11.08.14 Traditionally. the first game of a world championship match has the dubious honor of being somewhat dull and drawish as the players feel each other out. This game broke the mold. Peter Svidler's comments during the game summed it up nicely, "I'm having a lot of fun covering this. This is exactly the kind of game we were hoping for." Nevertheless, after White's 48th move, the players shook hands and agreed to a draw in a triple-repeat position.

After a strong opening position for Anand, Carlsen, playing the black pieces, solved his problems and got a slight edge in the middlegame. When Carlsen played 24...Rc8, GM Susan Polgar Tweeted "Vishy has nothing in this position. He has to switch gears to make sure he will hold this endgame."

After the first time control was reached (when black made his 40th move), GM and author Jonathan Tisdall offered this, "Very interesting to read the tweets of people--giants--who have been in Magnus' technical house of horrors, and know what Vishy is facing."

Very precise calculation was needed by the Indian Ex-World Champion and that's exactly what he produced to bring the draw safely into his column.

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