Gelfand On The Match, Part 1

Here's part 1 of a ChessVibes interview with Boris Gelfand. Topics include his preparation, the specific games and the timing of the draws agreements.

Game 15 of Anand-Gelfand: The Correct Game Score

For some reason the relay conked out, and at least as of several minutes ago I couldn't find the correct score on the official site or anywhere else. For those watching on ICC, their relayer gave an absurdly wrong reconstruction of the end of the game. So here, based on watching the actual board from the video stream, is the correct game score:

Gelfand,Boris (2727) - Anand,Viswanathan (2791) [D12]

WCh 2012 Moscow RUS (15), 30.05.2012

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Bg6 7.Nxg6 hxg6 8.Bd3 Nbd7 9.0-0 Bd6 10.h3 0-0 11.Qc2 Qe7 12.Rd1 Rac8 13.c5 Bb8 14.f4 Ne8 15.b4 g5 16.Rb1 f5 17.b5 gxf4 18.exf4 Nef6 19.bxc6 bxc6 20.Ba6 Rc7 21.Be3 Ne4 22.Rb2 g5 23.Rdb1 gxf4 24.Bxf4 e5 25.Bxe5 Nxe5 26.Rxb8 Ng6 27.Nxe4 fxe4 28.Qf2 Qg7 29.Kh2 Rcf7 30.Qg3 Nf4 31.R8b3 Qxg3+ 32.Rxg3+ Kh7 33.Rd1 Ne6 34.Be2 Rf2 35.Bg4 Nf4 36.Rb1 Rf7 37.Rb8 Rxa2 38.Rc8 e3 39.Rxe3 Rxg2+ 40.Kh1 Rd2 41.Rxc6 Ne6 42.Rf3 Rxf3 43.Bxf3 Nxd4 44.Rc7+ Kh6 45.Bxd5 Rc2 46.Be4 Rc3 47.Kh2 Kg5 48.Rd7 Nf3+ 49.Bxf3 Rxf3 50.Rxa7 Rc3 51.Rc7 Kf5 52.c6 Ke6 53.h4 Kd6 54.Rc8 Ra3 55.Kg2 Re3 56.Kh2 Ra3 57.Kg2 Re3 58.h5 Re5 59.h6 Rh5 60.Rh8 Kxc6 61.Rh7 Kd6 62.Kg3 Ke6 63.Kg4 Rh1 ½-½

Anand-Gelfand, Game 4: Anand Holds A Draw, Keeps His Title

The odds were against the challenger in the fourth tiebreak game, as he needed a win with Black to force blitz games against the champion. A tall order, but Boris Gelfand managed to achieve a playable and superior position out of the opening. As usual, Viswanathan Anand defended very actively, and when Gelfand failed to swap a pair of rooks (e.g. with 21...Bd8) White took advantage. Anand's counterplay was enough to compensate for Black's extra space and bishop pair - indeed, the latter wasn't a factor and the former threatened to become a liability. Gelfand's usual time trouble didn't help, and Anand drew from a position of strength and kept his title. (For subscribers, my analysis and videos of the games will be sent out later today.)

What a heartbreaker for Gelfand, but Anand earned the match victory, holding on and making the most of almost every opportunity he was given. Congratulations to both players, especially the winner and still champion, Viswanathan Anand!

Anand-Gelfand, Game 3: Another Tragedy For Gelfand

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!

Anand-Gelfand, Tiebreaks: Game 2 A Dramatic Win For Anand

Oh my goodness, what a painful game for Boris Gelfand! He was in huge trouble in the opening (a repeat of game 10, but Viswanathan Anand varied with 8.Nxc6), but then outplayed the champion, took over the initiative and rejected drawing continuations fighting for more. He was in serious time trouble, however, and every time things started looking good for him an imprecise move would push him back.

This continued in waves, until at last the players reached an ending where Anand had rook, knight and b-pawn against rook and light-squared bishop. Black's king was in front of the pawn and so from a purely theoretical standpoint the game was drawn. Had Gelfand a decent amount of time, it would have been an easy draw. But he was well under a minute and living off the (small) increment, and eventually blundered, allowing Anand to reach a won rook ending.

So game 3 is really Gelfand's last chance, as it's extremely unlikely that he can defeat Anand with Black in game 4 if this one ends in a draw. We'll see!

