Anand -- Carlsen, Game 3

Mid-afternoon in Sochi, Russia is very early in the morning in Spokane, Washington, USA. I opted to sleep until my normal 6:00 am wake-up time this morning. When I awoke, Viswanathan Anand was in the midst of a long think after Magnus Carlsen's 24...Qd7.

Carlsen leads his World Championship Defense 1.5 - 0.5 as a consequence of his strong performance on Sunday.

It is clear that Anand prepared something against Carlsen's Nimzo-Indian Defense. He appears to have a good chance to even the score. As the official commentators, Peter Svidler and Sopiko Guramishvili, put it, I am "flying solo". That is, I am commenting on the games without tuning on any chess engines.

Anand,Viswanathan (2792) -- Carlsen,Magnus (2863) [D37]
WCC Sochi (3), 11.11.2014

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bf4 0–0 6.e3 Nbd7 7.c5

Anand played 7.a3 against Kramnik in Bonn 2008. Carlsen has lost the Black side of this position once, Nyback -- Carlsen, Dresden 2008.

7...c6 8.Bd3 b6 9.b4 a5 10.a3 Ba6

After Carlsen's 10...Ba6

11.Bxa6

Aronian and Karpov have both played this move.

11...Rxa6 12.b5 cxb5 13.c6 Qc8 14.c7 b4 15.Nb5 a4

Karpov -- Georgiev, Dubai 2002 continued 15...Ne4 and White went on to win in 50 moves.

16.Rc1 Ne4 17.Ng5 Ndf6 18.Nxe4 Nxe4 19.f3 Ra5

After Carlsen's 19...Ra5

20.fxe4

Aronian -- Adams, Bilbao 2013 continued 20.Qe2 and was drawn after 40 moves.

20...Rxb5 21.Qxa4 Ra5 22.Qc6 bxa3 23.exd5 Rxd5 24.Qxb6 Qd7

After Carlsen's 24...Qd7

25.0–0 Rc8 26.Rc6 g5 27.Bg3 Bb4!?

Anand is way ahead on the clock, but is taking his time to calculate matters. Svidler stated that 27...Bb4 was an interesting move that forces Anand to calculate. He went on to point out that Anand calculates extremely well.

After Carlsen's 27...Bb4

28.Ra1 Ba5 29.Qa6 Bxc7 30.Qc4 e5 31.Bxe5 Rxe5 32.dxe5 Qe7 33.e6 Kf8 34.Rc1 1-0

With a few seconds remaining, Carlsen resigned.

Anand started his comments during the press conference with reference to Aronian -- Adams.

Aronian,L (2795) - Adams,Mi (2753) [D37]
6th Final Masters Bilbao ESP (3.1), 09.10.2013

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bf4 0–0 6.e3 Nbd7 7.c5 c6 8.Bd3 b6 9.b4 a5 10.a3 Ba6 11.Bxa6 Rxa6 12.b5 cxb5 13.c6 Qc8 14.c7 b4 15.Nb5 a4 16.Rc1 Ne4 17.Ng5 Ndf6 18.Nxe4 Nxe4 19.f3 Ra5 20.Qe2 Qd7 21.fxe4 Rc8 22.exd5 exd5 23.axb4 Rxb5 24.0–0 Rxb4 25.Qa6 h6 26.Rc6 Bg5 27.Bxg5 hxg5 28.Rfc1 Rc4 29.R1xc4 dxc4 30.Qxb6 a3 31.Rxc4 a2 32.Qa5 Qe6 33.Qxa2 Rxc7 34.Qa8+ Kh7 35.Rxc7 Qxe3+ 36.Kf1 Qf4+ 37.Qf3 Qxc7 38.Qh5+ Kg8 39.Qxg5 Qc4+ 40.Kf2 Qxd4+ ½–½

A questioner during the press conference noted another game which had reached a similar position, but with a White pawn on h3. This move could have been played instead of Bd3. Peter Svidler also mentioned the game in his brief postgame recap. Here in that game:

Tomashevsky,Evgeny (2646) -- Riazantsev,Alexander (2656) [D37]
RUS-ch superfinal 61st Moscow (10), 14.10.2008

1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 Be7 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bf4 0–0 6.e3 Nbd7 7.c5 c6 8.h3 b6 9.b4 a5 10.a3 Ba6 11.Bxa6 Rxa6 12.b5 cxb5 13.c6 Qc8 14.c7 b4 15.Nb5 a4 16.Rc1 Ne4 17.Nd2 Ndf6 18.f3 Ra5 19.Nxe4 Nxe4 20.fxe4 Rxb5 21.Qxa4 Ra5 22.Qc6 bxa3 23.exd5 Rxd5 24.Qxb6 Qd7 25.0–0 Rc8 26.Rc6 h6 27.Rfc1 Kh7 28.Qa6 Rf5 29.Bd6 Bh4 30.Qxa3 Bf2+ 31.Kh1 Rd5 32.Bf4 f5 33.Qc3 Bh4 34.Rb6 Bg5 35.Be5 Bd8 36.Rb8 1–0