WCC 2014 G7: Anand Holds Grueling 122-Move Draw
11.17.14 Everyone knew that Game 7 had the potential to put Carlsen in a nearly insurmountable match position. Carlsen threw everything he had at his opponent who held on like grim death and defended the second-longest World Chess Championship game in history. (The longest was the game between Korchnoi and Karpov in Baguio 1978. It was drawn in 124 moves.) There are five games remaining in the match in which Anand has three whites. Thanks to his incredible performance today, the challenger remains very much in the hunt.
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Total | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magnus Carlsen | 2863 | 1/2 | 1 | 0 | 1/2 | 1/2 | 1 | 1/2 | 4.0 | ||||||
| Vishwanathan Anand | 2792 | 1/2 | 0 | 1 | 1/2 | 1/2 | 0 | 1/2 | 3.0 |
In the post-game press conference Carlsen was asked his reasoning for dragging the game out so long in a theoretically drawn position. He basically said that there are always tricks and that when Anand played his piece sac on move 31 (...Bxg4) he "signed up for suffering."
World number two player Fabiano Caruana Tweeted, "I once had to defend a rook+knight vs rook against Karjakin for 100+ moves, and it wasn't much fun. It's normal to play this out."
This game keeps the match close and very exciting. The score is now Carlsen 4.0, Anand 3.0.
Game 8 is scheduled for 7:00 a.m. eastern on Tuesday, November 18th.
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
