Norway Chess: Sixth draw for Anand; Wesley So stuns Carlsen

Viswanathan Anand will face Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France in the seventh round.

Magnus Carlsen lost to Wesley So of U. S. A.

Taking the sequence of draws to six games, Viswanathan Anand shook hands with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov after 32 moves in the sixth round of Norway chess tournament here on Sunday.

But the talking point of the day was Wesley So’s first-ever victory over World champion Magnus Carlsen in the classical time format. The result ended the Norwegian’s 37-game unbeaten streak this year. The
44-move defeat, on the eve of the second rest day, also sliced Carlsen’s lead to half a point and threw open the title-race.

In the exchange variation of Slav Defence, Carlsen miscalculated in the middle-game and lost a pawn on the 25th move. So, playing white, slowly gained control with an advanced pawn structure that left the black’s castled king with limited options.

Though Carlsen managed to win back the pawn, So stayed in control. Soon thereafter, Carlsen erred in judgement with a pawn-move on the queenside and lost a pawn. A move later, the top seed gave up.