World Chess Championship 2013: Norway Embassy in India Helping Carlsen's Team

The Norwegian Embassy in India is involved in helping Magnus Carlsen (22) with the upcoming World Chess Championship Chennai match, writes Sindre Murtnes in the Norwegian website nrk.no. Carlsen's manager Espen Agdestein said, "We are very pleased that they (the Norwegian Embassy) has been so committed, and that they are so determined to help. We have already received a lot of help. They have had several meetings with the Indian Chess Federation. They have checked out hotel facilities and they are doing at all they can to help us."

Carlsen is, at present, training in Kragerø. Carlsen's team is being very careful about how to plan for India for the World Chess Championship in Chennai.
 

Tone Slenes, first secretary, Embassy of Norway in New Delhi, says her primary responsibility to help Carlsen and his team with his stay. She also said it was natural for the Embassy to help exploit the cultural benefits becoming available with the World Chess Championship 2013.

She said, "This a huge event for both Norway and India, and it is natural for us to use it as an opportunity to promote cooperation between Norwegian and Indian resources. It is interesting in relation to cultural cooperation, science, research and business."

She said the Embassy has good contacts in the Indian Chess Federation and that have helped in the dialogue between the chess federations. The Embassy has also assisted with practical work including visas, travel, hotel and other facilities.

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World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand Honored in Los Angeles

Seen with the resolution honoring World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand are (l-r): Anand, Ardashes Kassakhian, and Ankit Gupta.

Los Angeles, Claif, US: Los Angeles city councilman Paul Krekorian initiated a resolution in the last week of July to felicitate World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand during his visit to Southern California.

Anand was in Los Angeles at the invitation of Metropolitan Chess, Inc.’s Indian American founder Ankit Gupta for a camp that brought together over 100 youth attendees from all over the nation for a five-day training session by internationally recognized coaches.

It was Anand's second visit to California, having previously been invited by the chess organization. During this visit, he had an opportunity to interact with the young players.

City clerk Ardashes Kassakhian presented Anand with the special resolution, signed by all 15 city council members, which read in part: “Anand has become an ambassador for chess in his native country of India and around the world…and has helped spread the benefits of learning and playing chess to many young Americans.”

Kassakhian also presented Anand with a key to the City of Glendale, a suburb north of Los Angeles that boasts a large Armenian population and chess heritage.

During their meeting, Kassakhian acknowledged Anand's upcoming title defense in November 2013 against Norwegian wunderkind and Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen. The match will be played in Anand's hometown of Chennai.

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The Chess Queen who Beat 'em Both: Kosteniuk Videos

The 12th Women's World Chess Champion, Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk has the unique distinction of being the woman chess player to have beaten both the World No. 1 and men's World Chess Champion - Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand. Here are the two videos from Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk's official YouTube channel. Interestingly, Women's World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk beat Anand, Carlsen, Polgar, Aronian, Morozevich, Gashimov, Naiditsch and Grischuk at this tournament! She drew with Leko, Jakovenko and Karpov. 

In which other sport can the reigning women's world champion beat the overall (men's) world champion and the world No. 1? :)

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Anand Carlsen Head-to-Head Record So Far

World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand and Challenger Magnus Carlsen have played a total of 29 classical time-control games against each other from 2005 to June 18, 2013. Of these, Anand has won six, Carsen has won three and 20 have been drawn. But, Anand's victories have come before Carlsen began his stratospheric rise on the ratings list.

For the most recent game between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen at the Tal Chess Memorial in June, 2013, check this game/post link.

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World Chess Champion Five Times: The Anand Timeline

Viswanathan Anand, the reigning World Chess Champion, has held the top title five times. He was crowned thus in 2000, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012). He has remained the undisputed World Champion since 2007 and was also the FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion in 2003. Here are brief write-ups on each of the five times the 'Tiger from Madras has won the World Title:

World Chess Championship 2000: Viswanathan Anand won the title for the first time after beating Spain's Alexei Shirov 3.5-0.5 in Tehran. He became the first Indian to win the title. However, Anand failed to keep his title in 2002 when he lost the semi-finals (tournament format) to Vassily Ivanchuk. The title eventually went to Ruslan Ponomariov thus making him the youngest world chess champion ever at the age of 18. Later, in 2005, Veselin Topalov became the FIDE World Chess Champion, 1/5 points ahead of Peter Svidler and Viswanathan Anand who both tied for second place with 8.5 points out of 14 rounds. 

