Game 4 of the Anand-Carlsen match is now complete, and it was a draw.
The score now stands at: 2.0 - 2.0.
But this was no bloodless draw! Anand had white, the game was the Ruy Lopez Berlin, the position was wide open.
On move 18, Carlsen bravely grabbed the a2 pawn. Anand tried to trap the bishop, but could not. However, the time it took for Carlsen to extract the bishop allowed Anand to get his pieces very active, and for a while it was like Carlsen was playing an entire rook down.
If you look at the position around move 27, all of Carlsen's pieces are on the first or second rank, and Anand controls about 80% of the board, all for the price of that a2 pawn.
But Anand couldn't quite break through, and Carlsen was able to activate his pieces, and finally the pieces came off the board and Carlsen's one pawn advantage was not enough for the win.
The first week is now over; one third of the games have been played; all remains dead even.
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