherwise he would have started doing it already, as soon as he won one game). However he can play drawish lines; the variation he went into in game 8, for example, is almost never lost by White at top levels.
It's going to be difficult for Carlsen to "force" a draw ...
5
Players such as Anand and Carlsen can play top-level blindfold chess. I assume this means that the number of moves ahead such players can "see" is essentially unlimited: at the board they can presumably visualize a continuation of the game to its conclusion. But a single very deep search down a single branch of an enormous game tree, though ...
5
Just thought to add the famous story (likely apocryphal):
During a tournament in the 1920s a newspaper reporter asked Richard Reti how many moves ahead he could read. Reti replied "I only see one move ahead: The right one."
5
I'm no pro but I can offer my (potentially incorrect) thoughts.
I always hear that you should capture toward the center, so was there
a reason why Kramnik played 5..dxc6 instead of 5...bxc6? I know
5...dxc6 opens up the file for the black Queen, but that is all I see.
Black gains development of both the queen AND the bishop. It's a free tempi which ...
5
With rook on g1, 13. gxh5 gives it a direct open file against the king.
Wrong! The black king is not on the g file. It is on the h file and the rook on f8 is ready, if required, to come to g8 and fight for the open file.
g5 allowed 13... Bg4, necessitating 14. Rxg4, an exchange sacrifice for the attack to continue.
Again, wrong. 13... Bg5 14 Rxg4 hxg4 ...
4
How far ahead a strong player like Anand sees depends on the position. On move 1 he doesn't see any moves ahead because he doesn't know which of several perfectly good replies his opponent will play. In the endgame there might be a forced line which is 15 or 20 moves long which he will see and so, by the way, will many weaker players.
The two significant ...
4
How about 28 Kf2? Answer either 28 ... Qc2+ or 28 ... Qd1 with 29. Ne2.
4
Technically speaking, the shortest game in a World Championship is Game 2 of the Fischer vs Spassky Match 1972, where Fischer did not show up to play and lost by forfeit. Fischer was supposed to play White in this game, so no moves were made on the board.
Another similar situation occured in Game 5 of Topalov vs Kramnik World Championship match in 2006, ...
4
To Quote GM Jonathan Tisdall, "Jonathan Tisdall @GMjtis I think in the pre-computer age people would not be criticizing Anand's 'incredible' decision for a few days at least."
And Jonathan Rowson, "@Jonathan_Rowson It's funny, if you follow the main online computer line on 41.Rc4 it reaches R&B vR: Lots of risk and still just a draw!"
I watched the ...
4
OK, the only World Champion I can name for being jolly besides already mentioned Mikhail Tal is probably Vladimir Kramnik, who is always a pleasure to listen to in interviews, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCURWc4tlYQ
If your counting the FIDE world champions then Ruslan Ponomariov springs to mind,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSirU4aJbKU
NOT world ...
4
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1666558 the shortest game is World Championship history. It's not so much the material difference, after Bd3 Qxb1+ two Rooks is not enough for the Queen and the Bishop, but the weakness around the Black King will cause Gelfand to lose anyway. After h6 and Ne4, d6 will fall and mate is always possible on g7. A ...
4
Well I'm no GM but for me there's a couple of things going on.
In the given position white is threatening to take the pawn on a6
If white can get a knight to d6 he will fork the rook on e8 and the bishop on f5, so winning the exchange after a move like Bd7
Thus black's move 23 protects the pawn on a6 by uncovering the line of the rook on a8. White then ...
3
Aronian played two sub-optimal moves in the middlegame - 16...Re7 and 18...h6. At each of these moves, the better move as per analysis by Houdini (depth 25 and above) was Nd5! (Houdini even prefers 17...Nd5, but 17...Rfe8 is not bad)
So his "mistake" was missing the opportunity to play Nd5, and instead playing 16...Re7 (which seems to be the major culprit) ...
3
Well, Carlsen certainly is going to be pretty comfortable for the rest of the games as white. He can choose lines that have a high drawing percentage.
I would expect Anand to start choosing more tactical lines as white and black. So far we've seen quite a bit of king pawn games, more specifically the Ruy Lopez. I wouldn't be surprised to see Anand break out ...
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