(6) Anand,V (2775) - Carlsen,M (2870) [C65]
FWCM2013 (6), 16.11.2013
[Sagar Shah]
(W)
We join the game after 37 moves. Its white to play!
Sit back and enjoy Carlsen's superb Technique!
The opening phase of
the 6th game wasnt really very interesting. Anand had lost the 5th game and
hence it was expected of him to play more fighting chess. However Anand was not
in his best form as he exchanged pieces at regular intervals. It seemed as if
he just wanted to draw the game. However once he made a few inaccuracies, the
Norwegian wonderkid became ambitious! He started to push in the position and he
got the following position where he has pressure on the e pawn. Anand can keep
on defending it and I think black cannot make much headway but Anand chose for
an active defense by giving up a pawn. This seemed like not a good decision
against Carlsen who once has a material advantage really makes use of each and
every opportunity. 38.Qg3?! Rxe4 39.Qxd6 Rxe3 40.Qxe7 Rxe7 So black has
won a pawn but now white forces the black rook into a passive position. 41.Rd5
Rb7 So what do we have here? Black is a pawn down and he really cannot do
much. He cannot move his rook from b7 because then the b5 pawn will hang. On
the other hand he cannot push b4 as then after Rc6 he will lose his pawn. All
he can do is to bring his king towards the center that is on e6. But really
white shouldnt be worrying too much over here. He has excellent drawing chances.
42.Rd6 f6! an interesting move by Carlsen. He would like to plonk his
rook on e5 square and hence he plays this move f6. 43.h4! Anand also is
very alert. He sense that if it is possible he can play h5 and break blacks
structure and have excellent drawing chances inspite of being 2 pawns down
because the pawns will be very weak. 43...Kf7 [43...h5 in the press
conference Carlsen suggested that he should have gone for his move as he
completely underestimated the strength of the move h4-h5.; 43...Re7 44.Rb6 Re5
could be blacks idea but now white will push the black king to the 8th rank.
45.Rb7+ Kf8 with the king cut off on the 8th and the rook stuck to defending
b5, black doesnt have much chances here.] 44.h5! very brave play by
Vishy Anand who being a pawn down sacrifices another pawn. But the world
champion has seen that he can defend the resulting position. 44...gxh5
45.Rd5 Kg6 46.Kg3 after this position is reached I think black has only 1
plan now. i.e to play f5. In order to play f5 black will need his rook to be on
b6. As soon as black plays f5, white will have to prevent Kg5 and hence he will
play either Kf4 or Kh4. Now the only way to make progress would be to give up
the b pawn and continue with Re6 followed by Re4+ and pushing the white king
behind and then coming in with black king to g5. All of this happens in the
game but white is still very much within the drawing zone. 46...Rb6 47.Rc5 just
waiting. 47...f5 threatening Kg5 48.Kh4 [48.Kf4 I was wondering
if this move made any sense. Now we are attacking the f5 pawn. 48...Re6 (48...h4!?
Might also be an excellent move! 49.Rd5 b4!? requires some accurate
calculation 50.Rc5 Rd6 51.Rxc4 Rd2! 52.Rxb4 Rxg2 53.Kf3 Rg3+ 54.Kf2 Kg5 just
an illustrative line to show that black sill has chances to win as his pawn on
h4 is close to the queening square.) 49.Rxb5 (49.Rxf5 Rf6! the
rooks will have to be exchanged. 50.Rxf6+ Kxf6 51.g3 Kg6 52.Ke4 Kg5 53.Kf3
h4–+ and black wins.) 49...Re4+ 50.Kf3 would transpose to something
like the game continuation but the king is better placed on f3 than on h3.] 48...Re6!
