It is another draw

Chennai: Defending champion Viswanathan Anand was caught off guard by a surprise opening from Magnus Carlsen of Norway as he played out a tame draw against his challenger with white pieces in the second game of the World Chess Championship here today.

World number one Carlsen showed that he was made of sterner stuff and pulled back the attention on himself with an easiest of draws against Anand, who played with his first white in the match. The first game, in which Anand played with black pieces, was also a drawn affair yesterday.

The scores are now tied 1-1 after two games and there are 10 more games to go under Classical time control in this Rs 14 crore prize money championship.

Just like Anand's mesmerising work in the opening game yesterday, it was Carlsen all the way as Anand could not do anything.

"It's my turn to offer a slight apology today," Anand said after avoiding any undue risk that might have led to wild complexities out of a Caro Kann defense.

The local hero agreed that the opening was a surprise for him and even more the variation chosen by Carlsen. It was a repetition of a game played by Anand against Chinese Ding Liren some time back and Anand spent a lot of time thinking about various complicated variations but could not be sure of himself.