Magnus Carlsen scored the first win of the 2014 World Championship match, with a nice win over Viswanathan Anand. Anand played the Berlin Defence against Carlsen's Lopez, a solid choice, but one that gave Carlsen the simple positions he excels at. 14.Ra3 was an interesting idea by Carlsen, and one that caused Anand some difficulty in meeting. In fact Anand did not seem sure quite how to play against Carlsen's kingside attack, and by the time he avoided the direct threats, his position was compromised. The game ended with a blunder by Anand (34 ... h5??) but most commentators were already predicting a Carlsen win by that stage.
'Ominous' was the term used by Mark Crowther at TWIC, and this seems apt. In both games Anand has lost his way in simplified positions, seemingly playing the kind of game that better suits Carlsen. Before the match I thought that Anand was going to continue his strategy from the second half of the 2013 match (taking the game to Carlsen), but he has not done this so far. Today is a rest day, but I suspect there will be little rest as Anand and his team look at the best strategy for the remaining games.
Carlsen,Magnus (2863) - Anand,Viswanathan (2792) [C65]
WCh 2014 Sochi RUS (2), 09.11.2014
No comments:
Post a Comment