Defending champion Viswanathan Anand on Tuesday gave his Norwegian challenger Magnus Carlsen a scare despite playing with black pieces even though the third game of the World Chess Championship clash ended in a long-grinding draw here.
The third game today turned out to be a hard fought affair lasting 51 moves after a rather sedate start that had seen the first two games ending in draws without any real excitement.
Midway into the third game today, Anand appeared to have seized the initiative with some 'spot on' manoeuvres, but world number one Carlsen saved the situation with his counter play.
Later at the post-game conference, Carlsen conceded that he felt "scary" though he averted the danger.
"I was worse, and then I probably made it more worse. I missed some simple things in the middle game, may be I had enough play and it was not a disaster but it was scary," Carlsen said.
After the third draw on the trot, the deadlock continues with none of the two rivals refusing to blink so far, but what happened at the Hyatt today was probably a clear indication that a rough battle is now shaping up.
The scores stand at 1.5 points for both players and the five-time champion Anand will have the advantage of playing with white pieces in the fourth game tomorrow.
Carlsen showed his intentions of a bloody battle when, contrary to the popular belief, repeated the Reti opening.
"I was expecting that Carlsen would jump from one opening to another," said Grandmaster R B Ramesh, who is a part of the live commentary team here.
As is typical of the Reti opening, the changes to several set ups is possible. Carlsen went for a position akin to the English opening that was more of a Sicilian Dragon with colours reversed.
