Norway Chess 2022: Viswanathan Anand strikes against Magnus again

Madras Tiger GM Viswanathan Anand won against the world champion GM Magnus Carlsen in Norway Chess 2022. Vishy Anand has been in tremendous form recently.  This was a game everyone awaited, as two five-times world champions were facing each other after a long time.

The classical game

In the classical game, Anand had the white pieces and he opened with 1.e4. Magnus replied with e5 and they transposed into the Italian opening. Anand had a comfortable position out of the opening and seemed well prepared. In the middle game, Magnus being on the worst side decided to attack Anand’s pawn on d3 which seemed to be a weakness. This rather gave Anand a chance to get an advantage in the game, and he found the move Be3 with the idea of trading the bishop for the knight. After Anand pushed his passed pawn to b7, Magnus started pushing his pawn and here is when Anand played inaccurately losing his advantage. Hence, on move 40 they agreed to a draw.

The Armageddon

The game went into an Armageddon where Anand had the white pieces with 10 minutes on the clock and Carlsen had the black pieces with 7 minutes on the clock with a 1-second increment after move 40. Anand was in a must-win situation, where Magnus just needed a draw to win. They again played the Italian game and the position was nearly equal till move 23. Anand played fxe4 which proved to be an inaccuracy. But, Magnus blundered away his advantage on move 29 and Vishy Anand was in the driving seat now. From here the game got really interesting, both the sides gained and blundered away their advantage from time to time. On move 44, Anand pushed his pawn to g6 and Magnus captured the pawn with his f pawn. Carlsen’s move fxg6 proved to be a big blunder and the engine showed a decisive advantage of +4.85. After this, it was just a matter of time and technique for Vishy Anand. Magnus blundered his knight on the 49th move and resigned on Anand’s 50th move.

A strange thing to notice in the game was that Magnus went pretty low on time. Anand is known for his quick play tricking his opponent, but these are rare days when Magnus goes into time trouble. Carlsen played a few of his last moves with about 1.5 seconds on his clock.

Anand currently leads the tournament with 10 points, whereas Magnus is in the second spot with 9.5 points. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Wesley So are sharing third place with 8.5 points each and four rounds spared.