Anand or Carlsen?

Who will win?

It seems like bookmakers hold Carlsen as a favourite with about 70% chance of winning. And who am I to bet against the House?

The match might be called

"The old man and the C"

(old man for Anand (43 years), C for young Carlsen).

With my 50+, I keep thumbs pressed for Vishy.

Ingo.

I think it will be close, the first 2 games certainly suggest this. I'm rooting for Anand, but I think Carlsen may just edge it

If Anand doesn't have a lead by the half-way stage, Carlsen will win.

NOR NOR NOR

Using that logic...

A NAND, A NAND, A NAND

In my opinion, the difference in rating is not so important. They are both great players and the match will be a tense, nervous affair, decided by small things, not all of which favour Carlsen.

My prediction is that Anand will eventually prevail, possibly in the tie-breaks. Not because he is the better player in a one-off game (in which you would back Carlsen), but because he will better handle his emotions in the incredible stress and media attention surrounding the match. Anand appears to be very motivated and the sobriquet of "underdog" may actually suit him psychologically.

I predict Magnus will win game 3 and eventually the match. He appeared very nervous before game one, and in game two he dropped his knight out of his hand, but I think he will settle into the match and get his nerves under control and Anand will have a very difficult time beating him.

I think Carlsen will win and it will be decided in the last game, before the last game only remis... ;)

> If Anand doesn’t have a lead by the half-way stage, Carlsen will win.

I would just say it the other way round: The longer Anand can keep
the balance the better his chances.

Watching the Anand-Carlsen match, game 3, and Anand has just declined to take the draw by repetition. Seems like this favours Carlsen. The draw was available and I feel Ingo is right - the longer the balance can be kept, this will favour Anand. Very tense affair, I certainly wouldn't be able to handle my nerves! Easier to spectate...

BTW, quite good video / GM commentary here:
http://chennai2013.fide.com/live-video-streaming-alternate-server/

This is the official FIDE website. There are competing commentaries available on ChessBase and others.

None of the live commentary/analysis things work in my browser (neither does streaming video) :-( (And I've wasted about half an hour searching, trying about 20+ different sites.)

If you just want to take a look on the current board, this german site is//was working:

http://www.sportal.de/schach-live-ticker/viswanathan-anand-magnus-carlsen-2013-11-12.html#

http://tcec.chessdom.com/anand-carlsen-2013-live.php did work in the end, but was lacking a few gizmos that I like to see, such as the graph of the estimated game value across the whole game, so that you can quickly identify the critical moves that caused largest swings. And resizeable panels so that you can see more than just a few plies of each of the robotic line evaluations at a glance. Only about 20% of the screen real-estate is actually of interest.

An interesting game - it looked like 2 questionable moves per player. A particuar shame as all the bots were sure Anand had a 1 pawn advantage before one of the goofs, which was wiped out instantly.

What was also interesting was how different the bot's opinions were at several points during the game.

I've got http://chennai2013.fide.com/live-video-streaming-alternate-server/ working in Google Chrome, Version 28.0.1500.72 m, Windows XP SP3, if that helps anyone.

Game 4, Anand looks in severe trouble, move 31.

Arse, that chessdom website isn't working for me today.

http://www.sportal.de/schach-live-ticker/magnus-carlsen-viswanathan-anand-2013-11-13.html

Carlsen mb winning today!

Impressive play from Magnus today.

One more victory for Carlsen:
4-2 after game 6.

Match over, in my opinion.

Ingo.

The market says 1/100 for Carlsen 12/1 for Anand, which looks like its way too late for betting.

Yes, I agree, so is he now going to be, the youngest world chess champion ever? Kasparov was also 22 years old when he became the world chess champion. Well, it is of course not over yet, there are still some games to be played...

The 7th game finished in a draw, thus 4.5 - 2.5!

Tjena Rickard!
C of course, A is "over the hill"...
:) M

Carlsen, yes...but not because of age, he is just a stronger player, and he has a plus 2 advantage with 5 to go. Anand has about a one in a hundred chance (still possible! maybe Carlsen will crack with over confidence! a victory for Anand in game 7 or 8 will put Anand back into contention)

Carlsen-Korchnoi would be the true battle of the ages!

Finding top players older than Anand is quite tricky, he and Gelfind are quite the old men of the modern game. Nigel Short definitely older, but is a fair bit further down the pack.

Carlsen is undoubtedly the stronger player (the ratings systems don't lie), but I think some of the comments above are not respectful. Anand may be older but he is still world championship and a fantastically strong player. If he loses, remember that all champions must eventually lose in the long history of this great game. In 100 years time, Anand will still be remembered as one of the greatest players, and a gentlemen with wide ranging interests besides, to grace the game of chess.

On the issue of youngest world champion, wasn't Ponomariov a winner of one of the early 2000 FIDE World Championship matches (before the official re-unification)? I think he was 20 years old or something.

Ponomariov was 19 yrs old when he won the FIDE world championship in 2002, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruslan_Ponomariov and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess_Championship.

I suppose one could debate whether this was a "true" World Championship because the WC was disputed between 1993 to 2006 (when it was unified by the Kramnik-Topalov match). It is quite unfair on Ponomariov to say he wasn't world champion though (he won the match with Ivanchuk under FIDE rules and regulations fairly). Perhaps it would be correct to say that Carlsen, should he win the match with Anand, may be the youngest "undisputed" world champion.

Anyone know how old Kasparov was (to the day) when he won in 1985 and how old Carlsen would be if he wins next week? Think Carlsen is younger, but not sure.

Kasparov was about 22 years, 7 months old.

Born in 1963-04-13

The last game that lead to the 13-11 final score was played at 1985-11-09.

Nf1??

It happens to the best :(

I feel gutted. Anand is a great champion and a wonderful person. Today he played a a fanastic game today, but to err is human. What a shame. Congratulations to Carlsen.

PErhaps we will see one more firework in round 10 tomorrow ...

Possibly, but Anand himself reluctantly admitted that though he'd of course go for it, the odds are definitely against him now.

Carlsen won after Anands blackout...

It is the beginning of a probably long new reign. The "House of Carlsen" will be sitting on the Iron Throne for some time.

The king is dead, long live the king!

Kasparov was 8,246 days old when he won the World Championship on November 9, 1985. (11/9/1985 - 4/13/1963 = 8,246)

If Magnus wins the match tomorrow (which is likely... all he needs now is a draw) then he will become champion at when he is 8,393 days old. (11/22/2013 - 11/30/1990 = 8,393)

So yes, Kasparov was younger when he became World Champion... by 147 days. (About five months.)

It is official, Magnus is a worthy Worlc Champion.

and world champion :)

Anand is still a great player, and a gentleman. Carlsen of course deserves the title, but I hope that Anand will be back for a revanchematch :-).

Of course! No one is denying that. Anand won the World Championship five times. But Carlsen is special. He has been the strongest player according to Elo rating for a long time (considering his age) and now he is finally World Champion. There is no other player like him (except Kasparov who is my age).

Anand gets his revanche! I'm curious if he can now find a way to make it hard for Carlsen. That would make it an interesting match ;-)

I would prefer to see someone else facing him. It seems that Anand doesn't have what it takes, but I guess we will see.

I'm glad we now have a WC match every year now rather than every three!
Anand did great in the candidates tournament and I look forward to seeing him play Carlsen again.

@Christian K: It seems clear that Anand is stronger then "someone else". So that would make it only easier for Carlsen to win !?
Furthermore, I think it's only fair that Anand gets the chance to play a revanche match.