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The third game of the world title match provided far more excitement than the first two, although the ultimate result was the same - a draw. The peace treaty was signed only after a high tension dance that lasted over four hours and 51 moves. By then, there was clearly nothing to play for. Former world champion Garry Kasparov was present as a spectator and he must have been satisfied with the high quality of the play.
The match remains tied, with nine games left to play. Viswanathan Anand definitely had the better of the action on Tuesday, and might have had winning chances, albeit in complications. Magnus Carlsen admitted he was probably lucky to draw.
The Norwegian challenger said he mismanaged his early middlegame and then missed a simple but powerful idea for Anand. However, the world no:1 kept putting up stiff resistance. Despite being in an inferior position and in time trouble, he found enough resources to hold the draw.
This was the second time Carlsen opened with the white pieces and he tried a variation on the Reti system he had played in game 1. Anand also changed his defensive ideas slightly and the position transposed into an English Opening. It looked, in fact, like a Sicilian Defence with reversed colours.
White had a small advantage, when Anand played the first new move of the game, at 10.-Nd4. This novelty might have been based on a mildly dubious idea but Carlsen failed to take advantage of it. Carlsen inverted the order of the moves he could play in response and drifted slowly into an inferior position, by misplacing one of his bishops and then putting his queen into a very passive position.
Anand received the advantage of the bishop pair and started to build a stronger position by advancing his pawns on the queenside. The game exploded into sharp tactics around move 28, when Carlsen broke in the centre out of what looked like desperation. White stood the risk of being over-run and Carlsen fought back instead by sacrificing a pawn to get a counter-attack.
It appears Anand could have taken the pawn and probably achieved a winning position, if one can trust the engine analysis. But it was very complicated and white would have some obvious compensation for the material deficit. Anand tried an alternative line that promised some advantage without entailing obvious risks. Carlsen defended brilliantly at this stage, finding good moves that activated his pieces.
At one stage, white was a couple of pawns behind but was banking on the presence of opposite-coloured bishops, which can render material advantage irrelevant. The defender's bishop can often set up an absolute blockade on the squares of the colour it controls. In this game, white eventually recovered the lost material in the process of a mass simplification and the draw came quickly after that.
THE GAME SCORE
White: Carlsen, Magnus vs Black: Anand, Viswanathan
World Championship Match 2013 Chennai, Game # 3
- 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 g6 3.c4 dxc4 4.Qa4+ Nc6 5.Bg2 Bg7 6.Nc3 e5 7.Qxc4 Nge7 8.0-0 0-0 9.d3 h6 10.Bd2 Nd4. This is the first new move.
- 11.Nxd4 exd4 12.Ne4 c6 13.Bb4?! Be6 14.Qc1 Bd5. White's bishop manoeuvre was condemned by everyone, including Kasparov and Carlsen himself.
- 15.a4 b6 16.Bxe7 Qxe7 17.a5 Rab8 18.Re1 Rfc8 19.axb6 axb6 20.Qf4 Rd8 21.h4 Kh7 22.Nd2 Be5 23.Qg4 h5 24.Qh3 Be6 25.Qh1 c5 26.Ne4 Kg7 27.Ng5 b5 28.e3?! dxe3 29.Rxe3 Bd4?!
- 30.Re2 c4 31.Nxe6+ fxe6 32.Be4 cxd3 33.Rd2 Qb4 34.Rad1 Bxb2 35.Qf3 Bf6 36.Rxd3 Rxd3 37.Rxd3 Rd8? A last chance to retain advantage could be 37. -Bd4, though white has defensive resources.
- The game concluded 38.Rxd8 Bxd8 39.Bd3 Qd4 40.Bxb5 Qf6 41.Qb7+ Be7 42.Kg2 g5 43.hxg5 Qxg5 44.Bc4 h4 45.Qc7 hxg3 46.Qxg3 e5 47.Kf3 Qxg3+ 48.fxg3 Bc5 49.Ke4 Bd4 50.Kf5 Bf2 51.Kxe5 Bxg3+ (½-½).