Anand-Gelfand, Tiebreaks: Game 1 Drawn

Game 1 of the rapid tiebreaks was exciting and saw both players escape serious trouble. Boris Gelfand had White in the first regular Semi-Slav of the match, and was trying to make something of a micro-edge when he uncorked the blunder 19.a4? It was a useful waiting move in every case but one, and Anand found it: 19...Qf3, when 20.Be4 to defend the pawn on d5 dropped its newly unprotected colleague on b3.

The next inaccuracy occurred on move 22, when 22...Qb6 rather than 22...Qc4 let Gelfand achieve equality, and then 26...Kh7? even gave White a clear edge. The position was complicated and time was drawing short, and although White had the better position and a slight lead on the clock Gelfand didn't want to risk playing on with 28.Qd3 when a safe draw with 28.Qxh6+ was available.

So a draw it is; game 2 of the world championship tiebreak begins shortly.

Surprise, Surprise: Game 12 A Short Draw; Anand-Gelfand Go To Tiebreaks On Wednesday

It's not the first world championship match to finish (or at least finish the "classical" portion) in a draw. This already happened in Lasker-Schlechter (1910), Botvinnik-Bronstein (1951), Botvinnik-Smyslov (1954), Kasparov-Karpov (1987), Karpov-Anand (1997; though I won't object to those who don't want to call that a real world championship), Kramnik-Leko (2004) and Kramnik-Topalov + Danailov + FIDE arbiters (2006). And now, it has happened for an eighth time.

The game got off to a promising start for spectators hoping for blood, or at least a full-blooded battle. In game 10 Boris Gelfand had refuted, practically speaking, the line 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6 4.Bxc6 bxc6 5.b3 with the great idea 5...e5! If White doesn't take, Black gets a beautiful center and kills White's remaining bishop, while if White does take - as happened in the game - Black regains the pawn starting with 6...Qe7, and is doing well there too.

So Viswanathan Anand made a nice adjustment in this game. He started with 5.d3, and after 5...Ne7 now played 6.b3. Here 6...e5 simply loses a pawn for nothing, so Gelfand needed another plan. This time, he didn't have one prepared at home, and he started burning time prodigiously: 16 minutes on 6...d6, and then after 7.e5 Ng6 he had to deal with another interesting idea that was part of the champion's preparation: the pawn sacrifice 8.h4. Gelfand took the pawn: 8...Nxe5 9.Nxe5 dxe5, and then Anand played 10.Nd2 to stop ...c4.

Here Gelfand thought for a long time - around 35-40 minutes - and uncorked 10...c4 all the same! Rather than suffer a pawn up with a weak queenside and bad bishops, he sacrificed two pawns (leaving him one down) to fix his structure, gain a nice center and activate both bishops. Soon it was Anand who needed to be concerned about keeping things under control.

Unfortunately for Gelfand, and typically for both players in this match, it seemed that once they had done their "duty" with the black pieces and proved equality, it was then time to call it a day. Gelfand didn't try to press his potential initiative and may have even gotten a touch careless at the end when he played 20...a5 rather than 20...Rhc8. Now although the position remained a very likely draw, White could at least play on without any worries. Instead, after 20...a5 Anand played 21.Bc5 Rhd8 22.Bxe7 and offered a draw, which, needless to say, was immediately accepted.

That the position should be a draw is very likely, and the computers concur that White's advantage - if it exists - is minimal. But as White could play without the slightest risk, and enjoyed a big time advantage (56 minutes to 16, the latter number being the more significant one) it would seem the natural thing to continue. Vladimir Kramnik, who was commenting on the official site, found this "unexplainable", except to say that Anand couldn't handle the tension of the last game. He added that this was "one of the strangest decisions" he ever saw in a world championship match, confessing that he was "shocked": "I don't understand anything....It's a complete present for Boris."

Hyperbole or not, the game and the regular portion of the match have been drawn, and so on Wednesday we'll move on to rapid (and faster) tiebreaks. Here's what will happen, starting - unfortunately - at 12 local time in Moscow/9:00 in the morning CET/4 a.m. Eastern Time in the U.S. and Canada.

1st try: Best of four rapid games (25' + 10").

2nd try: Best of two blitz games (5' + 3"); if it's tied after two games this procedure will be repeated up to four more times. (In other words, a maximum of 10 blitz games/5 blitz mini-matches.)

