It only took reigning chess World Champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway an hour to realize that he couldn’t win Thursday’s match against challenger Vishy Anand of India. The two agreed to another remis (tie) after just 20 moves.
“It was shamefully short, but I didn’t see any good possibilities, so that’s the way it is,” Carlsen told reporters after the ninth game in the current championship tournament in Sochi.
Commentators thought Carlsen would go all out for a victory on Thursday after a day off on Wednesday and Tuesday’s short match that followed Monday’s marathon. Instead it was all over with the tournament’s sixth remis and the shortest game since the action began on November 8.
Carlsen viewed the remis as unfortunate, but claimed that “given the match situation,” it was “less of a crisis” than it could have been. “I just have to evaluate my position and make an objective evaluation based on that,” he said, adding that it has more to do with the situation on the chess board than anything else.
Carlsen remains in the lead with five points compared to Anand’s four. The first of the two to reach 6.5 points wins the championship. Play was to resume on Friday and Carlsen predicted the two would need to play all 12 matches in the tournament to determine the winner.
newsinenglish.no staff
