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| Defending champion | Challenger |
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| Magnus Carlsen (NOR) | Viswanathan Anand (IND) |
| 6½ | 4½ |
| Born 30 November 1990 23 years old |
Born 11 December 1969 44 years old |
| Winner of the 2013 World Chess Championship | Winner of the 2014 Candidates Tournament |
| Rating: 2863 (World No. 1) | Rating: 2792 (World No. 6) |
The World Chess Championship 2014 was a match between the world champion Magnus Carlsen and challenger Viswanathan Anand, to determine the World Chess Champion. It was held from 7 to 28 November 2014, under the auspices of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) in Sochi, Russia.
The match was decided after eleven of twelve scheduled games. On 23 November 2014 Carlsen retained his title, winning three games, losing one and drawing seven.
The challenger was determined in the 2014 Candidates Tournament, an eight-player double round-robin tournament that took place in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, from 13 March to 31 March 2014. The participants, in order of rules announced by FIDE, were:
| Qualification path | Player | March 2014 rating |
|---|---|---|
| Loser of the World Chess Championship 2013 match | Viswanathan Anand | 2770 |
| The top two finishers in the Chess World Cup 2013 | Vladimir Kramnik | 2787 |
| Dmitry Andreikin | 2709 | |
| The top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Prix 2012-13 | Veselin Topalov | 2785 |
| Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 2757 | |
| The next two highest rated players who played in the Chess World Cup 2013 or the FIDE Grand Prix 2012-13 (average FIDE rating on the 12 monthly lists from August 2012 to July 2013) |
Levon Aronian | 2830 |
| Sergey Karjakin | 2766 | |
| Organizing committee's wild card (FIDE rating in July 2013 at least 2725) | Peter Svidler | 2758 |
The tournament had a prize fund of €420,000. Prize money was shared between players tied on points; tiebreaks were not used to allocate it. The prizes for each place were as follows:
| Rank | Player | Rating March 2014 |
1 (VA) |
2 (SK) |
3 (VK) |
4 (SM) |
5 (DA) |
6 (LA) |
7 (PS) |
8 (VT) |
Points | Tiebreaks | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H2H | Wins | SB | ||||||||||||||||||||
| W | B | W | B | W | B | W | B | W | B | W | B | W | B | W | B | |||||||
| 1 | Viswanathan Anand | 2770 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 8½ | - | 3 | 57.25 | ||
| 2 | Sergey Karjakin | 2766 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 7½ | - | 3 | 51.75 | ||
| 3 | Vladimir Kramnik | 2787 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 7 | 2½ | 3 | 49.25 | ||
| 4 | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 2757 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 7 | 2 | 3 | 48.00 | ||
| 5 | Dmitry Andreikin | 2709 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 7 | 1½ | 2 | 48.50 | ||
| 6 | Levon Aronian | 2830 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 6½ | 1½ | 3 | 45.00 | ||
| 7 | Peter Svidler | 2758 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6½ | ½ | 3 | 46.00 | ||
| 8 | Veselin Topalov | 2785 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 6 | - | 2 | 42.25 | ||
In the event of a tie, the following tie-break methods were used, in order of precedence:
Numbers in parentheses indicate players' scores prior to the round.
The Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand took place in Sochi, Russia, from 7 to 28 November 2014, under the auspices of FIDE.
Prior to the match, from 2005 to 6 November 2014, Anand and Carlsen had played 40 games against each other at classical time controls, out of which Carlsen won six, Anand won six, and twenty-eight were drawn.
| Head-to-head record | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlsen wins | Draw | Anand wins | Total | ||
| Classical | Carlsen (white) | 4 | 13 | 4 | 21 |
| Anand (white) | 2 | 15 | 2 | 19 | |
| Total | 6 | 28 | 6 | 40 | |
| Blitz/rapid/exhibition | 9 | 18 | 10 | 37 | |
| Total | 15 | 46 | 16 | 77 | |
Both Carlsen and Anand appeared in the 2013 Championship, Anand as the reigning world champion and Carlsen as the challenger. This marked the first time the same two opponents met in consecutive World Championship matches since Garry Kasparov played Anatoly Karpov five times between 1984 and 1990.
Anand is only the second former champion (after Karpov in 1987 and 1990) to win a Candidates tournament. At 44, Anand is the second oldest person to win a Candidates tournament, behind Viktor Korchnoi in 1977 and 1981.
The match organizers faced several significant hurdles in organizing the event. The match venue was not finalized until June 2014, because the formal application from Norway, which was expected to host the title match at the time, was not forthcoming. FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced in June that the match would be held in Sochi, Russia, in November 2014, disclosing an agreement to host the match signed with the regional governor of Russia’s Krasnodar Region, Alexander Tkachev.
In the third week of August, Carlsen requested that the match be postponed because he was not satisfied with the choice of venue. However, Anand agreed to play versus Carlsen in Sochi on the proposed dates, and in early August, Carlsen signed the agreement to defend his title in Sochi.
This left the organizers, Agon Limited, the holder of rights to holding FIDE international tournaments only two months to prepare and organize the event. However, Agon successfully met its obligations, organizing the event to everyone’s satisfaction.
