World Chess: Viswanathan Anand arrests slide with a draw

Chennai: Defending world chess champion Viswanathan Anand and title challenger Magnus Carlsen from Norway decided to split a point at the end of 32 moves in their seventh game of their title match in Chennai, the capital of the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, on Monday.

The draw puts an end to Anand’s losing streak against Carlsen.

Playing white, Anand opened with e4 and Carlsen replied with e5. The game once again progressed into a Ruy Lopez-Berlin defence, but Anand was not in a position to break the ‘Berlin Wall’ of defence mounted by Carlsen.

The players exchanged their bishops early in the game, with Carlsen getting a doubled pawn on the c-file.

Soon, both the players went in for a flurry of exchanges and, at the end of around one-and-a-half hours of play, most of the pieces had gone off the board. With only the queen, knight and five pawns remaining on the board apart from kings, Anand and Carlsen decided not to press further and signed the peace pact.

According to Anand, the game turned into a slow, manoeuvring one.

On his part, Carlsen said he did not face any pressure in the game as his pieces were well developed.

“It seems Anand wanted to put an end to his losing streak and start afresh. After two losses, the draw would give Anand the confidence he much needed,” India’s second highest rated player Grandmaster P. Harikrishna told IANS.

The Fide World Chess Championship 2013 is sponsored by the Tamil Nadu government. At the end of the seventh game, Carlsen leads with 4.5 points to Anand’s 2.5 points.

The first person to score 6.5 points in the 12-game match-up will be crowned the world champion.