In games 1 and 2 of the world championship match between Viswanathan Anand and his challenger Magnus Carlsen, the players were warming up. In games 3 and 4, the match heated up, with both players having a game to press and a game to defend. Finally, in games 5 and 6, the match exploded and maybe came to a de facto end.
Just as in game 5, small concessions and errors by the champion allowed Carlsen to press and press, and while Anand was on verge of a draw he never quite managed to find the final path to safety. As a result, Carlsen won his second straight game, has taken a 4-2 lead, and unless Anand can regain - or maybe just gain - some confidence and get the kind of position he likes he has little chance of saving his title. The only other hope is that Carlsen will crack up, but that seems unlikely unless Anand can first stop his own bleeding. For the sake of the match's drama and for Anand's legacy I hope it happens, but right now he's in danger of getting routed.
On to specifics about the game. Carlsen repeated the Berlin Defense, which served him very well in game 4, but this time Anand avoided the "endgame" with 4.d3. Anand's 10.Bg5 was a new move, but Carlsen found a nice way to neutralize the pin with the Breyer-like Nc6-b8-d7 maneuver on moves 13 and 14. The game appeared headed for a draw, and had Anand played something like 23.Qe2 a handshake might have been forthcoming. Instead he played 23.Qg4?!, and after 23...Bxe3 24.fxe3 Qe7 25.Rf1 c5 26.Kh2 c4! White's center was a bit weak, and it was evident that Carlsen would once again get to play on for a long time, and for only two results.
From here Anand made a couple of unnecessary concessions: 30.Qf5?! (rather than 30.d5), which allowed Black to open the e-file under favorable conditions, and the pawn sac/blunder 38.Qg3 (Carlsen wasn't sure which it was during the press conference, and Anand didn't bother to clarify the matter for the record). Even so, just as in yesterday's game, Anand entered the second time control with a position that was inferior but still well within the margin of a draw.
As usual, though, Carlsen kept looking for ideas, and his great idea to sac the c-pawn to further activate his king and to create a passed f-pawn bore fruit. With 60.b4! (a move Anand dismissively rejected in the press conference - something he has made a habit of doing in this match and just about always mistakenly) White still could have held the draw. His 60.Ra4? sealed his fate. It would have sufficed to draw if he could have removed his own b- and c-pawns from the board, but he couldn't advance them in time and lost. (The game, with a few comments, can be replayed here; subscribers stay tuned later this afternoon.)
One last comment on the game for now, and it's that Anand seems to be suffering from a home-field disadvantage. Where in other countries he could go out in public unrecognized and without being mobbed, his freedom is constrained in India. The local journalists are asking him questions that are often either impolitic or foolish, and his patience is speedily diminishing, and today's presser finished with him suggesting that the questioner must not understand English. The burden of being the hometown hero seems to be weighing heavily on him. Maybe he should go out in public and experience some love from the fans to buoy his spirits, as the bunker mentality approach of "me against the world" doesn't appear to be working.
Any thoughts from my readers on the scene?