Gazprom and Summa Group were the main sponsors of the match. According to the world championship’s website, the 2014 title match broke global audience records, drawing more than one million viewers every day. The total number of unique visitors to the website during the match was 10.5 million, with 2 million people visiting the match website on the final day.
The match was held at the Olympic Media Center located in the Adler City District of Sochi, Imeretinsky Valley, on the Black Sea, next to the Sochi Olympic Park houses and the main Fisht Olympic Stadium. The Olympic Media Center served as the main media hub during the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Andrzej Filipowicz was chief arbiter for the match.
The FIDE press officer and photographer was Ukrainian Woman Grand Master Anastasiya Karlovich, who previously officiated at the World Chess Championships in 2012 and 2013.
Both Carlsen and Anand had a team of seconds to aid in their match preparation. During the opening press conference, Anand revealed his seconds to be Krishnan Sasikiran, Radosław Wojtaszek and Grzegorz Gajewski. Carlsen's seconds were Peter Heine Nielsen and Jon Ludvig Hammer. Although after the closing ceremony, in an interview with chief FIDE press officer Anastasiya Karlovich Carlsen revealed that Laurent Fressinet and Michael Adams were helping him from home. Carlsen was also in touch with Garry Kasparov before the match. During the match Garry Kasparov was regularly in contact with Peter Heine Nielsen to give advice.
The Championship match consisted of 12 games and, if necessary, tie-break games. The winner of the match would be the first player to score 6.5 points or more. The time control for the "classical" portion of the match was: 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting after move 61.
Had tie-breakers been necessary, four rapid games would have been played at a time control of 25 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move. If the score was still equal, up to five 2-game blitz matches (5 minutes + 3 seconds) would have been played, before a final "Armageddon" game. In that game, white would have received 5 minutes, black 4 minutes and a 3-second increment after move 61 for both; in the event of a draw, the player of the black pieces would have been declared champion.
The prize fund was 1 million Euros. This is the minimum prize fund stipulated by FIDE in the official regulations. If the match ended within the 12 regular games, 60 percent of the prize fund would go to the winner, while the loser receives the remaining 40 percent. If the match went to tie-break games, the winner would receive 55 percent and the loser 45 percent.
The opening ceremony was held on 7 November 2014. The drawing of colors was held also at the opening ceremony. Unlike the 2013 match, Anand played with the white pieces in the first game.
The games started daily at 15:00 MSK (UTC+03:00).
| Rating | Game 1 8 Nov. |
Game 2 9 Nov. |
Game 3 11 Nov. |
Game 4 12 Nov. |
Game 5 14 Nov. |
Game 6 15 Nov. |
Game 7 17 Nov. |
Game 8 18 Nov. |
Game 9 20 Nov. |
Game 10 21 Nov. |
Game 11 23 Nov. |
Game 12 25 Nov. |
Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magnus Carlsen (Norway) | 2863 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | Not required |
6½ |
| Viswanathan Anand (India) | 2792 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 4½ |
The player named first played the white pieces.
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The first game of the match was played on 8 November 2014. The game saw Anand use the Queen's Pawn Opening, to which Carlsen replied with the Grünfeld Defence. Anand, who went down on time as the game progressed, fought a queen and rook middle game to eventually draw with the World Champion. Carlsen didn't make the best of his chances with 42...Re3! He allowed a quick draw after 42...Re2 43. Rb4 b5 44. Qh1!
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The second game was played on 9 November 2014. The opening was the solid Berlin variation of the Ruy Lopez where Carlsen played 4.d3 instead of the main line 4.0-0 Nxe4. Carlsen gave up the bishop pair to double Anand's c-pawns and the result of the opening was roughly equal. However, Anand's moves 16...Rd8, 18...Be6, and 19...Ng6 all contributed to making his position more unpleasant. In the heavy-piece endgame Carlsen's active pieces and outpost on e6 gave him a clear advantage. The game ended abruptly when Anand blundered with 34...h5??, allowing 35.Qb7 forcing instant resignation, because there is no good defense to 36.Rxg7+ Kh8 37.Rh7+ Kg8 38.Qg7 with checkmate. 34...Qd2 was the way to fight on but Anand's chances of a successful defence were slim. Carlsen took the lead in the match.
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The third game was played on 11 November 2014. Anand's superior opening preparation was the decisive factor in this game. In a sharp, topical variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined involving an early Queen's side attack by White, he improved on an earlier game between Levon Aronian and Michael Adams. He soon had a clear advantage, his c-pawn on the 7th rank being far more dangerous than Carlsen's passed a-pawn. Carlsen, down to 6 minutes, blundered with 28...Ba5?, although his position was very bad anyway. Anand leveled the match at 1½-1½. This was Anand's first and only victory over Carlsen in a world championship game.
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The fourth game was played on 12 November 2014. Anand played the first Sicilian of the match, Carlsen opting to avoid the open Sicilian with the quiet 3.g3. Carlsen eventually gained a small advantage due to Black's isolated d-pawn, but Anand defended robustly. The game ended in a hard fought draw.
