World Championship, Game 8: A Very Easy Hold For Carlsen
In game three of this world championship match, Viswanathan Anand got a great advantage out of the opening with White in a Queen's Gambit Declined, and in game 5 Magnus Carlsen switched to the Queen's Indian. This time Carlsen switched back, and he showed a very interesting new idea. Varying from the popular 6...Nbd7 line chosen in game three, Carlsen went for the older 6...c5, and after 7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.a3 Nc6 9.Qc2 varied from the standard 9...Qa5 with the rare 9...Re8 and met 9.Bg5 with the practically new 9...Be7. It looked provocative, but it was deeply prepared and Anand couldn't find a way to either create real pressure against the d-pawn or to make anything dangerous happen along the b1-h7 diagonal. Black was always in time, and after 21...b4 had completely equalized. Mass exchanges followed, and the players continued speedily to the time control and agreed to a draw. The score, with (up to) four (classical) games remaining, is 4.5-3.5 in Carlsen's favor.
So it's time for another rest day, and the ball is definitely in Anand's court when it comes to the opening. With only two white games left he's going to need something special there, and has a big decision to make with time allocation. Should he choose something else to play - maybe 3.Nc3, inviting the Nimzo-Indian? And if he repeats 3.Nf3, should he and his team devote a great deal of time to Carlsen's new line, or worry mostly about other lines on the grounds that Carlsen always seems to switch from one system to another?
There's also the question of what he'll do with the black pieces. Does he try to hold again, saving more desperate or at least more aggressive and active measures for game 11, or does he look for something more combative straight away. If he again plays something "soft" like the Berlin, there are two problems. First, of course, it gives Carlsen what he wants - the opportunity to make his opponent suffer. Second, Carlsen is liable to play for hours on end, draining the energy Anand will need for his white game the next day. (At least that won't be an issue in the last two games: there is a rest day both before and after game 11.)
As always, time will tell, and in the meantime here is today's game, with relatively light notes.
Reader Comments (7)
There is a broad consensus among commentators that VA needs to aim for sharp lines in openings, including as Black. As he has pointed out, the Sicilian is not an obvious choice, because there are quiet lines from which White may choose. Are there other openings in which Black is likely to obtain a sharp position, i.e. minimizing White's options to avoid it? Do you consider that the Pirc Defense and/or Alekhine's Defense are/is in this category? In 1972, Fischer used these to good effect when trying to avoid preparation of the Soviet chess machine; he won with Alekhine's Defense. I don't know whether VA has played either as Black or whether MC has played against either. It would be edifying to know your thoughts about this.
Thank you for your awesome chess blog.
[DM: I'm not sure that anyone believes in Alekhine's Defense - not even the people who play it - while the Pirc can be neutralized as a winning weapon even if it's theoretically acceptable. The Classical lines with Nf3 and Be2 are very stable, and Anand will never beat him there. Moreover, there's the old Sax-Seirawan game from (I think) Rotterdam 1989. It was a very nice bit of prep by Seirawan in the pre-computer era, but as the alternatives to Seirawan's queen sac aren't all that good (if I remember correctly) the opening becomes a tough choice if it's an absolute must-win by that point.
Ultimately, there's no opening White can't try to dry up, but I still think the best way of resisting that is in the Sicilian.
Thanks for the compliment!]
I feel un less he takes advantage of a blunder by Carlsen as occurred in game 6 Anand can only win with White in a sharp opening, as Black then he is obliged to play the defence that maximises his chance of a draw IMHO Petroff where Anand could prepare very deep and it is strategically relatively simple.
If it is 6 all draw how many games are in a play off?
[DM: Four rapid games for starters, and if it's tied after that they go to blitz.]
Do you feel nowadays either player has better chances in a play off than in the same number of classical game? Anand used to have a great reputation in rapid chess but maybe by now Triple World Champion Carlsen is just as clearly superior to him at quicker rates despite the loss in their individual game in the rapid world championship.
[DM: I think their chances would be about the same as in classical: Carlsen's a favorite but not more than he is in this stage of the match.]
A question I'm wondering if you have any insight into. I tend to ignore psychological speculation in chess because I feel like they're often just convenient narratives for fluctuations in performance that aren't as meaningful as we might like to think. However, there seemed to be a lot of speculation yesterday to the effect that Carlsen's thinking in pointlessly grinding on for a good 50 moves after the draw was inevitable was 1) he does it because he's Carlsen, and that's just what he does; 2) it's sort of perversely fun to torture an opponent like that, and there's always a small chance he'll screw up (cf. l'Ami, Erwin); and 3) it will tire him out and perhaps in some sense demoralize him (ie, Anand), so that when he plays white the next day he'll be too drained to fight hard and Carlsen can get a restful draw before gearing up to torture Anand again on Thursday. (1) and (2) struck me as obviously true, (3) I sort of ignored. But as it turned out, Carlsen cruised to a pretty easy draw today. Do you think that's more or less random, or do you think something like the speculation behind (3) is correct?
