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May-15-12
 | | Peligroso Patzer: <Eyal: < [quoting <dx9293>] Gelfand has had some scary results in important rapid tiebreaks: for example his 7-5 victory over Ponomariov in the 2009 World Cup final, and his victory over Kamsky in the Candidates.> With regard to the world cup, it's even more impressive - he beat in tiebreaks four of his five strong opponents there (not counting those of the first two rounds): Polgar, Vachier-Lagrave, Jakovenko, and Ponomariov. And in the candidates, he beat Kamsky - a very tough and experienced fighter in this type of events - after managing to win in a must-win situation with Black following a loss with White. Of course all these players are weaker than Anand, but he *has* shown systematically that he's very strong in these situations. So I'm not at all certain it's so much in Anand's interest to reach tiebreaks. *** > Although it is probably premature to speculate about tiebreaks (as <Eyal> noted in a portion that I excised from his comment quoted above), I can't resist weighing in briefly with two observations. First, although Anand may well be at the peak of his lifetime form currently at regular time controls (and particularly so for match play, as distinguished from tournament competition), I have the sense that he has slipped a notch at rapids. Gelfand, despite being older than Anand, seems to be as strong as ever at rapids. Second, even when Anand was clearly in his prime at rapids in 1998, he lost the most important rapid playoff in which he has so far ever been involved: Karpov-Anand World Championship Match (1998). Bottom line: It seems to me Anand should be trying his utmost to win the match during the 12 regular games, and he should not rely on any presumed advantage he might have at rapids. |
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| May-15-12 | | NGambit: <Peligroso Patzer>
While I agree to your conclusion, I am not sure of your perception of Anand's current strength in rapid play.
<First, although Anand may well be at the peak of his lifetime form currently at regular time controls (and particularly so for match play, as distinguished from tournament competition), I have the sense that he has slipped a notch at rapids. Gelfand, despite being older than Anand, seems to be as strong as ever at rapids.> As far as I know, he recently won rapid matches against Kasimdzhanov and Shirov, Botvinnik Memorial Rapid and Corsica Masters Knockout. While he may not be the "lightening kid" anymore his recent results in rapids do look better than anyone else. <Second, even when Anand was clearly in his prime at rapids in 1998, he lost the most important rapid playoff in which he has so far ever been involved: Karpov-Anand World Championship Match (1998).> Well this is irrelevant here because the tiebreak situation (shall it arise) in this match would be totally different (<a lot> more fair to both players). |
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| May-15-12 | | polarmis: Here's Sergey Shipov's commentary on the game - he wasn't overly impressed Gelfand took the draw when he did! http://www.danamackenzie.com/blog/?... |
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| May-15-12 | | SamAtoms1980: <tamar: Boris drew attention to the "chess art" created in this game-the letter T, probably in this position> Does that T stand for tedium? |
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| May-15-12 | | birthtimes: With a short 12 or 16 game match, get used to both players drawing the first 6 to 8 games fairly quickly so that neither of them has to come back from a significant defecit. Chess 960 would put an end to all these draws very quickly! |
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| May-15-12 | | Jim Bartle: Shipov: "From the competitive viewpoint the challenger is categorically wrong. One must never let the champion off the hook so easily! If you have any kind of advantage — press on, keep playing, keep trying! If you give him presents like this you can hardly hope to win the match." |
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| May-15-12 | | Eyal: <With a short 12 or 16 game match, get used to both players drawing the first 6 to 8 games fairly quickly so that neither of them has to come back from a significant defecit.> Reading this, one might think that this is the first 12-game match in chess history; in fact, it's the fourth. In Kramnik-Topalov 2006, the first two games were decisive and the next two games were very hard-fought draws (then came Toiletgate, unfortunately - but in any case drama wasn't lacking...) In Anand-Kramnik 2008, three of the first six games were decisive. In Anand-Topalov 2010, three of the first four games were decisive. So for now the course of the present match is the exception rather than the rule for 12-game matches. The truth, of course, is that every match has its own dynamics and one can never be sure in advance of how it will develop. |
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| May-15-12 | | zakkzheng: All four games had drawn so far |
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| May-15-12 | | Whitehat1963: <Tomorrow is a rest day so the action will continue on Thursay at 7:00 USA/Eastern (11:00 UTC).> Action? |
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| May-15-12 | | Whitehat1963: Gelfand needs to push the "action" with white if he hopes to win. He won't survive a rapid playoff against Anand. |
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| May-15-12 | | vkwow: Anand would kill Gelfand in rapid, for he is the much better player in this format. Against Kamsky, for instance, Gelfand blundered a queen, and the only reason he advanced was because Kamsky missed another tactic in the next game(which Anand would have definitely seen) |
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| May-15-12 | | Hesam7: 4th draw.
