World Championship 2014 / Game 2

At the bottom – A collection of photos from Round One.

First Game Two – with accompanying photos from Derrick Bartotto. 

Carlsen Wins ! !

Spanish Torture – White had almost complete control of the board; domination of the e file (King file) and there was little or no counter-play for Black.  Nevertheless Anand found a nice defensive idea in his 28. ….. b5.  The idea is that if White plays Re7, then the move Qd6 will threaten f3 (exposed/discovered check) winning the Queen.  Did Black really have to exchange his light Bishop on move 20?  Rd7, doubling and taking over the d line (Queen file) – the only open file on the board is simple, clear, and without “danger” – EXCEPT White has Bh6! !  Crushing ! !  I missed this at first – and even trying to transpose moves does not make Black a happy camper.  This is TOUGH!   The exchange of this Bishop, and later the exchange of the Knight on f4, led to an exposed Pawn on f4 coupled with a completely passive (perhaps hopeless) position for Black.  Black has no time for all of this.  White had to be pushed back more quickly before he had time to build up.  18. …. Qf7 is a good start in that direction and Black looks fine.  Was Anand’s opening selection the reason for this result?  I don’t think so; the position was passive, but solid; perhaps reasonable – if you want to play that way in a match.  Team Anand will have to rethink his/their approach to this match.  It is still early, but I don’t like the stylistic writing on the wall.

Score of Game Two (PNG format) – See Comments.