Norway’s Magnus Carlsen defeated challenger Viswanathan Anand in the penultimate game of their 12-game match to retain the World chess title in Sochi, Russia, on Sunday.
In the 11th game, Anand resigned on the 45 move to give Carlsen a 6.5-4.5 victory. Carlsen won the second, sixth and 11 games while Anand could emerge victorious in only the third game.
Anand needed to stay undefeated on Sunday to force the final game.
But his decision to sacrifice a rook for a bishop backfired on the 27th turn and Carlsen played quite forcefully thereafter.
Summing up his critical move, Anand said, “it was a bad gamble and I was punished.”
Last November, Carlsen had dethroned Anand in 10-games in a one-sided match.
However, this year, the champion acknowledged that Anand performed much better and took the fight to the end.
