World Chess Championship, Game 3: Viswanathan Anand seeks to gain lost ground

Sochi: The initial strategy has backfired and it's time for Viswanathan Anand to reconcile and come out with fresh ideas to recover the lost ground in the World Chess Championship match against holder Magnus Carlsen on Tuesday.

On what turned out to be a pretty bad day in office, five-time world champion Anand went down rather tamely in the second game yesterday and now trails 0.5-1.5 in the 12-game match.

Anand's body language also suggested that the king is currently down especially in the light of the fact that the opening had gone quite well for the Indian ace in both the games.

However, as was the case in the last world championship match, Carlsen tuned the position of both games to his liking after some time and while Anand salvaged a half point in the first game, in the second he never got a chance.

Anand looked more tentative than Carlsen and it was hesitation that cost him dearly in the second game.

"I didn't quite look at it that way, in terms of the hour, I kept hesitating between the queen and Bishop move. Even then it's not catastrophic there are many moments after that but may be the slip up had started already," Anand mentioned candidly in the post-game conference when asked about a possible slip-up in the third hour.

To his credit, Carlsen was at his best and did what he has mastered against top class opponents. An innocuous opening reached a level middle game and then the complexities stared to burden Anand to the extent that he fumbled and produced a rare blunder. This was clearly caused by sustained pressure by the Norwegian.

While giving his thought on the game Carlsen did not mince words on his choice.

"We have an equal but playable position, that's ok by me," he said.

"There was not too much going on to be honest, I thought I might have a slight initiative when I got my rook life I was feeling more optimistic, if black has to go for the set-up (in the game) then it's clear that something has gone pretty seriously wrong," Carlsen said when asked about his opinion.

On his general strategy also Carlsen was forthcoming.

"I just tried to put him under pressure, I don't know if I played the most accurate way, I think he could certainly have defended better, you cannot win in chess without mistakes, you got to play well to induce those," he said.

In the last world championship match, Anand had drawn four before losing the fifth game. The speed king of chess will have to not only stop further damage but also seek a quick cruise control to stage a comeback in the match. In the third game tomorrow Anand will play with white pieces.