Sochi: Viswanathan Anand pulled one back when it mattered the most and scored a crushing victory over defending champion Magnus Carlsen in the third game of the world chess championship now underway here.
Having lost the second game of the match, Anand was almost in a must-win situation and the Indian ace came up with his best effort against Carlsen in recent years.
Equalising the score on 1.5-1.5 after the third of the 12-game match, Anand also ended a four year drought by beating Carlsen in Classical chess game as the last victory by five times world champion over the Norwegian had come way back in 2010 under this format.
For the first time in his world championship matches against Anand, Carlsen went for the theoretical duel and was duly punished in a well analysed variation.
For the records, it was a Queen's gambit declined by Carlsen, a natural choice with a full point cushion to back him. Anand went for a deeply analysed variation and was pleasantly surprised to find Carlsen game.
The players followed a 2013 game played between Levon Aronian and Michael Adams and it was Carlsen who did not seem to have keep the track of this game well.
While going behind on time, Carlsen found the right manoeuvres but Anand was still in his preparation. On move 20, the new idea was revealed by Anand which was a big improvement on the existing game in the position.
Carlsen had to again sink in long thoughts intermittently during the rest of the game as one or the other problem was posed by Anand with a well-supported passed pawn on the seventh rank.
Anand kept the momentum ticking without any further slips and piled on the pressure in almost Carlsenesque-style ? giving the Norwegian a taste of his own medicine.
For once Carlsen was on the receiving end he could only delay the inevitable. Making matters worse at this point was the clock that was ticking away and Anand sealed the issue after Carlsen made a blunder on move 28. Anand swapped a piece and it was all over in 34 moves.