Chennai 01: The Grandmaster Perspective

FIDE World Chess Championship Anand-Carlsen 2013

The FIDE World Chess Championship match between defending champion Viswanathan Anand and his challenger world number one Magnus Carlsen is taking place from November 9 to 28 2013 in the the Hyatt Regency, Chennai, India. The match is over twelve games, with time controls of 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 61. The games start at 3:00 p.m. Indian Time, which is 4:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (New York), 10:30h Central European Time (Paris), 1:30 p.m. Moscow Standard Time. Find your local time here.

GM Daniel King provides his overview of game one:

"Great stuff, way better than several other videos of the game." - writes an anonymous reviewer

If you want to hear Danny King do this in German, SPIEGEL Online is hosting his Playchess summaries.

Round one report by Alejandro Ramirez

When analyzing what happened in today's game in Chennai it is important to understand the match expectations. Carlsen is the overwhelmingly the favorite to win the match, many sports betting sites had him at unerasonable 3.5-1 odds to win the event (which, by the way, betting on Anand is a great way of making money in the long run if this match were to be played many times!). That being said, the mechanics of how exactly Carlsen was going to win wasn't so clear. In fact, many of the grandmasters that thought that Carlsen would be victorious did see one way for Anand to have chances: survive the first few games.

A last minute check up by  Chief Arbiter Ashot Vardapetyan that everything's ok before the World Championship begins

You might be asking yourself why the term "survive" comes into play, why not "thrive"? The reasoning is as follows: the longer the match, the more comfortable Anand will be. If he can reach game five with absolute equality, maybe even four draws, then the pressure will be on Carlsen to find something to do with his openings, where Anand has an experienced team and is experienced himself on adapting in situations that are not exactly his cup of tea. In essence: Anand's match experience will shine through if nothing happens in the first few games.

Who else but FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov to make the opening move of the match

Security had to be brought over to make sure the glass separating the players from the press wasn't in danger of being destroyed

Carlsen arrived at the game today with an awkward plan. The Reti opening is not a bad opening but it simply doesn't have the edge that a mainstream system has. It strives for the long game, for the positional battle, but the Norwegian wasn't even able to show this side of the opening. Anand squashed his preparation and obtained even a minimal edge. He did not play on simply because he knew very well that in these positions pushing isn't necessarily so easy. Imagine that, Anand knew the position so well that he knew the evaluation and the possible plans, where Carlsen was simply at a loss.

Security is very strict, even for the players to make sure there is no form of foul play

Carlsen seemed a little twitchy before the start of the game, where as Anand was cool as a cucumber

Carlsen came with a line that was not very theoretical, trying to challenge the World Champion to play chess

But Anand proved that even this obscure line is something he has studied before, and it was Carlsen that was set back

It is without a doubt that Anand came out ahead in today's exchange. He obtained an easy draw with Black, but more importantly than that he showed his opponent that the opening will not be circumvented as easily as by playing a fianchetto system.

Many grandmasters were shocked at the Norwegian's opening.

This was something Hikaru Nakamura had to say about today's game: "...there is a considerable difference between randomly giving an opening a whirl and playing such an opening in a World Championship match. In many ways, I think this breaks one of the most basic rules which you are taught as a beginner - do not play hope chess. This whole line is well known theory with Nb6 and there are at least 5 games that have been played with it. To play this line hoping that Anand isn't prepared is simply the wrong approach when it comes to a match, especially when you have so much time to prepare."

Ian Rodgers called "defensive and a bit naive" at the start of the World Championship, especially in a first game that represented true danger for the Indian.

Ponomariov was also not amused at Carlsen's game from today:

However not everything is bad in the eyes of the viewers. We have this excellent feedback from one of our readers, Tom Welsh, England:

I don't think Carlsen's fans need be downhearted. No matter how strong a player, it must be a scary experience to play in a World Championship match for the first time. Look at the first game of Petrosian-Botvinnik 1963, in which Tigran Petrosian let himself be overawed by the occasion and, in his own words, "played like a child". Carlsen has successfully surmounted that potential obstacle, and can now settle down to the long grind of a match where both players will be looking for very rare lapses by their opponent.

A composed Anand must be happy with today's result. The question that remains is what exactly will the Indian bring forward tomorrow. He will no doubt be testing the waters, trying to play something solid but without any real risk. There is no point for him to go for the throat in tomorro'w game - as mentioned before the long match situation will favor the Indian. That being said, if Carlsen shows us much opening cunning tomorrow as he did today, he will be in for a world of hurt - Anand will not so easily give up his advantage of the white pieces.

Report in Hindi by Niklesh Jain:

आनंद ने ली मनोवैज्ञानिक बढ़त ।!!! पहला मैच 15 चालो मे ड्रॉ

पूरा विश्व टकटकी लगाए भारत के मौजूदा विश्व चैम्पियन विश्वनाथन आनंद ओर मेगनस कार्लसन का मुक़ाबला प्रारम्भ होने ओर एक शानदार मुक़ाबले को देखने का इंतजार कर रहा था । पर दर्शको के लिए शायद यह मैच निराशा लेकर आया पर शतरंज जगत के दिग्गजों के हिसाब से यह कोई सामान्य घटना नहीं थी ओर भविष्य के शेष मैचो का कुछ अंदाजा यह मैच दे गया । एक ओर जंहा कार्लसन का रेटी ओपेनिंग से खेल की शुरुआत करना सबको चौका गया सफ़ेद मोहरो से खेलते हुए खुद को मुख्य धारा की ओपेनिंग से अलग हटकर खेल खेलने की उनकी कोशिश नजर आती है हालांकि यह सिर्फ पहला खेल था ओर शायद कार्लसन काफी असहज भी नजर आ रहे थे ओर उनके चेहरे पर काफी दबाब भी नजर आ रहा था वंही आनंद काफी शांत नजर आ रहे थे । अब देखने वाली बात यह भी होगी की कार्लसन खुद को कैसे सम्हालते है ओर क्या गैरी उनकी इस मामले मे कुछ मदद करेंगे यह बेहद रोचक होगा । बहरहाल आनंद ने अपनी तैयारी साफ दिखा दी है की वो पूरी तैयार है ओर उन्हे कंही से कम

न आँका जाए। एक मैच हो चुका है ओर इसके साथ ही आनंद ने मनोवैज्ञानिक तौर पर अपनी बढ़त बना ली है । दूसरे मैच मे आनंद अब सफ़ेद मोहरो से खेलेंगे देखना होगा कार्लसन कैसे उनका जबाब देते है ।शायद आनंद अंतिम समय मे बेहतर स्थिति मे होने की वजह से खेल को जारी रख सकते थे पर यह भी शायद उनकी रणनीति का एक हिस्सा हो आखिर वो पाँच बार के विश्व चैम्पियन है । उम्मीद है की आने वाले मैच भारत ओर विश्व मे शतरंज के प्रसार प्रचार मे एक एतिहासिक भूमिका निभाएंगे कल के मैच के बाद एक बार फिर मिलेंगे ।आपका निकलेश जैन 

The full video transmission of round one for replay:

Report by Alejandro Ramirez, photos by Anastasiya Karlovich

Score

Tournament details

Schedule: the match will be played over a maximum of twelve games, and the winner of the match will be the first player to score 6.5 points or more. If the winner scores 6.5 points in less than 12 games then the closing ceremony will take place on the day after the World Championship has been decided or one day thereafter.

Live commentary on Playchess in English

Live commentary in other languages

The commentary will commence around 30 minutes after the start of the games. The schedule and commentators may be changed before the start of the Championship on November 9th, with long and short castlings possible.