Game 2 Anand vs Carlsen-WCC Analysis
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The game opened with a Caro Kahn. Anand opening the king’s pawn and Carlsen replying with c6. Anand got the queen side knight to play while Carlsen got the bishop. Anand forwarded the other Knight to f3 and then to f6. In the 9th move, both the players lost their white bishop.
A move of the bishop to Bb4 and back to e7 . A Knight move from g6 was followed by castling by the Indian. Carlsen came up with a king side castling which surprised a lot of fans. In the next few moves, e4 and e5 proved to be the centre of action as both the players lost their knight and set the stage up for the turning point of the match. Queens at e4 and d5, Anand had to chose either to secure the castle by moving back to b2 or forwarding the march by moving to g4 but he decided to axe Carlsen’s queen and pawn from the black pawn from c6 did the rest.
The moves from 15 to 18 decided the fate of what promised to be a long match.
A h3 of the rook from Anand and a5, b5 from Carlsen looked like an attack was not a possibility any time soon considering the immobility of the bishop even with the advantage of initiating an attack. Kh7, Rf3 and a repetition of moves followed to finish the match.
A Repetition of the matches followed by the hand shakes meant that yet another game is tied.
In the post match press conference, Anand did agree that Caro Kahn was a bit of surprise considering the Norwegian’s usual style of play and said the situation was complicated when he decided to exchange queens. Magnus Carlsen on the other hand, said the start was similar to the one he had at contenders tournament. Both of them decided not to answer the questions about the trust ability of the current 12-match format.
Hello everyone, I am GM Vidit Gujrathi and will be commenting game 2 of the FWCM 2013 that starts today at 14:30 IST (10:00 CET). After yesterday's draw (which you can replay with my commentary here) Carlsen has shaken off the pressure, while Anand has achieved a targeted result with black. Today is a different story and we will see real action on the chess board.
1. e4 c6 Anand starts with e4 and Carlsen opts for 1..c6 Caro kann! A surprise! It is an extremely solid opening, but in WCC e5 has been played more often.
2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 The mainline of Caro Kan.The other option was to go with 3.e5. There are a lot of forced lines in 3.Nc3,I hope to see some exciting stuff today.
3... dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 The other way to play is Nd7,which is not that popular these days. Karpov used it very well in the 90s
5. Ng3 Bg6 6. h4 h6 7. Nf3 e6 The mainline is Nd7 which I have played myself quite often. while the text isn't that well explored.
8. Ne5 Bh7 9. Bd3 Bxd3 10. Qxd3 Nd7 They have followed the mainline after e6 until here.Here White can play f4 and Bf4. f4 is certainly more aggressive.
11. f4 Bb4+ A known motif. In various lines of caro-kann this check is played. The idea is to provoke c3 which loosens the grip on d3.
12. c3 Be7 A very less explored line.Here white has to take an important decision.Usually in such positions White should sacrifice the h4 pawn and gain momentum in development.13.Bd2-Bh4 14.O-O-O looks like the way to go
13. Bd2 Ngf6 Both players are blitzing their moves here.It will be interesting to see whose preparation will be superior. Note: expect photos at this link in a few minutes
14. O-O-O O-O The other option was to play c5 !? Now white has to chose a proper plan.The knight on g3 is awkwardly placed,so he needs to redeploy it. White can either go for the simple Ne4 or for a slower manoeuvrings with maybe Qf3-Ne2 and g4 !? Generally,in such positions White's basic aim to is develop initiative on kingside while Black tries to breakthrough with c5.
15. Ne4 I am surprised that Anand took a while to play.As I recall he already had played 14.Qe2 in Alekhine Memorial earlier. Now Black can take use of the fact that White hasn't played the usual h5 by 15..Ne4 16.Qe4 Nf6 17.Qe2- h5 !? Although he certainly needs to take 18.g4 in consideration there. 15 moves are over and no signs of early draw. So far so good ;)
15... Nxe4 16. Qxe4 Nxe5 I expected Nf6. Now,after the almost forced 17.fe5 Qd5 18.Qg4 Kh7 19.Kb1 black can go for f5 !? Black also has the complicated option of playing f5 immediately after Qg4. Although I am not so sure about it.
17. fxe5 Qd5 Exchanging the queens seems like a simple draw. After Qg4 white must consider the immediate f5 seriously.18.Qg4 f5 19.Qg6 Qa2 20.Bh6-Rf7 looks unclear to me.
18. Qxd5 Surprise ! Now I don't think white has any edge here. ed and cd are both possible,but ed5 followed by f6 looks very convincing to me.
18... cxd5 19. h5 Now black can go for some queenside expansion with b5-a5 - Rfc8. Looks equal to me.
19... b5 Yes,he does go for it ! I don't see how white can put some pressure on black here.Rh3-g3 lift is easily parried with Kh7. This is certainly an opening success for Magnus. Do not forget to get your copy of the fresh Garry Kasparov's choice here
20. Rh3 a5 21. Rf1 I see a draw already. After any black move white will play Rg3-Kh7 and Rgf3 followed by a repetition.
21... Rac8 22. Rg3 Kh7 23. Rgf3 Kg8 24. Rg3 Kh7 25. Rgf3 And this is a draw. Thank you for following with me GM Vidit Gujrathi and see you tomorrow for more live commentary!
25... Kg8 ½-½
15. Kb1 maybe...
