Cover Story / World Championship
HOW CARLSEN WON Some pundits believed that Anand’s
experience would outweigh Carlsen’s rating advantage but, by the end of 10 tense games, Carlsen showed himself to be clearly the superior player, capable of handling the Indian legend in positions of all types. The Anand match extended Carlsen’s
streak of 2800+ performances to 18, the sort of consistency comparable to the recently ended run by Roger Federer in Grand Slams. Carlsen eschewed tradition by having
only family and people such as his doctor and chef with him in Chennai. Back in Norway, Norwegian number two Jon Ludvig Hammer would coordinate opening preparation generated by Team Carlsen— Hammer plus top grandmasters in various countries—and then communicate the ideas to Carlsen in Chennai via Skype. After the match Carlsen gave due credit to Hammer with making his openings with black near indestructible. With white Carlsen looked less assured,
his attempts to avoid main lines by playing 1. Nf3 and 2. g3 in games one and three needing to be abandoned. Rising and eating not long before the
game, Carlsen’s ability to work just as hard and accurately at the end of a six- hour game as at the beginning was perhaps a decisive factor, helped by excel lent physical fitness. Unflappability was another key Carlsen
trait which helped to defeat Anand. Usually, when a player makes a mistake they become depressed and more mistakes follow; the way Anand fell to defeat in game six. Carlsen, however, has great self- belief, trusting that his skills are so great that he can avoid loss even when his situation is perilous, as in game nine. He also believed that he could win any roughly equal position and he did so twice, in games five and six. Carlsen also took regular breaks from
the hot-house of the Hyatt Regency—where journalists and fans were constantly on the lookout for the world number one—by traveling on monsoon-free rest days to Fisherman’s Cove, a beach resort 100 kilo meters from Chennai.
“I had hoped to match him in long games but I was not able to execute my strategy.” ~ANAND
24 February 2014 | Chess Life
WHY ANAND LOST The seeds for Anand’s defeat may have
been planted as far back as the Nanjing Pearl Spring tournament of 2010. Viswanathan Anand was sitting down to
dinner, exhausted, after a six-hour struggle against rising star Magnus Carlsen. Anand had scraped a draw by the skin
of his teeth and his words were full of praise for the Norwegian teenager: “That kid is amazing,” said Anand. “He can do things even Vlady [Kramnik] can’t do.” Even Kramnik, a master of maneuvering
could not take a dead equal position, generate a slight edge, turn that edge into an attack and then turn the attack into a winning advantage, as Carlsen had just done in Nanjing. After losing five times previously to the world champion, Carlsen had Anand’s respect. Respect for your opponent is necessary,
but before the world title match Kramnik pinpointed Anand’s respect for Carlsen as a possible handicap, saying in May, “I think Anand is somewhat intimidated by Carlsen—he’s scared of him.” From respect to fear is a significant
leap, but either can lead to one of chess’ deadly sins—pessimism. Pessimism led Anand to lose trust in his
play; to fail to look for winning opportu- nities and to give up hope when defensive resources were available. Pessimism led Anand to jump at ghosts. In game three Anand, despite outplaying Carlsen, confessed that he never thought his advantage was going to be enough to win. With this mindset, he failed to find— or failed to look for—a trick, available on two consecutive moves, which would likely have decided the game in Anand’s favor. At the press conference following game
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