With 22 seconds left on his clock and the option of queening his pawn, Magnus Carlsen 'thought' for 14 seconds. He then 'under-promoted' his pawn to the knight even as Viswanathan Anand was looking at the rival's hand to see which piece was coming on the board.
Five moves later, Anand, playing with white pieces, had to resign which ended the heart-stopping, fortune-fluctuating game. The climax in the French defense game (Winawer variation, 72 moves) once again underlined why these two players are considered titans of the game. "Anand first created fortress followed by some counterplay. And then, there was this stalemate idea too," Carlsen told the official broadcast. "That (making knight instead of queen) was the only way to keep the game going."
