The fourth game of the FIDE World Championship Match finished in a draw after 64 moves of play.
Anand started the game with 1.e4 and Carlsen responded with the Ruy Lopez Berlin defence. The opening earned its rock-solid reputation during the famous Kasparov – Kramnik match in London, 2000.
Anand entered the main line where the queens are exchanged and black forfeits the castle, in addition to having doubled c-pawns.
Earlier this year Anand scored a very nice victory against Karjakin in the 4.d3 sideline.
Carlsen was very well prepared to quickly roll out the moves in the rarely played 10…Be7 line.
Both players continued to regroup the pieces. But while white was shuffling the knights, black grabbed the a2-pawn with his bishop.
That bishop was left offside, but there was no way to catch it. Nevertheless, white obtained some compensation by advancing the kingside majority.
Carlsen’s pieces were pushed back and lacked coordination, but one could argue that white was overextended a bit.
Black probed opponent’s structure with h5 and a5, while white built up the pressure on the c-file.
The position became extremely complicated. Anand found a fantastic resource in 35.Ne4! which helped him to finally open up the black king and equalise the play.
The defending champion was still a pawn down, but the material reduced and white finally held a draw.
Viswanathan Anand commented: “Something went wrong in the opening, I made one illogical move after the next and suddenly I am probably lost.”
“Towards the end it was a little big scary in this 4-Rook endgame, but finally when I gave a check on a8 and got to g8, I was safe. I was happy that on both time controls (before move 40 and move 60) I was able to give a check and that helped me to move on to the next hour.”
Magnus Carlsen said: “Of course I am very happy with how the opening went, I was feeling pretty good, and then when I won the pawn I was very optimistic. But Anand kept finding resources, he just fought really well, and today I couldn’t bring the victory home.”
“It’s a bit of a pity to have spoiled such a good position, but it was a very good fight so…. I’m happy.”
Replay game with computer analysis and comments by GM Vidit Gujrathi
Replay game with computer analysis and comments by IM Aman Hambleton
In the chess solving contest held on Wednesday, International Master Ramnath Bhuvanesh of Chennai won the first prize. 55 solvers participated in the lobby of Hyatt Regency Hotel. This contest is held on all match days at 4pm.
Photos by FIDE Press Officer Anastasya Karlovich