Magnus Carlsen vs Vishy Anand | How could he miss this?

This is a super important game that's going to happen at the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League as Magnus Carlsen enters in with some light humor shared amongst his teammates Vidit Gujarati and Anish Giri. This is the team of Alpine APL Pipers, and look at Magnus, he has so much to share, and he also stops for the fans who've come here And look at Magnus. So many people want his signatures and doing all of this before the game.

And Magnus like, okay, okay, I'll do it.

And he's trying his best to give his autographs. However, at the end of it, he's like, okay, this is too much, and he leaves. The thing is, in India, Magnus is such a big Big, you know, person personality. People love him so much. And there you see his opponent walking in, Vishy Anand. Vishy wants to focus on the game right now, nothing else on his mind. And so many people have just come to see this encounter that you see on your screen. The two gentlemen sitting on the chair opposite each other. Magnus Carlsen versus Vishwanathan Anand. Both of them multiple times world champion. And there you see the little boy gets a chance. I think his name is Kabir. Through some contest of Yippee Noodles, he managed to get— win it and get this chance to make the first move. He was thrilled. And Magnus takes back the pawn because he has something else on his mind. The arbiter comes in. It's 20 minutes for the entire game per player with 2 seconds increment on move number 41. g3 played by Magnus, slightly offbeat. He starts off with, you know, generally you go Knight f3, e4, d4, or c4. Vishy responds back with Knight f6. Bishop comes out to g2 and d5 capturing the center. Knight to f3, we have the Reti. Pawn comes up to e6. This is known as the Queen's Gambit Declined position. Castles. Bishop e7. Vishy is like, let's not experiment anything in the opening, let's keep it simple. d3. And now short castles. Usually white in such positions goes knight d2 and e4. But Magnus plays knight to c3. Now this is interesting because he wants to play e4, but Vishy goes d4 even before that, and Magnus jumps knight e4. Now chance for Anand to take and double the pawns, which Magnus is ready for. So Vishy plays knight c6. He knows his stuff. This is well known. Anish Giri has played this with black. e3 breaking in the center. And now two games have been played here. Both of them went e5, but Vishy takes on e3, and this is the first new move of the game. Pawn takes e3, knight takes f6, and he takes back with the bishop. Pawn takes forward, and. White has a very interesting setup. e5 played by Anand. So Anand's position looks very nice. All his pieces are well placed, while Magnus has this clump of pawns in the center. Do you want to push e4? Well, he first jumps in with the knight to c4, maybe threatening to take here and take on e5, but f6. Anand protects it. This is a very solid position for Vishy Anand, and I think he's done well in the opening. A very good plan now is to go Bishop e6, which is what he plays. Queen d7, Rook d8, connect the rooks, maybe trade the bishops with Bishop h3. Magnus goes pawn to b3. He protects the knight here, and Vishy goes Bishop d5. He doesn't play for the Queen d7 move. He goes Bishop d5. Offering to trade the bishops. And c3 played in the center, maybe just taking care of both these squares, slightly having some cover on the dark squares. a6 played by Anand. Maybe later he can push the knight away with pawn to b5. Black's plan in such positions is to take on g2. But Carlsen pushes forward with a5, gaining space. Let's see what Anand does here. He has some plans. This queen d7 idea seems to be okay. Plays bishop g2, king g2, and now Anand is thinking about a very interesting plan, which is pawn to b5. He tries to get more space on the queenside by pushing that pawn, and white's pawns are looking very weird on the 3rd rank. Magnus goes e4, and one of the main plans is to get the knight from e3 to d5. b5 pushed, knight comes back, and b4 to gain space on the dark squares. Well, Magnus pushes the pawn forward, and now bishop can settle in here. The knight can jump in. He does play bishop c5. Knight to d5 played, and now Vishy thinking about what to do next. He pushes the pawn to a5, gaining space.

h4.

A very, very interesting move. Magnus is going to play on the kingside with h5, h6, and Anand plays queen to d7. The problem with this queen move is that there are some tactics now on the f6 square which could result in a fork. h5 played. And the the plan is to go h6. He does put his pawn on h6, but this is dangerous stuff because now Magnus can sacrifice on h6. And look at this line: he takes it because if Vishy takes here on g h6, not knight f6, but rook f6 is powerful.

