WCC 2014 G4: Shall We Dance? Game 4 Ends in a Forty-Seven Move Draw
11.12.14 The opening of a chess game is, in many ways, like a superbly choreographed dance. One player offers a particular genre to which the other player may accept or decline and offer another possibility. Carlsen offered his, Shall we tango? with 1.e4. Anand replied, How about a mosh? (1...c5) and after Carlsen played 3. g3 the players decided on a particular offshoot of the waltz known as a non-main line Paulsen Sicilian in which White sidesteps the razor-sharp theoretical discussions of the Kan, Scheveningen or Open Sicilian.
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Total | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magnus Carlsen | 2863 | 1/2 | 1 | 0 | 1/2 | 2.0 | |||||||||
| Vishwanathan Anand | 2792 | 1/2 | 0 | 1 | 1/2 | 2.0 |
Anand fans had to be excited about Vishy's choice of opening today. Rather than head into the Spanish Game, a Carlsen stronghold, he chose to enter a Sicilian. But, because of the World Champion's neat footwork with 3.g3, we can't be sure which particular line of the Sicilian Anand had in mind.
The game continued mostly even throughout the middle game and into the endgame. That's not to say that there weren't many possible pitfalls and tricks--there were many--but both players expertly navigated the tricky passages and brought the game into the safe waters of a draw.
Tomorrow is a rest day. Game 5 will commence at 7:00 a.m. eastern on Friday, November 14th.
To watch games live with video feed and commentary click on the World Chess Championship Live! link in the left-hand column of ChessMaine.net.
Replay all the games of the Match on the ChessMaine.net Games link.
Here is the official website of the match: sochi2014.fide.com.
Twelve games will be played between November 8 and 28. The first player to score 6.5 points or more will be the World Champion. In case of a tie rapid and (if necessary) blitz games on November 27 will decide the match.
The venue is the Sochi Media Center, in Sochi, Russia. Players have 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds added per move starting from move 61. The prize fund is 1 million euro with 60% going to the match winner.
World Chess Championship 2014
Match Schedule
Games will begin at 3:00 p.m. Moscow time which is 7:00 a.m. on the east coast of the United States.
08 November 2014 Saturday Game 1
09 November 2014 Sunday Game 2
10 November 2014 Monday Rest day
11 November 2014 Tuesday Game 3
12 November 2014 Wednesday Game 4
13 November 2014 Thursday Rest day
14 November 2014 Friday Game 5
15 November 2014 Saturday Game 6
16 November 2014 Sunday Rest day
17 November 2014 Monday Game 7
18 November 2014 Tuesday Game 8
19 November 2014 Wednesday Rest day
20 November 2014 Thursday Game 9
21 November 2014 Friday Game 10
22 November 2014 Saturday Rest day
23 November 2014 Sunday Game 11
24 November 2014 Monday Rest day
25 November 2014 Tuesday Game 12
26 November 2014 Wednesday Rest day
27 November 2014 Thursday Tie-break games
