Agree with Martin.  Kasparov has explained this.  Magnus is trying to reach "his" kind of position, something calm where he can play forever.  He and his team apparently feel that Magnus has more of an advantage over Anand in such positions than he would in a sharp or complicated position.  

So, no, Magnus hasn't gone crazy, he isn't afraid, and he isn't trying to catch Anand out in funny openings.  He is simply following his match strategy -- something that was probably decided upon months ago as the best way for Magnus to win the match.

I don't think he's obsessed with purity at all. He's just used to beating awfully strong people - including Anand! - fairly reliably from 'nothing' positions.

So he's trying that as his tactic. Very logical, although perhaps his style has a got a tiny bit unbalanced that way. It can easily happen.

What he'll do if he's one down after game 7 might be interesting to see.

Dink Heckler wrote on 11/15/13 at 10:39:02:


Agree, have been underwhelmed so far.

Yea, i guess Carlsen's preparation is really weird. I think in this way is not only more like Karpov than Kasparov, he seems to have an anti-Kasparov approach to chess. This is not really news, since he has been playing non-critical openings for quite some time. However, I (and I guess many people) really would have suspected this to chance for the WC.
Good news is that the game now gets quite imbalanced ...

Game 4 interesting yes. High class in places too. Still,  Anand does seem to have suggested that he basically blundered the a2 pawn so hardly unblemished Game 3 probably better from that perspective.

It certainly hasn't been a remotely terrible match so far though. Never likely to get really sharp stuff with the way Carlsen has been playing recently. Just thankful that Anand has showed up playing well.

Think I agree about the opening in game 5. Not sure why 5 e4 then ducking the principled lines as quite a few manouvering ideas possible instead. I'm sure he's got his reasons.

Dink Heckler wrote on 11/15/13 at 09:59:15:


Not sure what you are on about here really? I think at least game 4 was high class and interesting, no?! 

Match review so far:

With no decisive games and only a couple of moments of danger for the players, it is difficult to say that either player has moved the mercury on the likely result.  Of course, from an ELO perspective, draws have to be favorable results for the Champion, who has a fairly massive reputation as a rapidplay player.  Certainly the estimations of the multitudes would be different if the match were drawn after 12 games.

Anand's opening preparation has been slightly better.  Game 4 was obviously an exception, but it is not surprising as Carlsen had prepared the 10...Be7 line at home.  Anand's play was at least enterprising, which is a good sign.  Thus far I have been impressed with the Champion's play; he has not blundered four games into the match, which is more than can be said for the Gelfand and Topalov matches.

Interestingly, two games in a row have seen complex middlegames where Carlsen, by his own admission, missed more tricks than Anand did.  I would have liked to see Anand try to make something more of his position in Game 3, but he forced a clear draw fairly confidently, and it was a Black game.

If Carlsen goes into the Barcza again, I think we can expect to see a new wrinkle from Anand fairly early.  Anand has never been willing to "sit still" and wait for his opponent to find a chink in his WC matches a la Kasparov; he makes a point of varying and using the extraordinary breadth of his preparation.