On Monday GM Magnus Carlsen played his second game in a row with the white pieces in Sochi. GM Viswanathan Anand played an extensive, prepared line in the Berlin Defense of the Ruy Lopez and the game ended in a draw after a lengthy defense.
After only 30 minutes of play, 24 moves were on the board. The next five moves took 90 minutes collectively. The two followed the recent game Giri-Radjabov from the 2014 FIDE Grand Prix in Tashkent last month. Anand's 25...Nf7 was the first change; Radjabov preferred 25...f5.
Anand offered a minor piece to dispatch all of Carlsen's dangerous kingside pawns. With Black only having to defend one side of the board, Carlsen's extra knight was not enough to win.
The game produced the second-most moves of any world championship game in history. It lasted 122 moves and more than six hours. Only Korchnoi-Karpov, 1978, Game 5, was longer (124 moves).
Calrsen thus retains his one-point lead in the 2014 World Championship in Sochi, Russia. He has 4.0/7 while Anand has 3.0/7, but the challenger will get to play White three times in the final five games.
