2012 World Chess Championship: Anand vs Gelfand

Match Website
Games & Commentaries

May 10 - May 31, Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery

Format:

12 games with regular time control
(120 minutes for first 40 moves + 60 minutes for next 20 moves + 15 minutes for the rest of the game)

in case of a draw...
+ Show Spoiler [Tiebreakers] +

Participants:

Viswanathan Anand (Age 43, India) - reigning World Champion

[image loading]

Hanging around world's absolute top since early 90's, Anand is known as the best and most successful player of post-Kasparov era. He wrestled for the WCh title no less than five times, and been carrying this honor since 2008. Anand is widely known for his very fast pace of play and for preference with 1. e4 openings. He is also an Indian celebrity - in fact, he was the only sportsman invited to a prestigious dinner meeting between India's PM Manmohan Singh and US President, Barack Obama.

Boris Gelfand (Age 44, Israel) - winner of candidate matches

[image loading]

Born in Minsk, USSR (now Belarus), Gelfand deflected to Israel at age 30 and has been playing for this country ever since. During recent, long, winded qualification process, he defeated strong players like Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Gata Kamsky and Alexander Grischuk to earn the right to challenge for the World Championship. Despite being an underdog, Gelfand will most probably be a tough nut to crack, as he is very strong in his pet 1. d4 openings and hardly ever makes strategical mistakes.

Head-to-head records: 6 wins for Anand, 5 wins for Gelfand, 26 draws

Games (all in PGN)

+ Show Spoiler [Game 1] +
+ Show Spoiler [Game 2] +
+ Show Spoiler [Game 3] +
+ Show Spoiler [Game 4] +
+ Show Spoiler [Game 5] +
+ Show Spoiler [Game 6] +
+ Show Spoiler [Game 7] +
+ Show Spoiler [Game 8] +

Poll: Who are you rooting for?

Vishy Anand (37)

65%

Boris Gelfand (20)

35%

57 total votes

Your vote: Who are you rooting for?

(Vote): Vishy Anand
(Vote): Boris Gelfand

Poll: How is it gonna end?

Anand wins in 12 games (21)

57%

Anand wins in extra games (6)

16%

Gelfand wins in 12 games (5)

14%

Armageddon game! (4)

11%

Gelfand wins in extra games (1)

3%

37 total votes

Your vote: How is it gonna end?

(Vote): Anand wins in 12 games
(Vote): Anand wins in extra games
(Vote): Gelfand wins in 12 games
(Vote): Gelfand wins in extra games
(Vote): Armageddon game!

Last edit: 2012-05-22 19:04:08

What what the the fuck fuck? That blew my mind so much, I doubled every word in the phrase 'What the fuck' to get: 'What what the the fuck fuck my what the the fuck fucking what did the drop dropship medivac where in the what in the hell?' - Day[9]

eaT_Mi_Lquid Germany. May 07 2012 21:09. Posts 470

Profile Blog #

Wow that's awesome ! I love chess !! Too bad I cannot think 10 steps ahead

!!!

League of Legends: Puffelipuff

Sinedd Poland. May 07 2012 21:16. Posts 6195

Profile #

Anand will win no problem

go go Vishy !!!

T H C makes ppl happy

GrimmJ Canada. May 07 2012 21:33. Posts 131

Profile #

I'm sorry, but I thought Magnus Carlsen was the World Champion? Or is he just the highest ranked?

popzags Poland. May 07 2012 21:40. Posts 577

Profile Blog #

On May 07 2012 21:33 GrimmJ wrote:
I'm sorry, but I thought Magnus Carlsen was the World Champion? Or is he just the highest ranked?

Yes, he is highest ranked. Last year, he decided not to participate in the qualification cycle (which was won by Gelfand).

I guess he needs more time to prepare some opening variations before he jumps back to the circuit.

Sweet post, Picklesicle. US Championship lineup is sick; I'll be eying it with interest.

Last edit: 2012-05-07 22:00:54

Picklesicle United States. May 07 2012 21:45. Posts 64

Profile Blog #

While it certainly is true that Gelfand hasn't actually taken a win against Anand in... uh... 20? years, I don't think it's going to be quite so cut-and-dry.

Here's an article by GM Mikhalevski (full disclosure: please note that he's an Israeli GM) on the match.

I think it's going to be seat-of-your pants cool. Anand is a tactical genius and if the games go to all the way to the Blitz (5|3) resolutions I think he will be favoured over Gelfand's quieter, positional style + Show Spoiler +. The pressure, in my opinion, is on Gelfand to win before it goes that far, but historically these two players have had greater win success with White. Early draws while playing as Black as going to be crucial to gain the psychological edge for both players, but I think moreso for Gelfand with only (!!) 12 games under standard time controls.

Then, of course, there's all the debate flying around about Kasparov's purported remark on the match (quoted at the top of the article I linked). I don't think there's much to it, personally. I just think Kasparov is remarking on the strength of the playing field at the very tiptop tippitytoptop of the chess world. Gone, I think, are the days when the World Champion could legitimately say he could defeat any and all comers in a match setting + Show Spoiler +. That's a testament to how many players have gotten so incredibly good.

