Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen, in Chennai, on Tuesday

Chennai: Viswanathan Anand missed his chance of a first win in the match with Black pieces, as things heated up at the World Chess Championship here on Tuesday.

The third game, however, ended in a draw. The match is still in its early stages and scores are tied at 1.5 points each.

Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen showed his displeasure towards treatment meted out to former World Champion Garry Kasparov.

With time trouble round the corner, Anand missed a clear tactical chance with 29…Bb2, which would have given him a winning chance. He chose the more solid 29…Bd4, after which Carlsen put up a fierce fight to hold the draw.

He argued in support of his decision: “After Bxb2, White seemed to have enough counterplay bringing his Rook to e1 followed by Bishop to h3, and I didn’t see any point with Black’s play”, missing ensuing complicated tactics.

Both players running out of time in a tense Middlegame, Anand missed his chance to see his advantage run out and the game finished in a draw after 51 moves.

Asked about Kasparov not being given any official reception from the Fide, and also not being allowed in the official Press Centre at the Hyatt Regency hotel, Carlsen candidly remarked: “I don’t want to get into politics, but he deserves to be treated with respect; regardless of… opposing Kirsan (Ilyumzhinov) as a presidential candidate”.

Asked if he was intimidated by Kasparov’s presence, Anand quipped: “He is now like Elvis!” He added: “It’s good that he is here to watch.”

Kasparov has often questioned Anand’s motivation in the past couple of years and commented on his declining strength of play, inviting rare retorts from a normally reticent Anand.

The controversy surrounding Kasparov’s visit to Chennai seemed to be easing out on Tuesday as he received better treatment from the organisers.

Though he quietly occupied the spectator arena at the start of the 3rd game, Kasparov was soon seen in the company of JCD Prabhakar, president of the All India Chess Federation, and D.V. Sundar, vice president of Fide.

Playing Black side of a hybrid English Opening, Anand once again opted for a dynamic set up with open centre, in keeping with his apparent match strategy.

For the second White game in a row, Carlsen could not show any superiority in preparation against Anand, who seemed to be in a comfortable position suiting his style.

Carlsen’s troubles started with 13.Bb4 when he erred in continuing with the dynamics of the position. This was confirmed by Kasparov, who termed it as ‘premature’ in analysing the position with Grandmaster M.R. Venkatesh.

Instead, an intermediate move 13.Qc1 would have preserved his chance in the opening. Though Anand looked visibly nervous in the early middlegame, he gained confidence as the game progressed.

Exploiting Carlsen’s errors accurately, Anand achieved a comfortable position with 14…Bd5, when Black’s light square bishop achieved a dominating presence. “Vishy’s position is very safe here”, confirmed American GM John Federowicz.

On move 17, Carlsen took the bold decision of parting with his dark bishop for Anand’s knight, thus conceding Anand a double bishop advantage. To his credit, he continued to play positively and actively in the ensuing Middlegame signalling his fighting spirit.

However, terming Carlsen’s play between moves 21 to 27 as ‘lacking in soundness’, Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay praised Anand’s bold play pitching for rolling his Queenside pawns forward.

Anand confirmed that when “he decided to part with his light square bishop and play 27…b5, I had enough counterplay”. Slowly building up his advantage, Anand raised the expectations of the visibly excited spectators with the push, as Carlsen showed nervousness with only 17 minutes remaining on his clock against Anand’s 25.

However, he missed his chances between moves 29 to 34, and finally settled for equality after reaching the time control at move 40.