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Game Seven of the World Chess Championship showed every sign of continuing for a very long time. After 61 moves, Magnus Carlsen held a clear advantage against Viswanathan Anand in a complex endgame, but it was not an easy position to win. Expert opinion was divided as to the real verdict on the position. World champion Carlsen leads the 12-game match by 3.5-2.5 and if he can win this game, he would take a big lead.
Anand did not repeat the Sicilian Defence he had played in game six when Carlsen repeated his King's Pawn Opening. Instead, Anand adopted the Berlin Defence to Carlsen's Spanish Opening and both players very quickly rattled off 25 moves. Both players know this position very well since they regularly adopt it with both colours. In fact, they have played it against each other several times with both colours. The queenless middlegame that arises from a Berlin is conducive to Carlsen's patient probing style with white but black also has a rock solid position in which Anand feels comfortable.
White made a known pawn sacrifice to tie up the pieces. Anand played the first new move when he changed tack from a recently played game and came up with seemed like a small improvement on move 25. On move 28, Anand thought for 25 minutes before he embarked on a very committal defence. Black sacrificed a piece in order to eliminate several pawns.
This left an endgame where white had Rook+ Kt+ 2 pawns versus Black's rook + 4 pawns. Black had drawing chances if he could continue to exchange pawns or maintain a fortress of pawns that prevented white making progress. A long period of manoeuvring resulted with white trying to gain some concessions and penetrate into black's fortress and black trying to maintain the balance.
