Anand must win in vital 11th game

Trailing by a full point with just two games remaining, Indian chess ace Viswanathan Anand would desperately need a victory to stay afloat against Norwegian Magnus Carlsen in the World Championship match on Sunday.

With the scores at 5.5-4.5 in favour of the Norwegian, Anand needs one victory and the Indian will try to achieve it in the last game of the match slated on Tuesday given that the Carlsen will play with white in the penultimate game.

The chances for Anand are diminishing with each passing game and the fact that Carlsen has been vulnerable is what’s keeping the Indian going. A terrible blunder by Carlsen in game six had gone unnoticed by Anand and since then the holder has not been pushing too hard for victory. For the records, the last four games have been drawn with only Anand able to cause some real troubles for the reigning world champion.

The ninth game was the easiest of draws for Anand after a 122-move slugfest in the seventh game as black. In the eighth game too, Anand had pressed for an advantage which evaporated once Carlsen found some counter-active measures.

In the last played 10th game too, Anand missed a chance to look for a serious advantage and again Carlsen found an easy route to equality. While this is an unfamiliar situation for Anand, it is much better than the last match against Carlsen in Chennai when at this stage the Norwegian had finished the match by securing the required 6.5 points.