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The fifth game was played on 14 November 2014. Carlsen played a rare line in the Queen's Indian Defense, but Anand was well prepared and soon gained the advantage. On move 22, Carlsen made a risky decision to capture a pawn on b2 rather than enter an inferior endgame. He soon had to return the pawn and spoil his king's side pawn structure, but at the same time he managed to liquidate the pawns on the queen's side. The game was drawn shortly afterwards.
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The sixth game was played on 15 November 2014. Carlsen adopted the space-gaining Maróczy Bind setup against the Kan Variation of the Sicilian Defence, and accepted a set of isolated doubled pawns in return for active play. After an early queen exchange he soon developed a commanding position and appeared to have excellent winning chances. At move 26 there was a double blunder. Carlsen's 26.Kd2?? should have been answered with 26...Nxe5! (with a discovered attack on the g4-rook) 27.Rxg8 Nxc4+ (zwischenzug) 28.Kd3 Nb2+ 29.Ke2 Rxg8, and Black will wind up with 2 extra pawns (on e5 and c4) and excellent winning chances. However, Anand missed this and played 26...a4?? Carlsen made no further mistakes and converted his advantage into a win.
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The seventh game was played on 17 November 2014. The opening was the highly theoretical Berlin Defence of the Ruy Lopez. Carlsen retained a slight advantage, despite sacrificing a pawn. At move 31 Carlsen was poised to win back the e5-pawn, thereby establishing connected passed pawns, but Anand instead sacrificed his bishop for two pawns and cleared away all the pawns on the kingside. With an extra knight, Carlsen tried to win but he was unable to penetrate Anand's defenses. Eventually the players traded down into a rook and knight versus rook endgame that is a theoretical draw and Anand made no mistakes while defending it. Carlsen finally acquiesced to a rook exchange on move 121, drawing immediately. With this draw, Carlsen still led by one point.
This is the second-longest game ever played in a World Chess Championship. The record is still held by the fifth game in the 1978 World Championships. Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov played 124 moves before the game ended in a stalemate.
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The eighth game was played on 18 November 2014. The opening was a Queen's Gambit Declined with 5.Bf4 which had won for Anand in game 3. Carlsen deviated from that game by playing 6...c5, an older line that was popular in the 1970s to 1990s but now less fashionable. During the game, Anand piled up a bishop and queen on the b1-h7 diagonal against Carlsen's king, but Carlsen was able to initiate a series of exchanges and obtain an easily drawn endgame.
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The ninth game was played on 20 November 2014. The opening was the Berlin Defence of the Ruy Lopez. The game was drawn due to threefold repetition on the 20th move. This game included no original moves. The draw meant that Carlsen was closer to converting his 1-point lead to a match win, though Anand seemed satisfied to draw early and focus on his two remaining games with the white pieces.
Although a short draw at 20 moves, this game is far from the shortest in match history; a pair of 10-move draws sealed Petrosian's match victory over Botvinnik in 1963.
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The tenth game was played on 21 November 2014. As in the first game, Carlsen played the Grünfeld Defence but Anand met it with the Russian System instead of the Exchange variation. Anand obtained a passed pawn on d5 that was isolated but well defended, and Carlsen was under pressure for much of the game. Anand's temporary bishop sacrifice 28.Bxb7 allowed the d-pawn through to its queening square and so winning the piece back, but the resulting double rook endgame was equal and soon agreed drawn. Instead, 28.g3 was suggested as a way of keeping an advantage.
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The eleventh game was played on 23 November 2014. As in the seventh and ninth games, the opening resulted in the well-analyzed queenless middlegame of the Berlin Defence. In this game, Anand gained an initiative with the line opening pawn sacrifice 23...b5! Carlsen declined the sacrifice, but Anand still had a somewhat easier position until he sacrificed an exchange by 27...Rb4 in return for a protected passed pawn and free play for the bishops. Both players criticised this move afterwards, Anand describing it as "a bad gamble". Carlsen found a flaw in Black's plan and with 29.Nh5! followed by 30.f4 he opened up lines for the white rooks to penetrate on the d-file. After the capture of the black pawn on f7, the white pawn on e5 became a dangerous passed pawn. White's king was in position to block the black pawns while the white pawns proved unstoppable. Anand resigned on move 45, thus conceding the match and Carlsen retained the title of World Chess Champion.
There were several changes and controversies in the process of selecting the challenger and hosts for the championship. A timeline is given below.
Before the match began, many commentators believed that Carlsen had very strong chances of winning. However, many assumed that Anand had learned from his mistakes in 2013 and will be a stronger opponent this time around. These commentators were vindicated: Carlsen had to make a greater effort, winning the match with a ratio of wins to losses of 3:1 versus 3:0 in 2013. Commentators saw the match as more interesting precisely because Anand demonstrated himself as a much stronger player than he had done in 2013.
Vladimir Kramnik predicted that Carlsen would win Game 11, whereas Sergey Karyakin expected the game to end in a draw.
On the whole, few doubted that Carlsen would win the match. Sergey Karyakin noted that Anand was not in top form during the match. Anand himself admitted after the match that he had taken unjustified risks, and that Carlsen was a stronger player who did not make mistakes.