Chess world championship as it happened: Anand strikes back to win Game 3

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Preview Game three could be a pivotal game for Viswanathan Anand. His win-less streak against Carlsen is now at 12 games in this format and he has lost four of the last eight games going back to their 2013 world championship match in which Carlsen beat Anand in 10 games. Anand needs a win, or at least a superior position that puts Carlsen under pressure, to create some doubt in the mind of the 23-year-old champion. Anand’s body language after the second game suggested that he is currently downbeat, especially since the openings in both games left the players with an even position. [caption id=“attachment_1797849” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Can Anand find a way past Carlsen? FIDE[/caption] But it is precisely those sorts of positions that Carlsen exploits so ruthlessly. “Watching Game 2, I was irresistibly reminded of two rules or rather, two heuristics, both of which I learnt some 40 years ago,” Devangshu Datta writes on his blog . “Magnus Carlsen broke one of those rules and Viswanathan Anand broke the other. The result was a one-sided classic. Carlsen demonstrated yet again, how he can squeeze effortless victories out of a seemingly dull, dry simple position.” Meanwhile Firstpost sports editor Ashish Magotra thinks Carlsen is in Anand’s head, which was the case in Chennai too. “Carlsen is in his prime. Anand knows that but he is perhaps allowing himself to over-think the situation. If the 44-year-old India can reproduce the form he displayed at the Candidates, then he would be fine. “But right now, he isn’t playing chess… he is playing Magnus – an incomparable genius who, in Anand’s mind, doesn’t make any mistakes.”