Defending champion Viswanathan Anand today gave his Norwegian challenger Magnus Carlsen a scare despite playing with black pieces even though the third game of the World Chess Championship clash ended in a long-grinding draw in Chennai.
Despite his queen holed up on one corner of the board for nearly 10 moves, the contender for the world chess champion title wriggled out to draw the third game against title holder Vishwanathan Anand of India.
With only opposite coloured bishops on the board apart from the two kings at the end of 51 moves, the two players signed a peace treaty.
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Playing white in the third game, Norwegian grandmaster Carlsen jumped his king side knight over his pawns playing Nf3, the first move of the first game.
Anand played d5 pushing the pawn before his black queen two squares. This opening is called Reti opening.
Officials watch as India's Viswanathan Anand (L) and Norway's Magnus Carlsen (R) compete in their championship match in Chennai. Pic/AFP
After replaying a couple of moves of their first game, Carlsen deviated from the first move playing c4-pushing the pawn before his black bishop two squares.
Both their players took their kings to safety in their eighth move by castling on their king side.
By the end of 9th move, Carlsen and Anand had more or less mobilised their army to the centre of the board.
On the 10th move, Anand made Carlsen to think deep moving his horse to d4, giving an option for the challenger to go for an exchange which the later obliged.
The position at this juncture was equal according to chess experts and the game was set to progress to middle game.
The chances of both the players going in for repetitive moves and signing peace treaty seemed remote at this point of time.
At the end of 14th move, both the players were almost even on their clocks consuming around 60 minutes.
On the 16th move, Carlsen exchanged his black bishop for Anand's knight stationed at e7.
With Anand attacking Carlsen's queen from move 23, the challenger was forced to take his premium piece to the right hand bottom most corner square.
Carlsen's queen was out of play for nearly 10 moves.
Anand's experience seemed to come into great play here as he was already orbiting amongst the chess elite when Carlsen was in his shorts.
The age difference between the two players is over 20 years. Anand won the world title for the first time in 2000. But Carlsen's strength in the middle game was also evident as he managed without his queen.
While Anand started his advance on the queen side, Carlsen opened the play in the centre.
With both the players facing the risk of overshooting the time limit, Anand seemed to have lost track much to the advantage of Carlsen who gobbled up black's extra pawn and equalized the position.
The next match will be played Wednesday.u00a0
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