3rd and final try: Armageddon: White gets 5 minutes and Black 4, with no increment until move 61 when the players will get an additional 3 seconds per move. White must win, otherwise Black wins the match.

Here, it must be said, the previous head-to-head stats paint a grim picture for the challenger. In previous rapid games (which probably includes the blindfold games from the Amber events) Anand has a big plus: +8 -1 =19, and in blitz the champ enjoys a +3 =4 record against Gelfand. Still, Gelfand's preparation has been excellent, so it's not inconceivable that he could hold his games with Black in rapid chess and pull a single rabbit out of his hat with White. We shall see!

One thing we can expect (I hope!) is an absence of short draws. Seven of the 12 games were drawn in fewer than 30 moves, five in fewer than 26 moves. It's not that the games have lacked content, but all the same, the players are giving each other too much credit, assuming that after they've leapt the initial set of hurdles they'll finish the game just as strongly. In rapid chess, that "courtesy" is likely to be thrown out the window, and good riddance!

(Subscribers: As usual, I hope and expect to have the materials ready for you tonight. But pity me come Wednesday! Non-subscribers can still sign up and get all the earlier work.)

World Championship, Game 11: One More Draw; Match Tied With A Game Left

This was Boris Gelfand's last chance to make something happen with the white pieces, but while he had been achieving success in his two previous white games he didn't get anything this time. Champion Viswanathan Anand varied from game 9 with the rare 8...Bd7, which came as a big surprise to Gelfand, who spent 38 minutes on his reply. After 9.a3 Ba5 10.Qe2 Bc6 11.Rd1 Anand produced the novelty 11...Bxc3, and a few moves later the players reached a middlegame where White's hanging pawns were under serious pressure. Given the time situation, Gelfand found it prudent to look for a safe way out, and he succeeded in doing so. The game only went 24 moves, but the challenger was already down to 14 minutes for the next 16 moves.

So the final classical game of the 2012 World Championship match will come on Monday, after another rest day, and if that game is also drawn they'll go to rapid and (if necessary) blitz tiebreaks on Wednesday, after another rest day.

Subscribers: Materials should be sent later today.

Anand-Gelfand: Game 10 Drawn Quickly, The Match Remains Tied With Two Games To Go

World champion Viswanathan Anand was unable to achieve much with the white pieces against Boris Gelfand in today's game 10. Anand decided to give the 3.f3 Gruenfeld a rest for the moment, and returned to 1.e4. Gelfand again offered the Sveshnikov rather than his erstwhile favorite, the Najdorf, but Anand varied from game 5 with 3.Bb5.

It was the challenger who got off the first surprise, however, with the almost new 5...e5. Anand achieved a better queenside pawn structure, but after trying for a little while and refusing a draw on move 21 offered one of his own after his 25th move. Gelfand accepted, and so their world championship match is tied at 5-5, with two games to go in "normal time". Tomorrow is a rest day, and then Gelfand will have his last white game on Saturday. Sunday will be another rest day, and then on Monday Anand will have his crack at making white work.

The match has been very even so far: both players have won a game and both players squandered an excellent winning chance. Gelfand has acquitted himself better than most of the prognosticators expected, but he may still be feeling a bit nervous at the prospect of a 6-6 tie, due to Anand's skill in rapid chess. On the other hand, Gelfand seems practically impossible to ruffle, and he has shown his mettle in high-pressure situations over the years - including in rapid tiebreaks - so while he must still be considered the underdog it would be a mistake to count him out.

My annotations and an accompanying video will be available to subscribers later today.

Game 9 Drawn: Gelfand Presses but Cannot Win; Match Tied 4.5-4.5

I may tidy this post up later today, but here's a quick recap: Gelfand got a nice advantage out of the opening (a Nimzo-Indian, Karpov Variation), but his 19.c5 was excessively academic. Rather than enjoying a clearly favorable middlegame, he hoped that in the resulting endgame with queen vs. rook, knight and pawn (plus more pawns for both sides) he'd be able to use the principle of two weaknesses to break down Anand's attempted fortress. His judgment proved mistaken, but he still had the better of play, and showed no ill effects from the disaster in game 8.

So the match is tied, game 10 is tomorrow, and - for subscribers - the materials will be available later tonight.