Viswanathan Anand squares up with resounding win over Magnus Carlsen

Sochi: Indian chess king Viswanathan Anand beat Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the third game of the World Chess Championship in Sochi on Tuesday.

Having lost the second game, Anand was almost in a must-win situation and the Indian ace came up with his best effort against Carlsen in recent years.

The Indian grandmaster, who is looking for his sixth world title, lost to Carlsen in Chennai last year.

Anand's comeback has seen very good response across social media networks. It had turned out to be a shocking defeat for Anand on Sunday, but Tuesday's victory will give him much needed confidence he needs to dictate his game play.  

Playing with white pieces this time, Anand kept up to the demand of his opponent. The Indian ace is now level at 1.5 points each with Carlsen.​ Anand also ended a four year drought by beating Carlsen in Classical chess game as the last victory by five times world champion over the Norwegian had come way back in 2010 under this format.

For the first time in his world championship matches against Anand, Carlsen went for the theoretical duel and was duly punished in a well analysed variation.

For the records, it was a Queen's gambit declined by Carlsen, a natural choice with a full point cushion to back him. Anand went for a deeply analysed variation and was pleasantly surprised to find Carlsen game.

The players followed a 2013 game played between Levon Aronian and Michael Adams and it was Carlsen who did not seem to have keep the track of this game well.

While going behind on time, Carlsen found the right manoeuvres but Anand was still in his preparation. On move 20, the new idea was revealed by Anand which was a big improvement on the existing game in the position.

Carlsen had to again sink in long thoughts intermittently during the rest of the game as one or the other problem was posed by Anand with a well-supported passed pawn on the seventh rank.

Anand kept the momentum ticking without any further slips and piled on the pressure in almost Carlsenesque-style giving the Norwegian a taste of his own medicine.

For once Carlsen was on the receiving end he could only delay the inevitable. Making matters worse at this point was the clock that was ticking away and Anand sealed the issue after Carlsen made a blunder on move 28. Anand swapped a piece and it was all over in 34 moves. 

With agency inputs