"Massively relieved" Carlsen takes the lead in dramatic World Championship game 6

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World Chess Championship 2014 (6)

"Massively relieved" Carlsen takes the lead in dramatic World Championship game 6

Mark Crowther - Saturday 15th November 2014

Magnus Carlsen deep in concentration during game 6. Photo ©

Magnus Carlsen deep in concentration during game 6. Photo © | http://sochi2014.fide.com

Magnus Carlsen won the sixth game of his defence of his World Chess Championship title against Viswanathan Anand but only after a massive blunder that went unpunished by his opponent. Carlsen had the white pieces for the first of a series of two games so this was always likely to be a tense affair, what happened could not possibly have been predicted. This two point swing from being a point down to a point up in favour of Carlsen is a huge one in favour of the champion and there is no minimising the damage this has done to Anand's chances. The only small comfort for Anand is that Carlsen made a very serious blunder and he still doesn't look at his best.

Carlsen again opened 1.e4 and Anand again played the Sicilian followed by 2..e6. This time Carlsen took it head on with 3.d4 and setting up a bind with 5.c4. As the opening developed many Grandmasters expressed real surprise at the passive choice of position Anand had clearly prepared.

"It's a really strange choice to my taste."... "especially against Magnus" said Kramnik who had looked at this line many years ago and concluded "white is better with no risk."

However whilst white was better and black had no real counterplay it didn't prove all that easy for Carlsen to break through. Whilst the choice puzzled many most likely Anand's team discovered it isn't all that easy for white to break through. However there aren't many players sign up for this against Carlsen at any price and many feel Anand isn't at his best in these defensive setups either.

Carlsen played 24.Bd1 which looked a very interesting idea but after 24...Rd8 chose to repeat and then try another idea. This turned out to be 26.Kd2? which in moving the King into checking range allowed Anand a relatively straightforward combination 26... Nxe5 27. Rxg8 Nxc4+ 28. Kd3 Nb2+ picking up two pawns for nothing and giving him very good winning chances. Carlsen saw this as soon as he played 26.Kd2 and witnesses say it was obvious from his body language alone there was something wrong.

When did Carlsen realise he had made a mistake? "Just after I made the move. Somehow that's always the way it is. When you see the position at the board it just hits you immediately."

How did Carlsen feel? "It's just the same at any level. It's just a feeling of complete panic. Sometimes you're very, very lucky and you get away with it."

How did Carlsen keep a poker face? "I don't think I kept my poker face at all."

Just over a minute later Anand carried out his intended plan with 26... a4? missing his golden opportunity to strike a major blow with black in the match and which also may not have been a very good move in its own right either. Carlsen quickly replied 27.Ke2 taking away the combination and his position had vastly improved.

Anand said "When you're not expecting a gift sometimes you just don't take it. Rg4 I had the same problem. As soon as I played a5 I saw it. Because I was looking for this a5-a4 counterplay I thought it would be helpful for me to do this and I was just very focused on that."

Did it affect Anand? "I don't know, given the way I played the rest of the game, probably."

Anand too realised straight away what he had missed and his play was not that good for the rest of the game. Anand's plan of a4-a3 was about generating counter-play and let to an opportunity later.

How do you recover if you see you've missed such an opportunity? "My experience shows you don't recover." Kramnik

Carlsen criticised his own play over the next moves.

"I don't know about him but for me as you can see my play wasn't that confident as you can see I didn't feel that I found the right setup, I went back and forth with the king. I guess it affected me to some extent." Carlsen

Anand missed a pretty good chance to at least save the game by giving up the exchange with 32...Ka7 according to Nakamura who demonstrated that black can become very active with Re1. After 32...Bc6 Anand's position just collapsed quickly and he resigned. The players didn't exchange any words on the stage probably not wanting to discuss what had happened until they were out of sight of the crowd.

Anand summed up the entire game: "Actually a pretty terrible game."

Could the World Championship title have been lost there? "Obviously, yes." Carlsen

Carlsen asked if he was disappointed not relieved. "No, I'm relieved. Massively relieved, usually you feel happy when you win, today it's mostly relief, I think it was a good game to some point and then when you get such a massive gift you feel massive relieved." Carlsen

"The one move you make instantly in a game is the one move you should have thought about." Peter Svidler

Sergey Karyakin on twitter @SergeyKaryakin "When Magnus blundered with Kd2, I was in the playing hall, and wanted to scream NE5!!! It could have changed chess history I guess;-)."

