Chessable Houska's Caro

World Chess Championship 2014 (7)

Anand confidently holds the draw in 122 move marathon World Championship game 7

Game 7 press conference. Photo ©

Game 7 press conference. Photo © | http://sochi2014.fide.com

Game 7 of the World Chess Championship between Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand was drawn in 122 moves and 6 hours and 25 minutes of play. This fell just short of the record longest game in World Championship history which was 124 moves long in the Korchnoi draw (stalemate) Karpov in the fifth game of their title match in 1978. It did just surpass the length of game 20 of Tal-Botvinnik, also draw (121 moves) 1961. The longest decisive game was Kasparov 1-0 Karpov in game 16 of their match in 1990 in 102 moves.

Viswanathan Anand finally played the Berlin Defence, the current choice of Grandmasters who really want to secure at least a draw with black. This game saw Carlsen follow modern theory Giri vs Radjabov from the recent Tashkent Grand Prix where white gives up a pawn for a lot of pressure. Anand was the first to deviate from that game with 25...Nf7 and he quickly resolved to give up a piece to liquidate the pawns on the Kingside. Carlsen said he thought his prospects of winning were quite good and that Anand had "signed up for suffering." Carlsen did add that in the position giving up the piece was clearly the best move and that the alternate Rook ending was either lost or only drawing by a narrow margin.

The rest of the game was difficult and complex and Anand played it really rather well. Anand said he had to keep finding defensive setups every 10 moves or so as Carlsen kept subtly changing his area of attack. Anand's defense seemed pretty faultless and made the draw look far, far easier than it was.

Anand didn't criticise Carlsen for playing on so long but one sensed a small amount of censure with his choice of the word "superfluous" for the last hour of play when he'd secured a clearly technically drawn position.

A long game that Anand probably didn't want but he can definitely derive satisfaction from the way he played. Carlsen was the one mixing up his words a bit and sounding a little tired although his physical fitness probably means it didn't take so much out of him.

Anand now has white in game 8.

Carlsen 4 - Anand 3.

Game 8 Tuesday 18th November 2014 3pm local time 12pm GMT: Anand-Carlsen

WCh Sochi
Anand, Viswanathan - Carlsen, Magnus ½-½ 48 D85 Gruenfeld Defence
Carlsen, Magnus - Anand, Viswanathan 1-0 35 C65 Ruy Lopez Berlin
Anand, Viswanathan - Carlsen, Magnus 1-0 34 D37 QGD 5.Bf4
Carlsen, Magnus - Anand, Viswanathan ½-½ 47 B40 Sicilian Classical
Anand, Viswanathan - Carlsen, Magnus ½-½ 39 E15 Queens Indian
Carlsen, Magnus - Anand, Viswanathan 1-0 38 B41 Sicilian Paulsen
Carlsen, Magnus - Anand, Viswanathan ½-½ 122 C67 Ruy Lopez Berlin

WCh Sochi (RUS), 8-28 xi 2014
Name Ti NAT Rtng 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Total Perf
Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2863 ½ 1 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ . . . . . 4 2842
Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2792 ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ . . . . . 3 2813

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