World Chess Championship 2014: Magnus Carlsen inches closer to retaining the title as game 10 ends in draw

Viswanathan Anand – Magnus Carlsen, World Chess Championship 2014, Sochi

Magnus Carlsen is slowly, but surely inching towards retaining his title as game 10 ended in a draw. Viswanathan Anand seemed to have an edge out of the opening today, but unfortunately for him the position was too complex to calculate, with time running out the Indian decided to play a varation that led to quick exchanges, and a draw was agreed. After 10 games, Magnus Carlsen leads 5.5 – 4.5 with two games to go.

The opening surprised many as Magnus Carlsen went back to the Grunfeld defense which was forsaken after game 1. Viswanathan Anand replied with the Russian system, which is his pet variation. The game followed Radoslaw Wojtaszek vs Ruslan Ponomariov, 2012 up until the Norwegian deviated with 14... Ne4. The position looked promising for White after Black decided to capture White’s Knight with 15... Bxe4 instead of Rxe4. The Indian had many options and he chose not to commit d6 and went for the tamer 16. Qc1 to which Black replied with the active 16... Qf6 aiming for a Queen exchange which was accomplished giving him some breathing space.

Anand held a healthy edge out of the opening, however the position was very complex for both sides. After White’s 19. Ng5, Magnus sank into deep thought for the first time in the game and took over 30 minutes for the reply 19... Bd4, amidst there was a relay error on the live website which momentarily showed 19....Bxg2 played by Black, a blunder which likely would have come as a shock to Magnus fans, but much to the disappointment of Anand fans the move was never played. The Indian had a definite advantage, but started consuming a lot of time.

White’s 24. Rd2 gave up the important e-file and once Anand realized that he couldn’t see a clear way to increase his advantage and with his clock ticking away decided not to press further. He went for a drawing variation which led to exchanges with the game transposing to a double-rook ending, the players agreed to a draw. Anand mentioned that he was still there, when asked about his title aspirations with two games left in the match.

Tomorrow is a rest day and with just two games left, Viswanathan Anand needs to go all out and look for something sharper with the Black pieces to test Magnus Carlsen. Relying on White to score a win hasn’t worked, although he has gotten closer with each game, it wouldn’t harm giving the Norwegian a scare in the next game.

Points Table

Players\Games	G1	G2	G3	G4	G5	G6	G7	G8	G9	G10	G11	G12	Points
Magnus_Carlsen	0.5	1	0	0.5	0.5	1	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5			5.5
Viswanathan_Anand	0.5	0	1	0.5	0.5	0	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5			4.5

I can see the mighty Knight landing on g5 in the near future and things could get really tricky for the Champion #CarlsenAnand

— Abhijeet Gupta (@iam_abhijeet) November 21, 2014

Big psychological boost for Carlsen. If he can do something with white on 11th round then its over. #CarlsenAnand

— Ramesh RB (@Rameshchess) November 21, 2014