Oh, he takes with the knight, but this helps Anand now.

Rook takes f6. Rook takes by Magnus, and rook f8, important move to trade off this very strong rook, and he plays it. If you take here, then rook is entering in on the f2 square. So Magnus has to play this very carefully. Goes queen f3, and Vishy's best move now is queen g7 because there's a pin here. The rook can no longer take the knight or play rook g6. So this is a very important moment, but Vishy makes a huge mistake. He plays knight d4 and he misses that rook g6 check is game over.

Why?

Because rook g6 check, king h7, and there's this very little tricky move, queen e3.

And Anand has missed that completely.

Queen e3 attacks h6. Let's just make that on the board. Check, queen e3, and there's just no way to save the pawn. Let's see if Magnus spots it. Of course, he gives a check, and Vishy— I think it dawns on him that king h7 is impossible, so he goes king h8. But now the pawn falls on h6. King goes to g8. Another check, King h8. Now Queen e3. We have the rook moving into f3 to attack the queen and the pawn on g3.

Rook check. King g8, check on g5.

The queen blocks it, and now rook g6. He wins the queen. Vishy has some final tricks. If you take, king f2, knight e6 discovered check and winning the queen. Even that is winning for white. But Magnus, well, he sees that he can simply move his king up here. King h3, rook h2. If you take here, there's knight f3 check. But King g4 and Vishy resigns there and makes this very interesting game actually just 37 moves. But I think Vishy played really well till a point. I want to take you back to this moment where h6 was played and a piece was sacrificed. Vishy Anand loses, and I think a key loss for the team because the Alpine APL Pipers was able to beat the PBG Alaskan Knights in this one. Let me just show you what transpired in that position as Magnus sets up the piece, and then later you can see some more shots from the playing venue.

When you see this position, White has played the move h5. Your first thought that comes in is that White is going to go h6 and soften up this square, so let's play h6. However, a move like f5 would have been very interesting and could have led to a fighting game. When Vishy played h6, Magnus instantly chopped this off. And now taking on h6 is not the best move. Maybe something like bishop d4, knight e7, giving up a pawn is good, but takes. And what I found very interesting is this line rook takes f6, because this is not so easy to understand, uh, such a position that it's bad. Of course you can't take because of takes Check and here. However, let's say for example you play knight e7. Your idea is to take here and take here. Queen d2, knight takes d5, rook g6 check. King f7 only move. Otherwise you are in trouble with this hanging. So king f7. Let's say pawn takes now. On d5, king e8. You have to run.

Check. King d8.

And now takes. Check. King h3. And now you see the rook is pinned.

Rook a6. And with such moves, black is able to hold.

So clearly, rook takes f6 was very, very dangerous. But instead, Carlsen took here, making Anand's task slightly easy with rook f8. Now queen f3, this is where Vishy could have really gotten a nice position after queen g7.

You have to trade, takes, and I do feel that this position is very complex.

Yes, white has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 pawns and black has only 4. But the thing is, the knight has a great square, the bishop can also come here. So for example, if I go rook f1, Knight d4.

I already feel like black is the one who's pressing here with bishop c5.

It's easier somehow to play as black. Maybe the game is dynamically balanced, but once Anand played knight d4, missing this little move here after king gets in his calculations, he definitely missed queen e3. This is all over.

Magnus, congratulations on that win. But one curious question: before you were about to start, we saw you thinking. What was going on in your mind?

Uh, before, uh, before I started the match?

Yes.

No, I was looking at the other games, I guess. Um, yeah, I don't remember.

What thoughts on facing Vishwanathan Anand for the second time this tournament?

Um, no, of course he's had a tough tournament, so it was certainly a game that I was, uh, yeah, hoping to do some damage in.

How's the golf going?

Uh, less important than the tournament.

All right then, I hope to see you in the finals as well because, uh, the tournament's important.

Well, of course.

That is it from the post-match presentation ceremony. The winners, ladies and gentlemen, are our Indian partners.

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