From these 4 games it is clear that Anand has much better prospects in the remaining games. Anand is slightly younger, he appears to be in a better shape physically and he has been far more comfortable with Black pieces than Gelfand. Prediction: Anand will win game 5 with White, Gelfand will switch to a more aggressive play with White in the next two games (6 & 7) and he will lose one of them. Finally an easy draw on game 8 with White will practically finish the match for Vishy. |
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| May-15-12 | | Whitehat1963: According to Chessgames.com, <In rapid/exhibition games: Viswanathan Anand beat Boris Gelfand 10 to 1, with 18 draws.> With a record like that, you'd think Gelfand would want to avoid a playoff. Is he simply hoping for Anand to make an inaccuracy, or is he deliberately playing "drawish" lines? I'm not knowledgeable enough to decide. Can someone comment? Meanwhile, we'll see what happens the rest of the way. |
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| May-15-12 | | Whitehat1963: If we're gonna get draws in queen-pawn openings, this is the kind of thing I'd like to see: Anand vs Topalov, 2010 |
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| May-15-12 | | morfishine: <Whitehat1963> Here's to you on Anand vs Topalov 2010...Agreed completely!...Also, a 12-game match for the WORLD Championship is WAY too short IMHO...18-game minimum...period |
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May-16-12
 | | blazerdoodle: Why not just make it 2 games? One black, one white? |
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| May-16-12 | | serenpidity.ejd: Chess has never been the same since Garry left. I missed the brilliant games, the neat sacrifices, the do or die attitude. Wow!!! He was and still an idol of chess. |
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| May-16-12 | | Ulhumbrus: From the chessbase.com website ( Here is the bookmark: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail... ) <When quizzed at the press conference on whether he had an edge because of the bishop pair, Gelfand responded: <Optically White was better, but the pieces lacked co-ordination>. Anand, commenting on the draw quipped <The match is just developing and at this point we are just probing.> The Indian was also quick to add: <The ending today became a bit interesting>> |
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| May-16-12 | | pawn to QB4: <Chess has never been the same since Garry left. I missed the brilliant games, the neat sacrifices, the do or die attitude> , yeah, I know it's not great watching at the moment, but let's keep faith.
The bloke who played this: Anand vs Topalov, 2010 is capable of anything, just look at some of his notable games. I don't suppose this dull series of draws will last the match any more than did the series in Kasparov - Karpov 1 or Kasparov - Kramnik. |
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| May-16-12 | | kevin86: four drawn winds! This match is the reverse of a gunfight-where no one draws. lol |
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| May-16-12 | | NGambit: <pawn to QB4: > +1 |
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| May-16-12 | | xanadu: What a fascinating match!! Amazing games that I will never forgett in my whole life!! The fighting spirit, full of innovations in the opening, variations every game, e4 , then d4, etc, all togheter. I can´t remember such an exciting match, perhaps equal to Spassky-Fischer only... |
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| May-17-12 | | WiseWizard: It only took about 130 years for us to perfect the balance philosophy the great genius Steinitz wrote about. Anand does it so artfully and with such clarity and patience, its beautiful, his forces are always in strict harmony. Such a joy to watch this legend play. |
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May-18-12
 | | kingscrusher: Game 4 Dual commentary video annotation between myself and Chessexplained (soon to be IM titled) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD3N... |
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| May-25-12 | | Chess Network: I created a YouTube video of this game.
http://youtu.be/y9phlMMhHLw |
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