This World Championship was hosted in New Delhi and Tehran. The first six games took place in India from November 27 to December 15. The final took place in Tehran from December 20 to December 24. World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov criticised the format of the event and took FIDE to court!

The title was, at this time split. So, both the recently-crowned Classical World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik and the previous World Champion Garry Kasparov (the World No. 1 at that time) did not take part. 

World Chess Champion in 2007: Mexico City hosted a double round-robin eight-player format from September 12-30 to decide the world champion. Anand won with a score of 9 out of 14 points which included four wins and 10 draws. He remained the only unbeaten player at the event. 

This World Chess Championship was unique because it was based on the tournament format instead of a match. The previous edition of the championship in 2005 had also been a round-robin event, but the title was split at that time with a Fide World Champion and a Classical World Champion. Classical champion Vladimir Kramnik refused to take part in 2005. Eventually, the 2007 tournament was to unify the title. Fide also decided that the world title from 2008 would be in match format.

In 2000, when Anand had won the FIDE World Chess Championship, the rival 'Classical' World Chess Championship title held by Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. The title was eventually unified and Anand became, in 2007, the first undisputed World Chess Champion to have won the title from a tournament format since Mikhail Botvinnik had in 1948.

Viswanathan Anand had said, in October 2007, that the double round-robin format was good and Kramnik's right to automatically challenge him was "ridiculous".

World Chess Championship 2008: The match format returned and Anand beat Kramnik in Bonn, Germany during a held from October 14–29. The rules required the first player to score 6.5 in 12 games to take the title. Anand amassed the points in 11 games which included three wins from the first six games. Two of these wins were with Black. Anand had a lead with 6–4 and required one draw from the last two games. 

World Chess Championship 2010: This match was versus Veselin Topalov in Sofia, Bulgaria. Anand and his team had a tough time even getting to the venue. The Frankfurt-Sofia flight on April 16 was cancelled due to the ash from volcano Eyjafjallajökull. The entire Europe was hit. Anand wanted a three-day extension, but the Bulgarian organisers refused. Anand still made it to Sofia on April 20 logging a 40-hour by-road journey! The match began a day later than scheduled. 

The World Chess Championship 2010 included 12 games. The score was tied with 5.5 each after 11 games. Anand went on to win the 12th game with Black and retained his title. 

How Veselin Topalov came to be the challenger in this match is a story by itself. Fide, attempting to unify the title, announced that the World Chess Championship 2007 would be an eight-player tournament including the 2005 FIDE World Chess Champion, but not the Classical World Chess Champion. Later, a so-called 'unification match' was organised between Topalov and Kramnik (2006 World Title Event). Kramnik won and Topalov could not qualify for the 2007 World Championship. However, in June 2007, FIDE decided to announce "compensation" for Topalov in the form of privileges to Topalov allowing him to take part in the 2009 qualification cycle giving him direct entry into the Challenger's match. Topalov took on Gata Kamsky for this Challenger's match as the latter had won the Chess World Cup 2007. Thereafter, Topalov beat Kamsky and became Anand's challenger in Sofia..

World Chess Championship 2012: Viswanathan Anand defended his title next in at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. He took on Boris Gelfand who had earned the right to challenge him by winning the Candidates Matches 2011. 

The match went to a tie after 12 games with six points each. Both had one win each and the other games had been drawn. Anand retained his title by winning the rapid tiebreak by 2.5–1.5. Anand had lost the 7th game, but returned to beat Gelfand in the 8th game in 17 moves – making it the shortest game in any World Chess Championship ever.

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Tal Chess June 2013: Carlsen-Anand 1-0

The fifth round at the 8th Tal Chess Memorial on June 18, 2013 was the last time World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen and World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand met across the board before the 2013 World Chess Championship. Not just Moscow, most of the chess world had an exciting Tuesday as the Challenger beat the World Champion who played a passive game. Carlsen played a rare variation in the Nimzo-Indian and said: I thought I’d play a line that he hasn’t faced in a long time and I thought that hopefully he wouldn’t be too prepared for that.

