World chess champion Magnus Carlsen moved one game closer to a successful defense of his crown, holding challenger Viswanathan Anand to a draw Friday in the tenth game of their scheduled 12-game title match in Sochi, Russia.
The young Norwegian takes a 5 1/2-4 1/2 lead into Sunday’s Game 11, when he will have the advantage of the White pieces. Anand, who lost the title to Carlsen a year ago, needs a win in one of the last two games to force a playoff.
As he has in every game with White so far, the Indian challenger opened with 1. d4, and this time Carlsen responded with the Nimzo-Indian Defense. White managed to obtain a strong passed d-pawn and the advantage of the bishop pair, and Black appeared hard-pressed to stop the pawn’s advance.
But White failed to increase his advantage in time pressure, while the champ found a way to ease the pressure with 26. h4 Be5! 27. Bxe5 Rxe5. Anand immediately went for a forcing line involving a temporary piece sacrifice that produced an equal rook ending with 27. Bxe5 Rxe5 28. Bxb7 Rxb7 29. d7 Nc6 29. d7 Nc6 30. d8=Q+ Nxd8 31. Rxd8+.
With White enjoying only the tiniest of advantages from Black’s isolated c-pawn, Anand agreed to the draw a move later.
Here are the moves to Friday’s Game 10:
White: Anand
Black: Carlsen
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Qb3 dxc4 6. Qxc4 O-O 7. e4 Na6 8. Be2 c5 9. d5 e6 10. O-O exd5 11. exd5 Re8 12. Bg5 h6 13. Be3 Bf5 14. Rad1 Ne4 15. Nxe4 Bxe4 16. Qc1 Qf6 17. Bxh6 Qxb2 18. Qxb2 Bxb2 19. Ng5 Bd4 20. Nxe4 Rxe4 21. Bf3 Re7 22. d6 Rd7 23. Bf4 Nb4 24. Rd2 Re8 25. Rc1 Re6 26. h4 Be5 27. Bxe5 Rxe5 28. Bxb7 Rxb7 29. d7 Nc6 30. d8=Q+ Nxd8 31. Rxd8+ Kg7 32. Rd2 Draw agreed
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