Kramnik started with two draws, against GM Halkias (rated 2519, but in fact much stronger than that) in an Evans Gambit (!) when he was worse, and against Shyam Sundar, rated 2484. I have in fact played Shyam back in 2008, in Benasque, when an interesting game ended in a draw. At least I was black then.

Kramnik was white against Shyam and I was very surprised to read that he considered himself “unlucky” in that game. Does a World Champion rated 300 points more than his opponent, and playing with the white pieces, need luck to beat his opponent? I am a big fan of Kramnik, but sometimes these guys are really way too entitled, expecting everything to come to them, even Lady Luck, when they can’t get the job done by playing good moves. And when this doesn’t happen, they whine about it! A shame, really.

Still, let’s not forget that Kramnik is a strong player. Today he produced a nice attacking effort:

Another Berlin endgame today, both players’ strategy was obvious – Carlsen wanted to apply some safe pressure, Anand wanted to soak it up and survive in order to give himself a last chance in the last game.

Anand used another line in the Berlin today, the line that Kramnik used in his match with Kasparov, 9…Bd7 and they followed along the first game of that match until Anand showed the better understanding theory has provided for these positions in the last 14 years – black doesn’t need to prevent Nd5 as people thought back in 2000. Carlsen didn’t achieve anything as black had the perfect Berlin wall set up, but when he semi-blundered 23…b5 things heated up.

All of a sudden Anand had to give up on his initial plan for this game as now he was given a chance to strike and not wait for game 12. I think this change confused him as he lost his inner calm, he admitted at the press conference that he wasn’t thinking clearly around the moment of his mistake. I’ve experienced similar loss of clarity after a sudden change on the board – when you play a strong opponent and suddenly you’re given a chance to take over the initiative after defending for quite some time (and in Anand’s case defending not only in the game, but in the match as well) the desire to immediately cash in on the given opportunity and get rid of the tension is a very big temptation. And succumbing to it is very often the wrong decision and it was wrong today as well. Anand called it “a bad gamble” and a “nervous decision,” words that I see as confirmation of what I described.

Anand proved a worthy challenger and must feel much better than last year, because he played so much better, but also he must be feeling much worse too because he himself was the reason for today’s loss – nobody forced him to play 27…Rb4, he overreacted and cracked under pressure. He could have drawn this game and play the last one, he could have stuck to his plan and then put Carlsen under the extreme pressure of the last game. But he didn’t and that feeling is gnawing on his soul.

Carlsen generally played well, sub-optimal in my opinion, but his usual standard is so high that even with sub-optimal play he was more than capable to dominate the match and win it. He now has time until 2016 to enjoy chess and improve even more.

Here’s today’s game with some instructional notes on the Berlin endgame, plus download of all the games of the match with my comments.

But Anand showed his excellent preparation and surprised Carlsen, even though what he played had already been played before. So instead of keeping the tension with 14 b3, Carlsen decided to force a draw.

This should be good news for Anand, getting an easy draw with black and now having 2 whites in the last 3 games. But in case he doesn’t win tomorrow I’m pretty sure he’ll try to sharpen up with black as well. Perhaps he’s trying to make the tension last longer, bearing in mind Carlsen’s breakdown in the London Candidates.

It is a dangerous to give short draws with white because it means you’re not trying and taking your chances and then naturally the trend shifts in your opponent’s favour who’s now given a chance to try and take his chances. It is all debatable if Carlsen is confident he won’t lose another game so he can be relaxed about taking draws, or perhaps he doesn’t believe Anand has the energy/quality to beat him. At this point all I can say is that it’s risky, but whether that risk will be justified we’ll see soon enough.

The game itself didn’t have too many interesting moments, and here’s a link to download all the games so far, including the one from today:

It was an interesting decision to go down along one of the main lines in the Berlin, at first I thought it should favour Anand who would just bang out his theory and make a draw, but it turned out to be more complicated than that. Carlsen came out with an interesting plan of Ne3-f5-g3-h5 and Anand’s decision to enter a difficult, but drawable endgame is one that shows confidence.

Carlsen put pressure for 122 moves and I’m sure he enjoyed it, as well as knowing that torturing Anand like this also saps his energy for tomorrow’s game when he’ll be white. (As a sidenote: the reason for having 2 whites in a row in the middle of the match is to change the player who has white after the rest day – the victim of having black after the rest day for the duration of the whole match was none other than Kasparov, who in 2000 was suffering as black against Kramnik and then didn’t have the energy to put pressure in his white game the next day. Since then they’ve decided to have this double-white in the middle of the match so as to give the players equal opportunity).

I don’t think Anand will follow this strategy in the second half of the match. His energy will be needed for putting pressure in his white games and I don’t think he can afford playing long games like this one. I expect the return of 1…c5 and more dynamic games when he’s black.

Here’s today’s game with detailed comments:

Games Download

Anand’s opening choice was very much Chennai-like. A very passive endgame straight from the opening, even more strangely that the opening was an Open Sicilian (it reminded me of game 5 from Chennai, but there at least the position was objectively equal!) His team prepared it at great depth, undoubtedly, and he must have felt confident he can hold it even against Carlsen.

And in fact he even might have, had it not been for the turning point on move 26. It would be ridiculous to call Carlsen’s blunder the winning move, but in fact it did disturb Anand’s inner peace and he couldn’t go on defending like he decided he would when he chose the opening for this game. After his equilibrium was shaken Anand lost pretty quickly, being unable to get a grip of himself (as Kramnik said when asked how you recover from missed opportunities like this one – “you don’t”).

The only thing Carlsen can be happy about is the point he scored. Blunders always take away the confidence you have and doubts start to creep in about your own play. Both players are now disturbed by what happened, but it’s easier to recover with a point scored than with a point lost. A missed opportunity burns you inside and it takes a lot of self-control and discipline not to whip yourself. Anand should be able to do it.

Here’s the game with detailed notes:

Loss of objectivity is a dangerous thing. Luckily he has a day off tomorrow to pull himself together.

Kasparov would have been appalled to see 3 g3 in a World Championship match. He only considered the most principled lines, where you can pose the most problems to your opponent, to be worthy of a match of this caliber. But things have changed. The Anti-Sicilians are equally important today thanks to Carlsen (remember he gave 3 Bb5+ in the last game in Chennai after 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6) and he poses different kinds of problems – he poses practical problems, unlike the theoretical problems Kasparov posed from the get go (who also went on later in the game to pose practical problems as well).

Anand was well-prepared today for the practical problems Carlsen posed. He achieved a position with an IQP and active piece play. Even though the engines suggest white may have had some chances on move 24, I still consider this to be a good game by Anand who drew rather comfortably. Carlsen’s statement that he played badly seems to confirm this.

It will be interesting to see how Carlsen will try to pose problems to Anand in the next games. Today’s game showed that he probably needs a bit more than slightly better technical positions to beat a confident Anand.

Here’s the game with detailed comments: