It would be a battle between Viswanathan Anand's wealth of experience and Magnus Carlsen's ability to play in any position when the two greats of the game face-off in the much-anticipated World Chess Championship beginning this month, feel a majority of Indian Grand Masters.
Anand's strength lie in his experience of playing against top class opponents like Anatoly Karpov, Boris Gelfand, Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov and his rigorous pre-event preparation.
Carlsen, on the other hand, relies on his never-say-die attitude even in losing positions, putting his opponents under pressure, making them commit mistakes, and play different sidelines each time, explained the GMs.
"Anand is a great player. His understanding of game is very high and he has a much better tactical framework. It would be difficult for Carlsen to caught Vishy off-guard with so much experience behind him. The World Championship will see the best of Vishy coming out. My point is don't give Carlsen initial leads and that will make him frustrating," World's second-ever youngest GM Parimarjan Negi told PTI.
"Magnus is young but Anand has more experience. Magnus has won more tournaments but Anand has more match experience. I think it will be one of the toughest matches for Anand.
"Magnus is in excellent shape and his biggest advantage is he can play in any kind of position. His fighting spirit, tactical endgame to break down his opponents, play different sidelines adds to his class," added Negi.
Given the statistics, Anand holds the advantage. The two have played 29 games so far in the Classical format with Anand winning six and Carlsen clinching three while the remaining 20 ending in draws.
The November 9 to 28 match can be best described by a famous line will be a 12-game tussle in Chennai.
Carlsen has broken all records, scaled one peak after the other like no one else and won almost everything except the World championship at a young age of just 22 years.
