Fifth Anand-Carlsen game ends in a draw

Contrary to the expectations of some exciting chess, the fifth game of the World Chess Championship between champion Magnus Carlsen and challenger Viswanathan Anand at Sochi, in Russia, Friday ended in a draw on the 39th move.

Though the Indian chess ace Anand displayed good form and pushed the reigning champion on to the back foot, Carlsen got out of the bind exchanging pieces.

At the end of the fifth round, both players have 2.5 points each in the 12-game match.

Anand started the game with white pieces, moving his queen pawn to which Carlsen replied bringing out his knight to f3 square.

Both the players played their initial moves very fast and the challenger paused a bit for his eighth move consuming six minutes.

After his loss in the third round playing black, Carlsen decided to play it simple.

Replying to Anand's move faster than in his defeat in the third round, Carlsen showed that he was better prepared this time around.

The challaneger's 20th move of putting his knight on the d5 square made the game interesting but Carlsen was unruffled.

The Norwegian also decided to hunt for Anand's pawn on b2 square instead of going for an exchange of queens which he normally prefers to do.

Anand's foray to the seventh rank with his rook did not yield much results.

Anand decided not to prolong the game and settled for a draw.

Carlsen will play with white pieces Saturday.

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be contacted at v.jagannathan@ians.in)