by a Thinker, Sailor, Blogger, Irreverent Guy from Madras

Wimpy Carlsen, skittish Queen in Anand-Carlsen Round 3


What a boring game of Chess in Round 3 of FIDE World Chess Championship 2013 at Chennai.  For the love of Teresa of Avila, Magnus Carlsen the Challenger managed his Queen like a rabbit slinking around nosy fox hounds.  To be fair, lots of Chennai players do move their heavy pieces, especially the Queen, in such a fashion.

The usual tendency is to venture an attack with the Queen, and finding her under threat, pulling her back into an unusual corner to sulk.

For Magnus Carlsen was looking good around move 12.  But suddenly on his 14th move, he took his Queen back (c1), and about 7 moves later took her to a corner (h1), practically losing his erstwhile control of the centre.  Not that Vishwanathan Anand managed to seize the moment.

anand-carlsen-fwcm2013-r3

Here is the video of the game and also the link to the updated the PGN file.




By the 21st move, Anand was slowly gaining domination, with a lot of attacking potential.  Then it was a race against time, with around 14 moves to be made by each of them in just about 28 minutes.  Vishwanathan Anand went on a pawn hunt, both exchanged the heavy pieces and once the board was cleared of the Rooks (38th move), the match became a damp squib.



What I cannot understand is why Carlsen did not accept Anand’s offer of draw soon after (around 40th move).  Did the challenger think that he could still win the game?

If so, what I cannot understand further is why he settled for a draw at 51st move, and not keep playing with the King and Bishop!
:-P

If this guy is the world’s strongest rated player yet (at 2870), I cannot understand ELO ratings either.

PS: Sainte Thérèse d'Avila or St. Teresa of Avila is considered (by some) to be the Patron Saint of Chess.

You can download the latest PGN file WorldChamp2013.pgn from the folder link here.  Note that the link is to a folder and clicking it will display the file with the option to download.
Cheers!

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