Well I think people are over estimating the chances that this will go to rapid. This is not anand -gelfand.
1) Magnus is still 2-1 favourite which I would guess means most of the 66% of the time - the price reflects magnus winning within the 12 games and just a small % of the total times him winning being as a result of winning in rapids.
2) The same for Anand but perhaps a slightly larger % of anands wins will be as a result of rapids.

3) If you think about it - the chances of a one decisive blunder or more and it not precisely being evenly distributed blunders - in 12 matches even of super GMs is still very high. So I would expect a 'blunder' or a few blunders to take place. Plus, the increase in pressure as games increase actually will offset conservatism in strategy in the later games.


Having said that - a result game will do wonders to the types of games we see. Preferably an Anand win because I think we all want to see what Magnus can produce under the highest amount of pressure. I think there is a small but significant minority of chess fans who suspect that Magnus might be still a little suspect psychologically on the biggest stage.

I thought this guy does a great job breaking down the games and analyzing some of the positions, in a 10-15 minute easily digestible youtube.

Game 1

Game 2

Game 3

this could be fun

Magnus really likes that d3 square for his queen..

From my Wikipedia research, the record for draws to start a WCC match is 8...held by Anand (of course) alongside Kasparov in the 1995 match.

Second place looks to be 7, from Karpov/Korchnoi '78.

Third place looks to also belong to Anand with the 6 draws to start WCC 2012, tied with Petrosian/Spassky 1966.

Maybe we can break this record and have 12 Draws and straight to tiebreaks.

So much hate for ma boy Vishy

Vishy blundering and Tendulkar not making his ton could make for a WOAT Indian sport day, no?

man i'll be extremely impressed if anand manages to draw this

Keeping in mind we're a country that celebrates olympic silver medal wins as if it was a world cup, Ima go with an emphatic NO.

After 47. ... Kc6, my official amateur opinion is that if this is drawn then rook endgames should be banned.

I adore the official site's broadcast teams for never, ever mentioning the computer evaluation.

MAGNUS WINNING!!!!!

Love it

And Anand shakes the hand.

Magnus's ridiculous strategy of treating the World Champion like a child who will screw up simple positions is working. Love it.

heh this is an awkward press conference (it's the first i've watched).

magnus seems a lot more relaxed and media savvy and is doing his best to hype up the next few games whereas vishy is just confirmed furious. i'm guessing that's all not completely to do with the result.

from reddit:

From the press conference:
Magnus "At move 34, I thought I might have been worse" later "After I get a5, it's over".
Magnus on his win "It feels good, it was a fighting game. Kind of messy at times but.. I got there at the end so I'm very very happy about that".
Anand on Rc1 "Yeah it's possible Ra1 is better, somehow I missed the rook ending.."
Magnus: "It's a long road ahead, but it's a good start. But we'll see. He has white the two next game so.."
Anand -who seems a bit annoyed and tense- on the rest of the match "I just have to move ahead, and keep trying".
Incredibly short press conference, considering the win. I think most of the reporters there were disappointed in Anand.

I'm not quite clear what you're alluding to. What, other than the result (and the blunder(s) that brought it about), are you guessing that Anand is furious about?

yeah badly written. i just meant i was guessing that this press conference isn't too dissimilar to the others? i.e. magnus being quite vocal and doing a good job to promote the game, vishy giving short answers and looking awkward.

if i'm totally wrong about this, cool. i'm rooting for vishy to get back in this.

will be really good for rest of games

anand can no long continue going for the 'safe' move

This is totally wrong based on the few early press conferences I watched. I am relatively new to the chess scene, but Vishy was much more eloquent and vocal at the press conferences than Magnus and I was beginning to like Vishy more because of this.

Anand has been entertaining and open in earlier press conferenses. Carlsen has been the opposite.

Was fun to watch todays game and hopefully Carlsen takes the championship down after getting this lead. Quite the chess boom here in Norway now with all medias having great coverage of this event and with Carlsen being a "superstar" already.

Had a doctor's apt today with my Indian doctor. Asked him if he was watching chess or cricket today. Said he watched cricket last night but no chess. Obviously I need a new doctor.

He was mad that Garry wasn't there to watch.

ok, cool, happy to be wrong. i can happily relate to and emphasise with a sore loser. gogo vishy today.

Oh, hah, I was being sarcastic. Because Kasparov watched the previous game and tried to sit in the front row and it annoyed everyone and it's all the journalists asked about.

i know heh, wasn't replying to your post. read a lol interview with kasparov yesterday about the 'lack of respect' shown to him and cringed. his tweets post-game 5 are good reading though.

https://twitter.com/Kasparov63