World Chess Championship Results: Anand and Carlsen Begin Battle Royale with a Draw in Game 1

Indian chess Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand drew the first game in 48 moves against the world champion Magnus Carlsen in Game 1 of the World Chess Championship title match held in Sochi.

Playing white, Anand, the title challenger, opened the game by pushing his queen pawn two squares, to which Carlsen replied by moving his knight to the f6 square. The game progressed to the Grunfeld defence.

The Indian made his initial moves quickly, while the Norwegian took the slow but steady route.

Anand played sharply in the initial phase of the game castling on his queen side in move 13.

However a couple of cautious moves on the part of Anand lost him the initiative and the game slowly progressed towards a grinding end game where Carlsen had the advantage.

In the post-game press conference, Anand said some careless moves were made and the position did not require so much hard work.

The game slowly headed towards a draw, though Carlsen started to push hoping his opponent will make a wrong move.

While Carlsen's rook and queen were on the seventh rank, threatening Anand's King, the latter found a combination to escape with a draw.

Even though Game 1 ended all square, Carlsen has the psychological advantage heading into Game 2 on Sunday.

In the next game, Anand will play with the black having started with the white pieces.