Chess (#1072)

The world championship match is wending to a close and we're within an ace of Magnus Carlsen's coronation as the new world champion. The Norwegian GM has played smooth, error-free chess in dominating the match. After game 9 he leads 3-0 with a score of 6-3 and he needs only one draw in the last three games to complete a stunningly one-sided victory.

The rating differential had of course, predicted an outcome close to this but everybody had expected Viswanthan Anand to produce tougher opposition in the match. As it turned out, Carlsen was scarcely troubled after game three and he pounced on three egregious errors by Anand.

Two of those errors were in rook endings in game 5, and game 6, which were technically tenable. The third came in game 9 as Anand finally threw caution to the winds and attempted to pull one back. That was an appalling one-move blunder in a middlegame where Anand chased the chimera of a win that wasn't there.

What was inexplicable was Anand's opening strategy. He got stuck into playing the arid positions of the Berlin Wall time and time again and he also tried this system with black. The Berlin leads to very stable positions where white has little in the way of attacking chances. Anand refused to switch systems until the match was all but lost. When he did play 1.d4 in Game 9, he got an excellent position.

The new champion is young personable, and above all, a very strong player. Given his youth and his high levels of physical fitness he could well rule the world for decades. The rating list, which is based on relative performances, indicates that the gap between him and the rest of the world is growing. Carlsen is also a player who wrings out positions to the bitter end. That creates its own pressures.

THE DIAGRAM , WHITE TO PLAY, (Anand Vs Carlsen, Game 9, World Championships 2013) is a very unbalanced position. White has the makings of a huge attack. But Black's passed pawn on b3 will generate counterplay so black has winning chances if white loses time or misses the best shot.

Anand committed here to 23.Qf4 after 40 minutes thought and forced play continued 23...Nc7 24.f6 Maybe white should wait with 24. Qh4 Black's replies are forced after f6

Carlsen played 24...g6 25.Qh4 Ne8 26.Qh6!? Allowing black to queen - it might be the best move even though it doesn't win. 26...b2 27.Rf4!? b1Q+ 28.Nf1?? Qe1 (0-1) The queen controls h4 and 29. Rh4 Qxh4 is easy.

Instead 28.Bf1Qd1 29.Rh4 Qh5 30.Nxh5 gxh5 31.Rxh5 Bf5 32.Bh3 Bg6 33.e6 Nxf6 34.gxf6 Qxf6 35.Re5 fxe6 36.Qe3 is a wonderful variation with the play probably petering to a draw.

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player