Carlsen Wins, Anand Loses

By Arvind Aaron

World champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway started his classical chess campaign since winning the world title in Chennai on a winning note at Zurich on January 30, 2014.

Carlsen’s  first victory over Gelfand of Israel was purely from tactics that followed a queenless middlegame. The mega category event started on an eventful manner with two decisive games and one draw fought to the wire after one side did not have mating material.

The confidence gained at Chennai seemed to have helped Carlsen who had finished second to Gelfand in the Tal Memorial at Moscow in the middle of last year.

Former world champion Anand sacrificed a bishop for two pawns against nemesis Aronian but it did not yield the best result and he lost a long 73-move encounter. Aronian played the English opening with the white pieces.

Young stars Hikaru Nakamura of USA and Fabiano Caruana fought a draw. Off form Nakamura had a king and a knight to Caruana’s king when a draw was agreed upon in 67 moves.

This event is organised by the Zurich Chess Club, a 204-year old club, the oldest on record. It is a six player single all-play-all and four rounds remain to be played.

The results: M Carlsen (Nor) bt B Gelfand (Isr), L Aronian (Arm) bt V Anand (Ind), H Nakamura (USA) drew with F Caruana (Ita).