Anand, Carlsen split points in fourth game

World chess champion Magnus Carlsen and title challenger India's Viswanathan Anand Wednesday decided to split points after 47 moves in their fourth game of the title match held in Russia.

At the end of the fourth game, both players have two points each in the 12-game match.

"Anand started off quite sharply and got into a fine position, but eventually he switched rather unnecessarily to defence. It seems though that he managed to defend it after all," world No.7 and Grandmaster Anish Giri told IANS.

It was a different opening this time around, with Carlson playing white starting the game with e4.

The Indian chess don decided to be different and opted for the Sicilian defence and played c5.

The game progressed slowly with no pieces going off the board till the 17th move.

Tweeted Giri: "Frankly it looks quite dull, but maybe Magnus will come up with something interesting, as he often manages to."

As if bored with the game's progress, Carlsen went for the first piece exchange at 17th move, trading his knight for the challenger's knight.

Carlsen followed with pawn move c4 with an idea to have a play at the centre.

On move 20, Anand retracted his knight to h7 giving Carlsen some space.

After exchange of pawns, Carlsen went for rook exchange on his 22nd move and brought out his queen to the centre with Qd3.

Tweeted Indian International Master V. Saravanan: "Forget nationalities & admire Carlsen's 23.Qd3: White is a picture of harmony."

At this juncture, experts felt if at all anybody wins it would be Carlsen or the game would end in a draw.

However, the game chugged along with the remaining rooks going off the board with Carlsen going in for an exchange.

With both the players having just their queen, knight and five pawns each, and Anand having brought the situation under control, the position was considered even.

On the chess board, behind every successful king there is a queen. And this turned out to be true for Anand's black king.

Anand held on to his queen despite attempts by Carlsen to exchange them.

For Carlsen, black queen was the hurdle as he was having a better pawn structure which was advantageous at the end.

The Indian's survival chances were centered around his d5 passer pawn.

"But for the black's pawn on d4 square the game was lost for Anand. At the end Carlsen had a draw for asking with perpetual checks whereas it was a challenging task for the challenger Anand to split the points," world No.23 and Indian Grandmaster P. Harikrishna told IANS.

Summing up the fourth game, Giri said: "Good news for him (Anand), but I think it is important for him in the coming games to play with more confidence. Suffering against Carlsen, is a risky thing to do."

Thursday is a rest day. Anand will Friday play white in round 5.