Score Carlsen 3.5 - Anand 2.5

Game 7 Monday 17th November 2014 3pm local time, 12pm GMT: Carlsen-Anand.

Game 6 notes

Carlsen,Magnus (2863) - Anand,Viswanathan (2792) [B41]
WCh 2014 Sochi RUS (6), 15.11.2014
[Crowther,Mark]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 Bb4 7.Qd3 Nc6

[Relevant: 7...Qc7 8.a3 Bxc3+ 9.Qxc3 Nxe4 10.Nb5 axb5 11.Qxg7 Rf8 12.Bh6 Qc5 13.f3 b4 14.fxe4 Nc6 15.Qxf8+ Qxf8 16.Bxf8 Kxf8 17.Bd3 bxa3 18.Rxa3 Rxa3 19.bxa3 d6 20.Kd2 Ne5 21.Be2 Bd7 22.Ke3 Bc6 23.Rc1 Nd7 24.h4 h6 25.Bf3 e5 26.Bg4 Nc5 27.Bf5 Kg7 28.Rb1 Kf6 29.g4 Kg7 30.Rg1 f6 31.Rd1 1-0 Nepomniachtchi,I (2730)-Svidler,P (2753) Dubai 2014]

8.Nxc6 dxc6 9.Qxd8+ Kxd8 10.e5

Kramnik said he had looked at this many years ago "I thought white is better with no risk."

10...Nd7N

Viswanathan Anand

Magnus Carlsen

Position after 10...Nd7

FEN:
r1bk3r/1p1n1ppp/p1p1p3/4P3/1bP5/2N5/PP3PPP/R1B1KB1R w KQ - 0 11

[Predecessor (2): 10...Ne4 11.a3 Bxc3+ 12.bxc3 Kc7 13.Be3 b6 14.Bd3 Nc5 15.Bxc5 bxc5 16.0-0-0 Bb7 17.Rhe1 Rad8 18.Re3 Rd7 19.Bf1 Rxd1+ 20.Kxd1 Rd8+ 21.Kc2 Kd7 22.Rg3 g6 23.Rh3 Rh8 24.Bd3 h6 25.Kb3 Kc7 26.Rf3 Rh7 27.g4 Kb6 28.Rh3 Bc8 29.Be2 Bd7 30.Rf3 Bc8 31.Rf6 Rg7 32.h4 Kc7 33.Ka4 Kb6 34.Rf3 Bd7 35.Rd3 Kc7 36.Rf3 Kb6 37.Kb3 Kc7 38.Bd3 Be8 39.Rf6 Rg8 40.Be4 Flores Rios,M (2391)-Lemos,D (2460) Villa Martelli 2008 1-0]

11.Bf4

"I'm pretty happy with the position I got from the opening." Carlsen.

11...Bxc3+ 12.bxc3 Kc7 13.h4 b6 14.h5 h6 15.0-0-0 Bb7 16.Rd3

[16.Rh3]

16...c5

"To my taste in general white is much better" Kramnik.

17.Rg3 Rag8 18.Bd3 Nf8

"Vishy reached this position with something like half an hour on the clock. It seemed to me still his preparation." Svidler

19.Be3 g6

"He doesn't have to go g6. He can go something like Bc6 and Be8..." Carlsen.

[19...Bc6 20.Rh4 Be8 "but it's realy not very nice." Carlsen.; 19...g5 is unlikely to make a big difference as white will also capture.]

20.hxg6 Nxg6

Viswanathan Anand

Magnus Carlsen

Position after 20...Nxg6

FEN:
6rr/1bk2p2/pp2p1np/2p1P3/2P5/2PBB1R1/P4PP1/2K4R w - - 0 21

Svidler thought Anand's team must have looked at this position too.

21.Rh5

"Maybe it is holdable but black is not so much worse in the start position to go for trying to hold it. Especially against Magnus who is really a very tough presser. It's a really strange choice to my taste." Kramnik

21...Bc6 22.Bc2

"After that [g6] I should be much better but I struggled to find a good plan since I need to play f3 and regroup the rook but that's not so easy since he'll be attacking my g2 pawn." Carlsen.

22...Kb7 23.Rg4 a5 24.Bd1

"White is now threatening to take on h6 in some lines because the rook on h5 will be protected." Svidler. Although that turns out not to be quite true.