carlsen sees that the only way to make progress is to give up the b pawn. 49.Rxb5
Re4+ 50.Kh3?! But why not bring the king to a better square on g3? [50.Kg3
would have surely reduced Anand's woes. 50...Kg5 51.Rb8 h4+ 52.Kf3 Rf4+ 53.Ke2
Kg4 54.Rg8+ Kh5 and we get a similar position as in the game just that the
white king is better placed on e2 than on h3 as in the game.] 50...Kg5
51.Rb8 [51.b3 Re3+ 52.Kh2 Rxc3 53.bxc4 Rxc4 this should still be within a
draw because black will be left with f and h pawns which is a draw in rook
endgames. But of course as a defender why would you like to give up another
pawn? But then why to give up e4 and h5 you may ask!! I have no answer for
that! :)] 51...h4 52.Rg8+ Kh5 53.Rf8 Making moves from white side is
easy here. He just has to keep attacking whichever pawn is undefended and
whenever the black king comes outside, he must start checking. 53...Rf4
54.Rc8 Rg4 55.Rf8 Rg3+ 56.Kh2 Kg5 57.Rg8+ everyone condemned this move
saying, why to give black the chance to go to f4. Well it doesnt matter really
because it still is a draw. However instead of this check, direct Rc8 would
have been much easier. [57.Rc8 would have been simpler of course 57...Rg4
58.Kh3 and now to make progress black must try to get his king to f4 so he can
try 58...Re4 59.Rg8+ Kf4 60.Rc8 Ke3 61.Rh8 Kd3 62.Rxh6 Kc2 63.Rb6 Rg4 64.Rb4
Kd3 65.b3 Kxc3 66.Rxc4+ Rxc4 67.bxc4 Kxc4 68.Kxh4 Kd5 69.Kg5 Ke6= would be a
way to draw the game] 57...Kf4 58.Rc8 Now the c4 pawn cannot be saved
but Carlsen has seen an interesting idea 58...Ke3! 59.Rxc4 f4! The idea
is now to play h3 and the f pawn will be a passed pawn. You can see that all
theese problems would have happened if Anand would have kept his king on f3
instead of h3. 60.Ra4? The critical mistake of the game. Infact there is
only 1 move in this position which draws the game. its not surprising that
Anand missed it inspite having time on his clock because I think he hadnt
anticipated this Kf4-e3 idea and when Carlsen played it he was simply astounded
and submitted himself to defeat. However we must note the idea and keep it in
mind as it will be useful in future. All the moves that leave the contact of f4
pawn are bad because black can play Kf2 [60.Rc6? Kf2 61.Rf6 (61.Rxh6 Rxg2+
62.Kh3 f3–+) 61...Rxg2+ 62.Kh3 (62.Kh1 f3 63.b4 Rg5 64.c4 Kg3 65.c5 f2
66.c6 Re5 and its game over.) 62...f3 63.Kxh4 Rh2+ 64.Kg4 h5+ 65.Kg5
Kg2 66.b4 f2 67.b5 f1Q 68.Rxf1 Kxf1 69.c4 Rc2 and black just wins.; 60.Rc8
meets a similar fate as Rc6 move; 60.b4! was the very counterintuitive move to
make. The point is that for the moment we keep an eye on f4 so that the king
cannot go to f2 and at the same time he starts pushing the pawn. These white
pawns will make it difficult for black rook to manoeuvre. Thus this is the
right move! Of course to give an explanation after the move is made is easy.
But you really are a good player if you can understand all of this and then
make the right move! 60...h3 61.gxh3 Rg6 62.Rc8 f3 63.Re8+! The neat point. 63...Kd2
64.b5 (64.Rf8 Rg2+ 65.Kh1 Ke3 allows black rook to be activated.) 64...f2
65.Rf8 Ke2 66.Re8+ Kf1 and now you see that the black king cannot move out.
67.c4 the only winning plan for black is to play Rd6-d8-e8 but its very slow
and in that time the white pawns will start to queen. Hence it makes sense to
just accept the draw here with perpetual checks. 67...Rg2+ 68.Kh1 Rg1+ 69.Kh2
Rg2+=] 60...h3! 61.gxh3 Rg6 the position here would have been a dead
draw if white didnt have the b2 and c3 pawns as then the white rook could have
given a lot of horizontal checks. But here these pawns exist and they create
the barriers from checking the black king. 62.c4 f3 63.Ra3+ Ke2 64.b4 f2
65.Ra2+ Ke3 66.Ra3+ Kf4 67.Ra8 [67.Ra1 Re6! it could be possible that this
is the idea that Anand missed. 68.Kg2 Re1–+] 67...Rg1! the queen cannot
be stopped! Phenomenal endgame play by Carlsen and more than that look at his
mindset. After winning game 5 any person would think about consolidating his
lead with a draw with black pieces. But Carlsen played the game as per the
position on the board. He had a small edge and decided to torture Anand. The
point that he got was a reqard for his hardwork and perseverance! A lot that we
can learn from this attitude! You can learn more about chess from my blog:
www.sagarteacheschess.blogspot. com 0–1
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