In case you haven’t heard, there’s a world chess championship match underway in Chennai, India (that’s ‘Madras’, to those of you of a certain age). The reigning champ, 43-year-old Viswanathan Anand, is attempting to defend his crown against the Norwegian enfant terrible Magnus Carlsen, 22.
It isn’t going very well. After four draws, Carlsen, the highest-rated player in history, has just taken games 5 and 6, and Anand is not expected to survive.
You can play through the games, on interactive boards, here and here. Game 5 analysis here; brief analysis of Game 6 here.
Young Mr. Carlsen is a stupendously gifted player. After Game 5, former world champ Garry Kasparov tweeted:
Tarrasch said, “before the endgame the gods have placed the middlegame.” Sadly for Anand, in the endgame the gods have placed Carlsen!