Anand-Gelfand, Game 3: Another Tragedy For Gelfand
Wednesday, May 30, 2012 at 7:36AM
Dennis Monokroussos in Anand-Gelfand 2012, Anand-Gelfand World Championship Match, Boris Gelfand, Viswanathan Anand

Someone will need to put Boris Gelfand on suicide watch if he doesn't manage to come back and win game 4. He completely outplayed Viswanathan Anand with the white pieces, and could have won a piece and the game with 26.Nxe4 fxe4 27.dxe5, when the bishop on b8 is lost. Black's central pawns aren't any real factor, as his king is too exposed for him to achieve any real counterplay.

That was bad enough, but the real tragedy came later. Anand achieved a comfortably drawing position, and at a certain point transposed to a drawn rook ending two pawns down. It was drawn, but only with precise play, and precise play was not what was produced. Gelfand missed a clear win, one that with even a full minute on his clock he'd have achieved without any trouble. (At least if I have the game score correct. I think I do, but it was hard to be sure. As for the ICC relay, it's complete nonsense at the end.)

He probably won't know what he missed until sometime later; for now, he probably just feels like he was close but without realizing how close. Now he must try to win game 4 with Black. It won't be easy, but there's no choice!

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