Anand will be better prepared, but it won't matter; I expect Carlsen to simply outplay him again.  The problem as I see it is that there was no lack of opening preparation on Vishy's part, no lack of theoretical preparation (except perhaps in rook endings?  Or were his mistakes due to fatigue?).  

I don't think that Vishy can prepare his way to success against Carlsen, he must genuinely train again, flex the muscles of his mind again, calculate further, faster, more efficiently, visualize better, find reserves of energy late in the match, etc.  And in his forties, I don't see that as possible.  He can probably play better than he did last year, but not good enough to beat Carlsen, provided Carlsen's own training efforts haven't suffered.

I also think that the hiatus from playing will hurt Anand.  I don't see him preparing his way into shape, as I mentioned before, while Carlsen has continued to exercise his powers of visualization, calculation, decision making, struggling, and the like.  I suspect Anand to put up a somewhat better show but the result to be approximately the same.

Finally, it wouldn't surprise me to see Carlsen prepare at least one extremely sharp line, as this was something he didn't do the first time around and may come as a nasty surprise to Anand if unleashed at the appropriate time.

Smyslov_Fan wrote on 11/06/14 at 15:54:10:


Anand will have the previous World Championship as an outline to work from. Vishy now knows what channels Carlsen will try to take the match into. This is my thinking, anyway.

I'm impressed that there's a consensus that Carlsen will win by two this time. 

I do think Anand will be better prepared, which was hard for me to imagine considering how long he'd been preparing for the first match. I also think Carlsen won't be quite so hungry this time. But I agree, Carlsen will still win by two.

A white win against the Berlin defence in game 2 would be historically awesome.

I agree with Seth - Anand better understands the challenges this time, and Carlsen has not been on his best form lately. Perhaps the struggles of the contract disputes and such got in the way of his preparation a bit. I think Anand fairs better this time around, but I'm not sure it's enough to beat Carlsen, who has stamina for days.

I guess Carlsen will be able to win again but it won't be as clear as last time. +1 match score for Carlsen