24...Rd8

[24...Ka7 25.Bxh6? (25.Kb2 Kb7 26.Bc2 and white hasn't made much progress.) 25...Rd8! cuts across Svidler's idea that the Rh5 will be protected.]

25.Bc2

"I just don't see what's the fun here." Kramnik on black's position.

[25.Bd2 is the computer idea. 25...Ka6 (25...Rhg8) ; 25.Be2 Ne7 (25...Rd7 26.Bd1 Rdd8 repeating seems best.) 26.Rg7]

25...Rdg8

Viswanathan Anand

Magnus Carlsen

Position after 25...Rdg8

FEN:
6rr/1k3p2/1pb1p1np/p1p1P2R/2P3R1/2P1B3/P1B2PP1/2K5 w - - 0 26

26.Kd2?

Viswanathan Anand

Magnus Carlsen

Position after 26.Kd2

FEN:
6rr/1k3p2/1pb1p1np/p1p1P2R/2P3R1/2P1B3/P1BK1PP1/8 b - - 0 26

"Obviously 26.Kd2, shouldn't happen. I was just extremely lucky. " Carlsen. When did he see it was a mistake? "Immediately after I made my move." "There are very few moves that spoil my position, basically just 26.Kd2" Carlsen

[26.Kd1 Carlsen's suggestion was Kd1 26...Nf8 27.Rf4 Be8 28.Rh2 (28.g3 f5) 28...Ng6; 26.Rg3 Ne7 27.Rxg8 Rxg8 28.g3 Bf3 29.Rxh6]

26...a4?

Anand misses the chance to completely turn the tables and after only a minute of thought.

[26...Nxe5 27.Rxg8 Nxc4+ 28.Kd3 Nb2+ 29.Kd2 Rxg8 30.g3 with either Nc4+ or Rd8+to follow and a huge advantage to black. 30...Nc4+ (30...Rd8+) ; 26...Kc7 even if he missed the winning idea, a4 is a bad concept too.]

27.Ke2

"I have to allow a3 and now I wasn't really finding the right plan" Carlsen.

[27.a3 is the move white would like to play but he needs to take the Nxe5 tactic off. This was probably the moment Anand realised what he had done.]

27...a3?

This move seems to be quite bad and possibly the losing move.

[27...Ne7]

28.f3 Rd8 29.Ke1

This seems a rather odd move.

29...Rd7 30.Bc1 Ra8 31.Ke2

"I liked my setup here I thought, but I jumped the gun with Ba4, somewhere I made a mistake which I saw later, these lines with bishop check Bb3 but I'm just one move slow everywhere." Anand.

31...Ba4

"Ba4 is probably bad" Carlsen.

[31...Ne7 was the move the players discussed after the game. "I could have held probably" Anand. The computers are already giving white a big advantage where. 32.Rg7; 31...Rad8]

32.Be4+

Viswanathan Anand

Magnus Carlsen

Position after 32.Be4

FEN:
r7/1k1r1p2/1p2p1np/2p1P2R/b1P1B1R1/p1P2P2/P3K1P1/2B5 b - - 0 32

32...Bc6?

The losing move [32...Ka7 was given by Nakamura as a very reasonable chance as black's remaining rook soon reaches e1]

33.Bxg6 fxg6 34.Rxg6

The game is all but over.

34...Ba4 35.Rxe6 Rd1 36.Bxa3 Ra1 37.Ke3 Bc2 38.Re7+ 1-0

Watch the board as the errors in game 6 are made

Sergey Karjakin restrained himself from shouting Ne5 as he watch the game unfold

Sergey Karjakin said he restrained himself from shouting out Ne5! as he watched the game unfold. Photo © http://www.sochi2014.fide.com/.

WCh Sochi
Anand, Viswanathan	-	Carlsen, Magnus	½-½	48	D85	Gruenfeld Defence
Carlsen, Magnus	-	Anand, Viswanathan	1-0	35	C65	Ruy Lopez Berlin
Anand, Viswanathan	-	Carlsen, Magnus	1-0	34	D37	QGD 5.Bf4
Carlsen, Magnus	-	Anand, Viswanathan	½-½	47	B40	Sicilian Classical
Anand, Viswanathan	-	Carlsen, Magnus	½-½	39	E15	Queens Indian
Carlsen, Magnus	-	Anand, Viswanathan	1-0	38	B41	Sicilian Paulsen