Bouncing back from a painful loss in Game 2, Indian challenger Viswanathan Anand defeated defending champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway in just 34 moves in Tuesday’s Game 3 to even their scheduled 12-game match at 1 1/2 points apiece. The victory was the first for the 44-year-old Indian challenger in two world title matches with Carlsen. The Norwegian won the crown from Anand a year ago without dropping a single game.Deviating from his Grunfeld Defense in Game 1, Carlsen as Black adopted the Queen’s Gambit against White’s 1. d4. Anand adopted a well-known theoretical idea to push his c-pawn aggressively down the board using a pawn sacrifice: 12. b5 cxb5 13. c6 Qc8 14. c7.
Much of the middle-game play revolved around whether the advanced pawn would prove a strength or weakness. Black managed to get an advanced passed pawn of his own on a3, but the champ appeared to misplay the defense as the 40-move time control neared.
Black’s 28. Ra1 Ba5? appears to have been the decisive mistake, with commentators and chess computers saying Black still had a difficult but defensible game after 29…h5, trying to evict the powerful White bishop on g3. After 29. Qa6 Bxc7 30. Qxc4, White establishes a devastating pin on the bishop that Black can’t break.
The challenger’s 33. e6! opened up fresh holes in the Black defense, and after 33…Kf8 34. Rc1, Black resigns in a hopeless position as his bishop is lost.
(washingtontimes)
