First win in the match is by Carlsen!

Well done TVO - quick post and with the game.

Caught the last 20 moves live - Carlsen is a monster at endings.
Anand cannot take him on down there.
He needs to set him some problems in the middlegame and play something spicey.

Looking at the players during the game I've decided that Vishy and Magnus are;
smug, shy and vain.

I think Carlsen deserved the win today, primarily as he led Anand into having a much weaker pawn structure, and so set Anand multiple problems at once to deal with.

Two white games for Anand coming up though, one feels he must win at least one of them (without loss) to keep the match alive... can he repeat what he did vs Gelfand??

It will be interesting to see if Carlsen plays differently now that he is ahead. Playing to draw is a difficult thing to pull of and I'm not sure how good he'd be at it.

As predicted by many the younger stronger endgame expert, takes the first win. No surprises there but it is extremely unlikely Magnus will sit down at table to draw. To be confident of becoming new champion he will wish to win another game white or black. Anand of course cannot now do anything except play to win with every remaining game. It is Anand who now must take the games to Carlsen whatever the risks may be!

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Well done TVO - quick post and with the game.

Caught the last 20 moves live - Carlsen is a monster at endings.
Anand cannot take him on down there.
He needs to set him some problems in the middlegame and play something spicey.

Looking at the players during the game I've decided that Vishy and Magnus are;
smug, shy and vain.

Score is indeed 3 points for Carlsen vs. 2 for Anand.

"A strange match but oddly balanced. Carlsen plays without openings and Anand without endgames! Statistically, that's in Magnus's favor."
- Garry Kasparov

dear friends please offer up incense for Vishy, he must be feeling it right now!

Does anyone know where to find the best site for watching the games with analysis but not the live transmissions?(apart from greenpawns annotation on here of course)
The Andrew Martin one was very enjoyable, but whenever I go back to the link all I get is game 2 again!!

I've been getting up at 4:30A for every game.

What impressed/surprised me most was Carlsen castling long on move 12 behind what looked like weakened pawns and Anand's pieces grouping on that side of the board.

I guess I just have to accept they're better players than I am!

On move 16, what was the logic behind Ke7 instead of castling?

Originally posted by FastEddieB
On move 16, what was the logic behind Ke7 instead of castling?

Originally posted by chessicle
The King needs to be active in the endgame, and this is easier to achieve if he is on e7 than g8 in this position.

So these guys are good, huh? 😉

Originally posted by FastEddieB
I've been getting up at 4:30A for every game.

What impressed/surprised me most was Carlsen castling long on move 12 behind what looked like weakened pawns and Anand's pieces grouping on that side of the board.

I guess I just have to accept they're better players than I am!