Speaking about the psychological advantage of the game, Magnus Carlsen said:

I think it's good before the World Championship match to remind him that I can outplay him once in a while. [Smiles.] Since obviously between us there have been a lot of draws, recently at least. But I'm not going to go around and think that he's going to have such a bad day every day at the World Championship. I'll have to prepare for the worst, definitely. And to clarify, I don't mean to prepare for the worst, that I'm going to lose necessarily, but that he's going to be at his best and not give away anything [for] free like today.

Eventually, Boris Gelfand won the event with 6 points and Carlsen was a clear second with 5.5 points. Anand finished ninth with 3.5 points at the event just ahead of Vladimir Kramnik in the 10-player event. 

Here is the Round 5 game with comments by Magnus Carlsen at the post-match press conference.

Carlsen, M. (2864) - Anand, V. (2786)

Result: 1-0

Site: Moscow RUS

Date: 2013.06.18

[...] 1.d4 ¤f6 2.c4 e6 3.¤c3 ¥b4 4.e3 O-O 5.¤ge2 "I thought I'd play a line that he hasn't faced in a long time and I thought that hopefully he wouldn't be too prepared for that." (Carlsen) 

5...d5 6.a3 ¥e7 7.cxd5 ¤xd5 8.¥d2 ¤d7 9.g3 b6 10.¤xd5 exd5 11.¥g2 ¥b7 12.¥b4 "Since I've put all my pawns on dark squares it makes sense to exchange this bishop first." (Carlsen) 

12...¤f6 12... c5 13. dxc5 bxc5 14. Bc3 and "his hanging pawns are more likely to be weak than a dynamic strength, because his pieces are not particularly active and mine are well positioned to meet whatever he's going to do in the center." (Carlsen) 

13.O-O ¦e8 14.¦c1 c6 15.¥xe7 ¦xe7 16.¦e1 £d6 Carlsen expected 16... Ne4 17. Nf4 Nd6 "and I can never really push the pawns on the queenside because the knight is very well placed to meet that, but after 18. Nd3 followed by putting pressure on the c6-pawn White is already playing for two results, which is an achievement." (Carlsen) 

17.¤f4 ¥c8 "Now he's trying to reposition the bishop to f5 after which his problems would be much less. It's a decent enough positional move, it just doesn't work. At least as far as I could see." (Carlsen) 

18.£a4 ¦c7 "The logical move, preparing ...Bf5." (Carlsen) 18... Bd7 19. Qb4! "and I believe in general the exchange of queens is favourable to White. 19... Ne8 20. Nd3 f6 21. Qxd6 Nxd6 22. Nb4 Rc8 23. Nxc6 Bxc6 24. Rxc6 Rxc6 25. Bxd5+ is of course a helpful line but it explains that Black is already in a bit of trouble here." (Carlsen) 

19.f3 "Now the problem is I change plans. I really cannot see a good continuation here for him. If I manage to push e4-e5 he will have serious positional problems." (Carlsen) 

19...¥e6 "I was thinking about 19... Qd8 20. e4 dxe4 21. fxe4 Bd7 and now White shouldn't rush but play 22. Qb3! keeping all the threats. (22. e5 Nd5 23. Nxd5 cxd5 ) 

20.e4 dxe4 21.fxe4 £d7 22.d5 cxd5 23.£xd7 ¦xd7 24.¤xe6 fxe6 25.¥h3 "I suspect he missed this, after which it's pretty much gone. There are tactical problems everywhere." (Carlsen) 


25...¢h8 26.e5 ¤g8 27.¥xe6 ¦dd8 28.¦c7 d4 29.¥d7 "I just go 30.e6 and take the pawn; there's really nothing he can do." (Carlsen) 1-0

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Getting Fit to Fight: World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen (22) is just three months away from the biggest chess match of his life, but "I do not feel any pressure at all. Everything is normal for me," he told Norwegian news agency NTB today. An interview/feature report appeared in the Norwegian website dagbladet.no.

Carlsen said in the article, he was preparing himself physically for the long, tough days ahead in India and has a good team around him. "I am very conscious that we should not over focus on the World Cup match though," he said.

