World Chess Championship 2013

The World Chess Championship 2013 was held from November 7 to November 22 2013 as the battle for the title of world chess champion between the defending champion Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen as a challenger in Chennai (formerly Madras) in India instead. After ten out of twelve scheduled games Carlsen won with 6,5:3,5 and became the new world champion.

Candidates tournament

Candidates tournament, held in London from 14 March to 1 April 2013, played eight players double round each against all. The eight starting positions were the losers of the World Chess Championship 2012 ( Boris Gelfand ), the top three players of the World Chess Cup 2011 ( Pyotr Svidler, Alexander Grishchuk and Vasyl Ivanchuk ), the three players with the best Elo rating from the average of the ratings in July 2011 and January 2012 ( Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik ) and a nominated by the organizer player ( Teymur Rəcəbov ) taken. Winner Magnus Carlsen was of wins before the tied Vladimir Kramnik due to the higher number.

The final score of the candidates tournament in overview:

Venue and prize fund

On the FIDE Presidential Board Meeting on May 5, 2013 Baku World Championship fight to Chennai was awarded. The Norges Sjakkforbund had previously protested against an alignment in Chennai. The Fédération Française des Échecs had offered to organize the competition in Paris and to provide a prize fund in the amount of 2.65 million euros. The offer of Chennai amounted to 2.55 million U.S. dollars. Of Carlsen initially received $ 100,000, because he took in the home country of his opponent. The rest was split 60:40 between winners and losers. If the competition would have been decided by tiebreaker, the winner would have received only 55 percent.

Competition mode

The competition was held over a maximum of twelve games with classical time (from train 61 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus 30 seconds credit). World Chess Champion was the player who first reached 6.5 points. If it had come to a tie for the twelve regular games, so the colors four tie-break games ( chess with 25 minutes thinking time per game plus ten seconds per train ) would be paired once again and been played. With a tie, two blitz games ( five minutes thinking time per game plus three seconds per train ) would have been played. Would this have led to no decision, two blitz games had been played again. This would have been repeated until a winner stood or ten blitz games had been played. Had it been the same after that, there would be a final sudden death game has been played. By lot, a player would have been determined, which now would be able to choose whether he would have the last batch with white or black to play. The white player had five minutes to change your mind, the black players get four minutes. From train 61 players per train would get a time bonus of three seconds. If it had come in their last game to a draw, the player would have been declared the winner with the black pieces. Chief Judge of the competition was Ashot Vardapetyan from Armenia.

Carlsen sat through a contractual clause which gave a player the right to take a two-day break in the case of illness.

Preparations

Anand was preparing for two months in Bad Soden am Taunus on the competition before. After Peter Heine Nielsen and Rustam Kasimjanov had left his team before, he worked with Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Radosław Wojtaszek and Sandipan Chanda as secondary Danten. At the opening press conference on November 7, 2013 Anand confirmed that even K. Sasikiran and Péter Lékó among his secondary Danten.

Carlsen kept his preparations largely secret. As Jon Ludvig Hammer 's second only been officially confirmed.

Carlsen was considered a world ranking first with a lead of 95 Elo points over the past number 8 Anand as favorite. Before the world championship match, the two players met in 29 games with classical time with each other. Anand led in this comparison with 6:3 at 20 draw. In the last meeting before the match, Carlsen won the Tal Memorial in June 2013 with white in 29 moves.

The opening ceremony took place on November 7, 2013 in Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai instead. The opening speech was delivered by the Prime Minister of Tamil Nadu, J. Jayalalithaa.

Course

Table

The start of the game was scheduled for each clock 9:30 UTC, which corresponds to 15:00 local time clock to 10:30 clock CET (among D, A and CH). For the case of a 6:6 draw, after twelve games was for the 28th of November, the tie-break (see the section Competition mode ) applied. The draw at the opening ceremony revealed that Carlsen in the first game had white.

After the first match in each case the colors were alternated during the first half of the duel with each new game, then kept Anand in the seventh game as a prelude to the second scheduled half the white stones, which again the colors were alternated in each lot. This practice had already been proven in previous World Championships, to neutralize the potential advantage of the first game as White.

First game

The first game ended after only 16 moves and less spectacular course with a draw by repetition.

2nd game

In the second game Carlsen surprised as Black with the Caro- Kann Defence. Anand felt worse prepared for the resulting complicated position and accepted in the 18th train an exchange of queens. After 25 moves, it came to a draw by repetition.

3 game

In the third game Carlsen initially began as the first, then retired but as a variant of the third train the farmers on c4. In the middle game Anand seemed to gain the upper hand, Carlsen had his lady placed temporarily on the corner field h1 and got into time trouble. By the pawn sacrifice 28.e3 but Carlsen was able to activate his characters again, after which Anand was turning into a balanced position, figures abtauschte and after 41 train offered a draw. Carlsen played further, however, and the players drew from further until after 51 trains a positional draw was reached.

4 game

In the fourth game of the Berlin Defence of the Ruy Lopez was played. After an exchange of queens in the eighth train the game got the character of a final fast. Caused a sensation in the eighteenth train, in the Carlsen with his runners could take an edge farmers: In a similar situation, Bobby Fischer had lost in the first game of the World Cup 1972 a runner. In this case, however, Carlsen won the peasants and free his runners, albeit at the expense of weaker character position. Anand could then keep the game balanced, parry some threats in a rook ending and neutralize Carlsen's extra pawn, so it was a draw again.

