World Chess Championship: Chennai nightmare extends to Sochi for Vishy Anand

We’ve starting to see a trend at Sochi - one that has continued from Chennai 2013. Viswanathan Anand gets out of the opening fine… the positions are almost equal, then Magnus Carlsen slowly starts activating his pieces, looking for combinations, and then suddenly the Indian GM is under the cosh, in a fight to save himself and grab a draw. This has happened over and over again. The problem for Anand is that once he allows Carlsen to pile on the pressure, there is almost no way back; almost no way to win and even tiny miscalculations can lead to defeat. In Game 1, Anand saved himself with a brilliant move 44. Qh1 - something that most experts and engines had overlooked. But in Game 2, some might argue that he did nothing majorly wrong but there were small miscalculations which piled up. According to GM Susan Polgar, “20…Bxf5 is the beginning of the wrong direction for Anand.” GM Jonathan Rowson felt that Anand’s problem was miscalculation. “He evaluated position after 23.Rc3 as close to equal, but it’s close to lost,” Rowson tweeted. [caption id=“attachment_1795491” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Magnus Carlsen has just been too strong for Vishy Anand. AP[/caption] But even then the mistakes were tiny. Black was in a tough position but there was no clear win for White. And slowly, Anand had come to a situation where it had seemed like he might just have slipped out again. But then the blunder on the 34.h5 gave the game away. It was brain freeze at the worst possible moment. “It is a pity I threw it away. I almost got back in the game. It is a pity..” said Anand after the game. The scariest part of the situation as it played out was that it seemed as if the Chennai nightmare had extended to Sochi for Anand. During commentary, 38-year-old GM Peter Svidler, who has an ELO rating of 2743 in classical chess, pointed out how he had never been able to beat Anand in a classical encounter in all these years. In other sports, we have seen Roger Federer dominate opponents (Roddick, Hewitt, Murray) who seemed just fine against others but utterly incapable against the Swiss genius. But then we have seen the same Federer go down again and again to Rafael Nadal. So much so that after a point, it didn’t seem like much of a rivalry. The great West Indies and Australian cricket teams could reduce the opposition to a bunch of blundering fools as well. Most of the time, their reputations would precede them and they would win the battle in the head before a ball was bowled. Similiarly, as Garry Kasparov once noted, “chess strength in general and chess strength in a specific match are by no means one and the same thing.” 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. Of course, that isn’t true but someone needs to tell him that. Some positive reinforcement can help a great deal at this point. There will already be visions of Chennai floating in his mind, the reminders in the social sphere are there as well and somehow, he needs to forget all of that. In Game 2, the positions looked equal but the problems after 23. Rc3 were something that Carlsen saw and exploited. Anand failed in that aspect as he probably focused on another point. A battle between two high level GM’s is all about getting a situation that they are more comfortable with – Carlsen has been consistently been able to do that and has thwarted Anand’s attempts to do the same with ease. Anand seems to sit back and wait for Carlsen to make a mistake rather than take the initiative himself. More reactive than instinctive. In all the talk and chatter that we have during the game, almost no one expects Carlsen to make a mistake. That is the aura he has created; an aura that is built on success. Speaking to Norwegian TV after Game 2, Carlsen said: “Good to get this breakthrough so early, now he has to chase me.” Anand could do with a bout of selective amnesia that would make him forget Chennai and the first two games; that would allow him to just come out and play. He shouldn’t get drawn into this chase; into this game of cat and mouse. He should instead chart his own plan and take it from there. There are still 10 games to go and can easily make up the difference. In the press conference after the second game, Anand was asked if he will change his approach in the next few matches. His response showed that he still has a sense of humour: “If you mean to play better than today, then certainly yes.” If Anand can laugh about it, shrug it off then he still has a chance. But again, against Carlsen that is easier said than done.