Viswanathan Anand’s glorious reign in world chess came to an end here on Friday when the young Magnus Carlsen dethroned the world champion on his home turf in the World Chess Championship title match.
Anand needed to win the tenth game to stay alive in the contest but could manage only a draw after a prolonged tussle. A result the 22-year-old Norwegian needed to win the title. The baton has truly passed on to the next generation with Carlsen becoming the first Norwegian to win the title. Carlsen took home Rs 9.6 crore, while Anand bagged Rs 6.4 crore in prize money.
The 43-year-old Anand has been the undisputed world champion since 2007, and had successfully defended his title three times. But he couldn’t fight against Carlsen and as the game ended in a draw after 65 moves, the venue almost had a stunned and sorrowful look. Carlsen’s cool and calculating ability had him dominating the match where he scored victories in the fifth, sixth and ninth games and drew seven games to defeat Anand 6.5-3.5. The remaining two games of the 12-game match were rendered unnecessary. The fact that Anand could not win even a single game for the first time in his World Championship journey underlined Carlsen’s dominance. The match was fought on equal terms till a blunder in a balanced position in the fifth game by Anand set the tone for the rest of the series, and Anand did acknowledge it on Friday.
“The fifth game was a heavy blow. I had really hoped not to be afraid of him in the long games and simply to try and match him. It was not to be. After that it got worse and worse. Yesterday (Thursday), at least it was a nice game and today (Friday) again...I guess when it rains it pours,” said Anand.
Anand had his moments in the match and the biggest one was when he missed a winning continuation in the third game which on hindsight proved costly. Asked about Anand’s mistakes, Carlsen said: “I would take the responsibility of that. The results were decided on the board and there was no role for psychological play.”
Dubbed as the “Prince in Waiting,” in January, Carlsen became the highest-ever rated player, and on Friday, he became the 20th player to be crowned world champion. He also became the 16th undisputed champion. The Norwegian promises to be a different champion with his love for outdoor sports like football, basketball and swimming. As for Anand, he will have to go back to the drawing board and analyse what went wrong.