Anand Defeats Carlsen In Round Four

Anand Defeats Carlsen In Round Four
By Arvind Aaron

Former five time world chess champion Viswanathan Anand defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the fourth round to register his first victory. Anand is on 2.5/4 in this 10-player Norway Chess 2015 event.

The two older players had their day in Norway on June 19. The other, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria defeated Levon Aronian of Armenia in a queen’s gambit Ragozin to move into sole lead on 3.5/4. Five rounds remain to be played.

In the last five rounds, Anand has three black games and two white games. In the first four, he enjoyed three white games. “I misjudged the position and followed that by horrible play,” said Carlsen who lost his third game. Carlsen is without a victory.

Organisers had apologised to the players and Carlsen about the change in time control. Carlsen who plays with a high degree of risk, is more exposed when he starts to lose. He wants to make a comeback and pays that price. This aspect of chess can be compared to gambling. A 0.5/4 should be an all-time low score for any world champion in a classical chess.

The problem started for Carlsen on move 27 when he had to do something on the queen side before white pushes on his king side. Carlsen sacrificed one pawn. Anand sacrificed an exchange. Anand took back two exchanges and won on move 47.

The standings after four rounds: 1 V Topalov (Bul) 3.5/4; 2 H Nakamura (USA) 3; 3-4. V Anand (Ind), A Giri (Ned) 2.5 each; 5-7. F Caruana (Ita), A Grischuk (Rus), M Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) 2 each; 8-9. L Aronian (Arm), Jon Ludvig Hammer (Nor) 1 each; 10 M Carlsen (Nor) 0.5.