[DM: I wouldn't claim any sort of direct causal link between game 7's length and game 8's relative shortness (at least in terms of the period where the fight was on), but in general yes, I absolutely believe that's a part of Carlsen's strategy. In fact, that this is a general strategy is behind the color switch they've did at the halfway point in this and the last several matches. If one has to defend a tough game with the black pieces for 4+ hours every time, their energy level for their white game is bound to be reduced. Kasparov complained about this after his match with Kramnik, and so they changed it.]
I love the blog as well! pretty much my only regular chess read.
[DM: There's lots of other good material out there, so thanks! - I appreciate the comment.]
It is increasingly apparent that aside from preparing your own novelties/preparation, it is virtually impossible to anticipate what Mangus is going to play. For MC, this is a tremendous strategic advantage, since the probability of him playing into a particular piece of prep is puny.
Still wondering if we might see a French at some point, either 3. Nc3 Bb4 or 3. Nd2 c5 (how's 3...a6!? looking these days?). Of course I'd be thrilled to see a Scandinavian, which Carlsen actually played as Black with success earlier this year -- after facing the exact same variation as White! Another 2...e6 Sicilian would also be fine, though preferably a Taimanov, Scheveningen, or other non-Kan variation.
If it has to be a Ruy, I wonder what Carlsen would do against the Schliemann? I actually can't find a Carlsen win as White in the Schliemann, though he played it against Anand once, resulting in a draw. Radjabov has used it against him twice, both draws, and Nisipeanu drew him in the 4. Nc3 line.
BTW Dennis, with the redesign and paywalling of ChessCafe.com, your blog is one of two chess sites I visit daily.
[DM: I don't think we'll see Anand play anything really unusual with Black until game 11 and only then if he's trailing by two points. By "really unusual" I mean either something slightly offbeat or something that's totally outside of his normal repertoire. (These categories are not mutually exclusive.) If he had ever been a French player (aside from the Rubinstein, which he used to employ on occasion and which could never be used as a winning try against Carlsen) that might be an option, but it would be very surprising if he entered such a rich and foreign opening on the spur of the moment. It is possible though - particularly if his team can cut out a lot of theory by heading for sidelines like the one you suggest.
As for the Schliemann, there are variations in both the 4.d3 and 4.Nc3 systems where Black is more or less stuck playing for a draw. It might not be a bad one-off in a situation where a draw is desirable, but unless there's something big and new in that opening it's useless as a winning weapon. (For these guys, that is. At the club level it's a great opening.)
Thanks for the nice comment!]
Regarding Carlsen playing out the R + N vs. R endgame, that’s not even something which necessarily requires any “special" explanations – as Caruana noted in a tweet after the game (https://twitter.com/FabianoCaruana/status/534411537038213120), it’s quite normal to play it out and test the defensive technique of the side with the lonely rook, even in top level games. Caruana refers there to his game vs. Karjakin from Tal Memorial last year (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1721436); other recent examples are Bacrot vs. Bologan from Poikovsky this year (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1754671); Kramnik vs. MVL from the World Cup semifinals of last year (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1729538); and anyone who’s a premium member of chessgames.com can easily find many more with the help of the endgame explorer.
And of course, sometime the defending side loses, which shows that the endgame is not *completely* trivial to hold – besides Carlsen’s own win vs. L’Ami, one might mention Onischuk's loss to Dominguez in Biel 2008 (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1499346) and the most (in)famous example – Judit Polgar’s loss to Kasparov in Dos Hermanas 96 (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070866).
Btw, all the games mentioned above are classical, not even rapid or blitz. And it occurs to me that the tiredness factor, which might play a role, is pretty much built into this endgame in such games, because one normally reaches a position with so few pieces over the board only after hours of play.
Once upon a time, Anand used to play the open Spanish against e4 and Queen's Indian against d4. Caro Kann was also his speciality. Berlin was not really his style. Do you think going back to those lines may help? They seem to offer some chances of a win while Berlin is a draw at best for black at this level.
What opening do you expect in game 9?
[DM: It all comes down to specifics, and I don't think the Caro-Kann and Open Ruy are more reliable than the Berlin. It's too late to ask me what I expect for game 9 though, as it just ended in a surprisingly fast draw.]