Game 6 of the 2014 World Championship match will probably go down as a 'game for the ages', but not in a good way. On move 26 both players seemed to overlook the advice (from CJS Purdy) that your should look at 'all checks and captures', and produced an astonishing double blunder. After 26. Kd2 Anand missed 26. ... Nxe5 27.Rxg8 Nxc4+ 28.Kd3 Nb2+ when the knight escapes and he recaptures on g8 with a couple of pawns in the bag. Instead he though for a minute before playing 26. ... a4 and Carlsen avoided any further danger with 27.Ke2 It was only after playing his 26th move did Anand realise what he had missed, and this probably affected his play for the rest of the game. Although Carlsen was only a little better after this, he quickly improved his position and Anand resigned on move 38.
After the first half of the match Carlsen lead 3.5-2.5. And once again momentum seems to have shifted, with Carlsn getting a clear boost from this game. While mistakes of this nature have occurred in previous World Championship matches, the shift to fewer games does make it harder to recover from.
Carlsen,Magnus (2863) - Anand,Viswanathan (2792) [B41]
WCh 2014 Sochi RUS (6), 15.11.2014
1 comment:
The shorter format does make it harder. Anand really needs to win in the classical format as he'll get hammered in the rapid tiebreaker. Means he has to win at least two of the next six games without losing any. If he loses even one, he has to win three.
I'd say the momentum at this stage has definitely shifted to Carlsen, although I would never write Anand out of the picture till the fat lady sings.
James
Post a Comment