2014 World Championship - Carlsen Wins

Magnus Carlsen has retained his World Championship title, with a win over Viswantahan Anand in the 11th game of their match. The final score of 6.5-4.5 (predicted here) was closer than the 2013 Match, which Carlsen won by a 3 point margin.
Game 11 saw Anand try and play more aggressively, after the by now familar Ruy Lopez Berlin Variation. Sensing that this was his final chance Anand played an exchange sacrifice on Move 27. While both players criticised the decision after the game, the idea did have an historical precedence, being played by Alekhine against Selesniev in 1921. In the current game Carlsen was able to find enough tactics to neutralise Anand's hoped for counterplay, and then win the subsequent endgame.
With this win Carlsen holds the title for the next 2 years. The next candidates tournament is 18 months away, and while Anand is eligible to play in that event, most of the early money is going on Fabiano Caruana to be Carlsen's next challenger.


Carlsen,Magnus (2863) - Anand,Viswanathan (2792) [C67]
WCh 2014 Sochi RUS (11), 23.11.2014