Foto: Geir Olsen / NTB scanpix

His manager Espen Agdestein is quick to add that life is "usual" and "my job is to make every day for Magnus as it normally is before any major tournament." Carlsen is playing a lot of golf, tennis and beach volleyball as part of his fitness routine. Jon Ludvig Hammer is helping the World No. 1 with the chess bit.

Foto: Geir Olsen / NTB scanpix

The World No. 1 has an India trip lined up followed by a short tournament in the US. "I'm most curious about how awful and hot it will be. We will also familiarise ourselves with the city, the sounds and the people there. We will also identify which hotel we will be staying," says Carlsen. 

Foto: Geir Olsen / NTB scanpix

Carlsen has also posted photos of himself on his Facebook page. Here is Carlsen's status post accompanying the following photograph.

A lot of press appeared in Kragerø today. They filmed me making this golf putt!

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Magnus Carlsen to Visit India from Aug 18-22

World Chess Championship 2013 challenger Magnus Carlsen of Norway is likely to visit Chennai from August 18 to 22. "Carlsen will tour New Delhi and Chennai during these days," the All India Chess Federation (AICF) secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan has told The Hindu. Carlsen has never visited India before and is understood to earlier have had reservations about playing in India.

Mr. Singh told journalists that the AICF was preparing for the first-ever World Chess Championship to be held in India and would try to "make it a memorable event along with exploiting its marketing potential." Parallel to the World Chess Championship — to be held at Hyatt Regency, Chennai, from November 6 to 26 — an international Grandmaster and Women's Grandmaster chess tournaments would also be held. The AICF is also planning several other chess events leading up to the final championship.

The Anand-Carlsen match will be covered live on television and the Internet.

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'Not bothered about Carlsen's Trainers'

World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand has said he would try to understand how his next challenger World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen is going to play, but is not bothered about who is going to train Carlsen for the upcoming World Title match even if it is legendary 13th World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov. 

Viswanathan Anand was speaking in a special interview given to Russian news site RIA Novosti's Viktor Ivanov. Anand said, "I believe that my opponent - a strong chess player, his results speak for themselves. I will train very seriously before our meeting with him and will do everything possible to win."

Anand also said, "My match preparation would cover Carlsen's games and I am trying to understand my opponent. After that I will decide how to proceed. Of course, there will be a team that will help me prepare for the match though I cannot yet tell you about my second."

In reference to rumours about 13th World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov training Magnus Carlsen, a confident Anand said, "Both of us will naturally have a team to help us prepare for the match, but I am not paying all that attention to who is in which team."

Regarding the venue being Chennai for the World Chess Championship 2013, Viswanathan Anand said, "I was very happy even last year when there were prospects of Chennai being the venue for my previous (World Chess Championship 2012) match against Boris Gelfand. This time, if Chennai is the venue, I think it will be a powerful incentive for the development of chess in my state and my country. Personally, first of all it is important just to feel comfortable and to be able to fully concentrate on chess."

When asked about what could be the deciding factors in the forthcoming match particularly considering Carlsen has less experience at that level than Anand, the World Chess Champion said, "In theory, such an experience can really help in an important game. Each of us have our advantages. But not enough just to have them, you should be able to use them. I have experience, I've played these games before, but now the problem is different: to apply them correctly and that would help." --Zainab Raza Undulusi

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How Carlsen Came to be The One

World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen won the FIDE Candidates' Chess Tournament in London on April 1, 2013 thereby setting up the title clash with reigning (defending) World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand. Both the Norwegian and the other leader of the tournament, up to the last round, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, unexpectedly lost their game in the final round. So, they remained tied for first place, but Carlsen won on the second tie-break rule: higher number of wins!

It was a truly dramatic situation. Carlsen came good after nearly losing it. Carlsen lost his lead to Kramnik and then recovered it two rounds later. The final round had everyone on the edge. The Norwegian unexpectedly lost his white game against Peter Svidler, but because Vladimir Kramnik also lost to Vassily Ivanchuk, Carlsen won the tournament anyway.

