After Carlsen’s temper tantrum regarding the current world championship cycle, the chess world reacted with dismay and disappointment fearing that the young player had missed an opportunity to become the youngest world champion ever. Magnus had some leverage to negotiate considering his position as number one in the world rankings, though his demands were comically outside the realm of possibility and no other top player agreed with him. When interviewed on the subject, most players expressed confusion as to his decision.

With the uncertainty as to his participation in the upcoming candidates match looming over every game Magnus plays, his game against the current world champion today took on special significance. Once again, Magnus chose to defend the Ruy Lopez, Breyer variation. This defense has been the battle ground for the last few meetings between these two, though all of the previous games have ended in a draw. Today the wheels came off and Anand turned the screws down hard on Black’s position. Anand actually missed several clear winning lines, however, his position was so solid and black’s so unstable that he had no reason to rush. Once again, the video commentary by the full english breakfast crew was fantastic, as was the post mortem analysis which you can see here.