5 game

Carlsen's opening led to the semi- Slav variation of the Queen's Gambit, which amounted to an open slugfest. This resulted in a rook ending, in which Anand a farmer had less and after the error 45 ... Tc1 instead of 45 ... Ta1 soon another lost. In a hopeless situation, he gave up after 58 moves.

6 game

The Berlin Defence of the Ruy Lopez played - in the sixth game was - as already in the fourth. In the rook endgame Carlsen sacrificed at first a pawn by and by two farmers to create with the help of his active king and a pawn tower. Anand gave up, was not more than preventing its conversion.

7 game

In the seventh game in which it came to the date the third time in the match for the Berlin Defence of the Ruy Lopez, Anand was allowed due to the regulations to make a second consecutive year, the white stones. However, after the previous two defeats Anand had the game in spite of a new variant Carlsen in the opening quickly flatten and took the draw to purchase, instead of attacking.

8 game

The eighth game ended after about an hour through the exchange of blows between light and heavy figures in a balanced endgame. After the game, the two players of a suspicion independent doping control had to undergo, as it was also made to previous world chess championships.

9 game

Anand turned in the ninth game in a sharp opening, through which he received attack. However, due to a serious mistake, he stopped the game by 28.Sf1 instead 28.Lf1 played, after Carlsen's freshly converted lady just fended off the attack.

10 game

Carlsen now extended for an overall victory a draw. Thus, according to Anand played offensively to keep up with a victory the result of the match can still open. After Carlsen had chosen the Rossolimo variation of the Sicilian defense, eventually resulted in a risky run by both Springer final. In the course Carlsen sacrificed a knight. Both players were able to convert a pawn to a queen on the 56th train. After an exchange of queens, the game ended in a final with two pawns on white and a knight on a black page. When the last white farmer was beaten, the draw was perfect. The challenger Carlsen was thus new world chess champion.

Afterthoughts

Grandmaster Anish Giri leads back to win Carlsen to several factors. Anand was not able to take during the race his fear of Carlsen. This was particularly evident in the press conferences after the games in which Anand had underestimated his positions. It should also be largely run opening preparation of Anand into the void because Carlsen always chose sidelines.

Robert K. von Weizsäcker, former President of the German Chess Federation, called the World Cup as disappointing as Carlsen demonstrated no superior chess understanding, but simply waited for the errors of his opponent and exploited have. Germany coach Uwe Bönsch the contrary, said that the games were still not been spectacular, but at a very high level. Grandmaster Nigel Short wrote that Anand had indeed lost through their own fault, but these were brought about by the constant pressure Carlsen. To the new world champion set the standard of Austria under the heading Precise systematic product development firm: Carlsen have an existing exceptional memory and an uncharacteristic for his age, mental strength. Instead of attacking (and sometimes losing ), he was waiting for tiny bumps in the game of the enemy and increase as Bobby Fischer then the pressure relentlessly. The most striking feature was his enormous precision. In many ways his style therefore resembles that of the Cuban world champion José Raúl Capablanca.

In a newspaper article the end of November 2013 Michael Ehn wrote: "The severity of the defeat was certainly no surprise The significant gain of Carlsen corresponded almost exactly to the expected according to the rating number of Arpad Elo result .... chess on this highest level is obviously something for young. brains .... Among the 50 ( world's best ) grandmasters with over 2700 Elo points " are only Ivanchuk and Gelfand older than Anand. " Of course, the world champion has known about this distribution of opportunities that his match experience and intuition in critical moments can hardly stand against the precision of the younger ones. It would have been a Notinkarnation Vishnu, the raised Sustainer, been necessary to show the Norwegians in their place. the more you have, therefore, the power and the courage of the 43 -year-olds pay the highest respect. According to the rainfall in game five and six he turned round after round one 20 years younger than Mike Tyson, equipped with enormous impact strength, flexibility and controlled aggression. In game nine with a white one last heroic attempt by a lucky punch, Anand Maybe not himself went to the ground. 's new world champion ... how will he characterize the style of the present?. he just plays very, very strong chess. he knows, and that's all. and, that's his message, it was in the history of chess never different. "

Grandmaster Boris Gelfand said that Carlsen had deserved to win. In particular, his final understanding was exceptional. According to Gelfand Carlsen plays more than one computer in this phase of the game. In the opening Carlsen had, as usual, for it showed nothing special. This could prove in future competitions as a serious weakness. In the third game Carlsen had not stood well after the opening phase, but intuitively the right defense found to save the game yet. Anand was there with the exception of the ninth game, when he was already significantly lagged and was no longer full of self- confidence is not able to achieve complicated tactical positions.

Find out more

The World Cup was one by Lasker against Capablanca 1921 ( early task Lasker at the score of 0 = 10 -4) and Kasparov against Kramnik 2000 ( 0 = 13 -2 from the perspective of Kasparov ) the third in the history of the World Chess Championships, in which in Title duel the reigning "classical" world champion was able to win against challenger not only winning play. These two world championships had not taken place under the aegis of the World Chess Federation FIDE, but are counted for different reasons than classic World Championships 1921 World Chess Federation had not yet existent and 2000 the match while the title cleavage from earlier classical world champion Kasparov was lost, who since his title had defended twice in 1993 outside of FIDE.