Because Carlsen was leading on tie-break, Kramnik basically had to outperform him in the final round to emerge as the winner: he needed a win if Carlsen drew, or a draw if Carlsen lost. Kramnik, playing black, got under serious pressure right out of the opening, while Carlsen didn’t get much of an opening advantage playing white. Kramnik played the Pirc Defence, and Ivanchuk responded with simple, healthy developing moves. However, the Ukrainian (again!) needed quite some time to make his moves in this game, so even though he was building up an advantage, the Carlsen fans weren’t sure at all about the situation. Would Ivanchuk lose on time again...?
 

Meanwhile, Carlsen himself was using lots of time himself – too much time. After making his 27th move, the Norwegian had only 5 minutes left for 13 moves, and 2 moves later his clock was down to 1 minute and 20 seconds. It was a situation Carlsen hadn’t been in before in all previous rounds! It must have been around this time that the home page of Norway’s biggest newspaper online, vg.no, crashed (like several chess servers) due too the high number of visitors trying to follow the games.

Carlsen only barely made the time control – he made his last three moves in about nine seconds, knocking over some pieces in the process and losing precious seconds there. After the dust had cleared, he found himself in a completely lost ending. Svidler had simply played an excellent game, while Carlsen had succumbed under the pressure and the tension. “I was trying to equalize and then Magnus perhaps overestimated his position,” said Svidler.

“I was spending too much time in the middle game on reasonably good moves but also on not too difficult moves. (…) I definitely overestimated my position. Additionally, I just couldn't calculate very well today and then you have to spend a lot of time, that’s the way it is. Obviously not as much time as I did, because it became a serious liability at the end, but it's not easy. From early on there were lots of things to calculate on every move,” said Carlsen at the press conference, while Ivanchuk and Kramnik were still playing.

Before leaving the press room, Carlsen asked whether he could get the position of that last game on the laptop that was available. By that time Ivanchuk had made the time control, and he had a winning position. Carlsen said: “I think this cannot possibly go wrong,” and right at that moment Kramnik resigned his game, and with it his fight for first place. Carlsen was congratulated by his manager and by Svidler, and immediately gave a few interviews to mostly Norwegian press.

Meanwhile, Ivanchuk and Kramnik arrived in the press room to comment on their game. “I had to play for a win, to burn bridges in a way, because of course I didn't think that Magnus was going to lose. I thought I got what I wanted at some point. It was an interesting position but terribly complicated. Somewhere around 20…Nhf4 I liked my position and then somehow I lost a bit of concentration because I didn’t know what to do,” said Kramnik, who also kept an eye on the other game.

“The problem was that Peter [Svidler]’s position was already promising but not yet so clear so I didn’t know what to do, whether to play for a draw… Somehow I got a bit lost between watching that game and trying to understand what I should do. Then I made a few awful decisions and I was unlucky that I had to make a tough decision on move 40, not 41.” In time trouble the Russian missed an important tactic, and then his position was lost. Ivanchuk agreed that the position was at some point drawish. “But I noticed that my opponent started to play a bit risky and he gave me chances.”

Carlsen then returned to the press room to answer questions in his new status as tournament winner. He said: “I never expected to lose and I didn't really have any expectations for the other game. That didn’t make sense to me since I couldn’t do anything about it. (...) I didn't really want to resign before I was sure that Ivanchuk would win!”

The tournament winner felt that until the 11th round he “played the best chess for sure”. “At the end everyone got tired, the quality got lower and anything could happen. But overall I think I did pretty well and I deserve to win.” 

Carlsen said he was “very impressed” by Kramnik’s comeback in the second half of the tournament. About his match against Anand, he said: “I think it’s going to be very interesting, a great event but it’s a long time ahead so we’ll see what happens.”

The final standings were as follows: 1. Carlsen 8.5 points (5 wins), 2. Kramnik 8.5 points (4 wins), 3-4. Svidler and Aronian 8 points, 5-6. Grischuk and Gelfand 6.5 points, 7. Ivanchuk 6 points and 8. Radjabov 4 points.

The FIDE Candidates' Tournament took place March 14th-April 1st, 2013 at IET London, Savoy Place. It was sponsored by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and organized by AGON and the World Chess Federation (FIDE). -- Excerpted from official Fide media release)

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