Norwegian Wood

After four cautious draws opened the 2013 World Championship in Chennai, this was the game that turned the match. Carlsen, with White, steered a Semi Slav Marshall Gambit into a position where the queens came off early with 15.Qxd8+, and what followed was pure technique: Carlsen kept finding the one move that mattered in a long rook and bishop ending, while Anand, defending in front of his own home crowd, gradually ran out of only moves.

Anand later admitted he had missed a more straightforward defensive setup around move 45 and said simply that he had underestimated how difficult the resulting rook ending was. Carlsen's outside passed a pawn, escorted by his rook and king, proved impossible to stop; Anand resigned on move 58 rather than watch it queen.

It was Carlsen's first win of the match and, as it turned out, the psychological break point. He went on to win game six as well and clinched the title with a game to spare, becoming world champion at 22, one of the younger players to do so in the modern era.