Journalism of Courage
Viswanathan Anand registered a crushing win over former World Champion Veselin Topalov with white pieces to move into joint-second place at the end of the third round of Norway Chess 2013. Anand is on two points but Sergey Karjakins third win in a row put him a point clear in first place.
In the first two rounds of Norway Chess 2013,Anand was up against Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen,the two top-ranked players in the world. He managed to split points in both games in contrasting manner,and by way of an easier draw,was to play former World Champion and current No. 4 Topalov in Round 3.
Anand opted for the Sicilian in his game against Carlsen in round two,and was faced with the same defence (Byrne variation) from Topalov on Friday. The sides castled on opposite sides,which at times is a precursor to an open and attacking game. In such set-ups,a pawn roll towards the opposition king is not something of a surprise and Anand was the first to try moving his pawns down the board towards Topalovs king. First Anand took out the knight that might hinder the advance of his g and h pawns by exchanging his dark coloured bishop for it.
A series of exchanges left Anands queen bang in the middle of the board,and black with an isolated d pawn and an advanced f pawn Topalov would have trouble defending. When Anand picked up the loose pawn,Topalov had to get his queen onto the seventh rank in a hope of getting behind whites king side pawns. Here,a couple of inaccuracies from Topalov meant Anands doubled rooks took control of the d file. That,combined with the mobility and positioning of Anands pieces,meant Topalov was coming under serious pressure. To make matters worse,the Bulgarian was down on time as well.
In his push for the win,there was an oversight on Anands part which would have allowed Topalov to have exchanged off queens and a rook to get to a more or less even position. However,it was a difficult move to spot,especially under time pressure,and once Topalov failed to find the simplifying resource,Anand closed out the win in clinical fashion. The stunning 35. Be6 came for special praise by commentators,as it hastened whites attack and simultaneously cut off blacks defenses. Topalov traded his queen for a rook and a bishop,and faced with further loss of material,resigned after the first time control.
Anand now faces a relatively easier set of games in the tournament having already dealt with the three top ranked players. With two points from these games,it is something close to an ideal start for Anand.
Carlsen held
Meanwhile,Aronian drew with Peter Svidler to join Anand in second place while Carlsen was held to his third successive draw,this time by Hikaru Nakamura. The game was topsy turvy and both players held an advantage at some point in time or the other,but it eventually ended level. Teimour Radjabov took advantage of bottom placed Ludvig Hammers poor time management and endgame technique to collect a win. Karjakins double bishops and active rook overpowered Wang Hao and the Russian continued his good run in the tournament with his third win.
Results,round three: Viswanathan Anand (1) bt Veselin Topalov (1),Hikaru Nakamura (1) drew with Magnus Carlsen (1),Sergey Karjakin (2) bt Wang Hao (1),Teimour Radjabov (0.5) vs Jon Ludvig Hammer (0),Peter Svidler (1) drew with Levon Aronian (1.5).
Round four,pairings: Topalov vs Hammer,Wang Hao vs Radjabov,Aronian vs Karjakin,Carlsen vs Svidler,Anand vs Nakamura.