In other chess news, the US Championship plays starting, well, tomorrow (the 8th of May)! Go GM Kaidanov!

Edit: Added this article. Kramnik on Anand.

Last edit: 2012-05-07 21:56:54

Raysalis Malaysia. May 07 2012 22:21. Posts 1019

Profile #

Rooting for Vishy to win! Not sure who is going to win though since 12 games is incredibly short and anything can happen. Let the battles of the oldies begin

Mafe Germany. May 12 2012 02:11. Posts 1367

Profile #

So the first game has been played. I'm not really a chess expert, but + Show Spoiler + What do you think? What do you guess, when might me see some real "action"?

zanzib China. May 12 2012 13:58. Posts 150

Profile #

My comments

+ Show Spoiler +

Sometimes backwards is forwards.

Sinedd Poland. May 13 2012 20:22. Posts 6195

Profile #

pretty boring and disappointing games so far..

was actually expecting this

wish players would somehow positively surprise me..

T H C makes ppl happy

Mephyss Brazil. May 14 2012 09:10. Posts 108

Profile Blog #

Cheering for Anand. I dont see Gelfand as a "champion material". he can surprise but I dont see him holding the title for long against Anand, Kramnik, Aronian, Carlsen on next cycle.

This match is long and I think they didnt show their weapons yet and its more looking what the opponent has to show.

VODs

Game 1 - http://moscow2012.fide.com/en/vid-archive?vid=1127 - Nigel Short on commentary
Game 2 - http://moscow2012.fide.com/en/vid-archive?vid=1130 - Nigel Short on commentary

Anand playing faster as usual but Gelfand playing a bit too slow I think

arQ May 16 2012 04:25. Posts 1033

Profile #

On May 07 2012 21:40 popzags wrote:

Show nested quote +

Afaik, Carlsen withdrew because of criticism towards this one-match-championship style which by his account is outdated and an extremely unfair/bad way of determining the world champion. I think he is advocating a yearly regular tournament (think SC2 32-man single elim) instead. But yes he is still ranked 1 with the second highest ELO rank ever (behind the almighty Kasparov of course) :-)

Chess is amazing!

"The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition." -Carl Sagan || Flash || Mvp || Naniwa ||

Miyoshino May 16 2012 08:07. Posts 314

Profile Blog #

I remember a while ago that if Carlsen was to challenge Anand, he had to wait for like 1.5 years and then in 1 year he could get a shot. Obviously, Carlsen didn't like such a system.
The system has like a 3 year cycle. If you join the candidate match process at the next opportunity, it takes 3 years before you actually get to play the title match.

This system is indeed bad. With all respect to Gelfand, it doesn't really make sense he is the challenger. He is ranked no.22 right now. Now I know many people didn't really respect Kespa rankings either, but I think ELO shows what a players playing strength is. Now some matches are more important than others, but that doesn't really tell you at what strength you are playing overall.

So yeah, the system sucks and it also came up with a sucky outcome.
And all matches are draws so far as well. Chess is a nice game, but only like 1 in 20 GM games are actually really interesting.

FIDE is ran by some crazy corrupt Russian who loved Gaddafi. It's like Blatter cubed.

Last edit: 2012-05-16 08:15:44

Mafe Germany. May 20 2012 23:11. Posts 1367

Profile #

game 7 going on right now. + Show Spoiler +
edit: spoilered.

Last edit: 2012-05-20 23:13:58

Azzur Australia. May 21 2012 22:16. Posts 5839

Profile Blog #

YYEAAAHHH!

Great game by Anand in game8 and he draws level!

In the press conference he said that he spotted the trick of trapping the Queen many moves back!

Azzur Australia. May 21 2012 22:17. Posts 5839

Profile Blog #

The event also has excellent footage and grandmaster analysis!

http://moscow2012.fide.com/en/

Simbaaaa May 21 2012 22:41. Posts 23

Profile #

Funny how much better Aronian and Carlsen are, I really don't find this match very interesting at all

greggy United Kingdom. May 22 2012 09:04. Posts 876

Profile #

smells of fix

fix fix fix

Come on, even I could see Qf2.

User was warned for this post

popzags Poland. May 22 2012 19:07. Posts 577

Profile Blog #

What Gelfand did in game 8 amuses me. Really man?

8...Bf6??? Even me, 1800 rated player wouldn't even consider such move.

EDIT: About the system of determining a challenger: I also think this is quite bad. What I would welcome the most is the old-school 24-game matches between the champ and the challenger, who would emerge from a tournament (or series of tournaments) between the highest ELO contenders. Those were the old, good days of chess...

Last edit: 2012-05-22 19:12:06

Sinedd Poland. May 22 2012 22:19. Posts 6195

Profile #

finally some action !!!

go go go !

Last edit: 2012-05-22 22:19:33

T H C makes ppl happy

1 2 3 Next All

Please log in or register to reply.