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1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Nf3 a6 6. c5 In the previous 2 games as white, Gelfand player 6. Bd3 and 6. Qc2 and got little for it. So now he tries 6. c5. Will 3rd option be a charm.
Erwin l’Ami: Gelfand played 6.c5 a few times before. His wins against Miroshnichenko and Feller (both 2008) are worth checking out!
6..Nbd7 7. Qc2 Once again, they’re are cranking out moves at lightning speed. Now Anand is thinking. This move is rarely played.
7…b6 8. cxb6 I’m not sure if I like the idea of 7…b6 too much. Obviously Anand has something prepared. We’ll see if his idea is good. I like White here.
Anand is spending a lot of time after 8. cxb6. The question is did he forget his preparation? I am curious to know why he is taking so much time for this move.
Pogonina: Grischuk is saying that Anand may be having problems vs Kasparov and Nakamura because both are known for their high level of hatred.
According to what I read, here are the 2 teams:
Anand’s Seconds are:
Peter Heine Nielsen
Rustam Kasimdzhanov
Surya Shekhar Ganguly
Radosław Wojtaszek
Gelfand’s Seconds are:
Alexander Huzman
Levon Aronian
Pavel Eljanov
Maxim Rodshtein
Can anyone confirm this? 🙂
8. cxb6 Nxb6 9. Bd2 c5 10. Rc1 cxd4 11. exd4 Bd6 12. Bg5
This is another idea and possible line: 12. Na4 Nxa4 13. Qc6+ Bd7 14. Qxd6 Ne4 15. Qa3 Nxd2 16. Nxd2 Qe7 17. Qxe7+ Kxe7 18. b3 Nb6 and white has nothing.
12…0-0 13. Bd3 h6 14. Bh4
If I have to pick a side, I choose white here. But Anand’s position is OK.
14…Bb7 15. 0-0
I like 15…Bf4 here to kick the rook off the c file.
15…Qb8 This is a strange looking move. Anand is willing to let Gelfand play 16. Bxf6. The question is why?
16. Bxf6 is the exciting and brave choice.16. Bg3 is the safe choice. 16. Na4 is and interesting choice. Which will Gelfand choose?
On the road in my hotel room. It is likely faster for me to send messages by pigeons than my internet connection.
16. Bg3
Gelfand chose the “safe” choice 🙂 If 16. Bxf6 gxf6 17. Ne2 f5 18. Qd2 white is doing fairly good.
16…Rc8 17. Qe2 Bxf3 18. hxg3
Also interesting is 18. fxg3 but given the choices Gelfand has made so far, 18. hxg3 is definitely the preferred choice.
18…Qd6 And now Gelfand has two viable options 19. Ne5 or 19. Rc2
19. Rc2 Once again, Gelfand is playing for 2 results. The stake is huge so he wants to take no chances. Is it the right or wrong decision?
19…Nbd7 20. Rfc1 following through with the plan. Black should double his Rooks to the c file as well.
20…Rab8 Gelfand is taking his time here. He is searching for the right plan. There are too many decent options but no knock out plan in his sleeve. At least not that I am aware of.
21. Na4 Gelfand did not find anything spectacular. It is a difficult position. White is better but not enough for any serious break through.
21…Ne4 22. Rxc8+ Bxc8 23. Qc2 White is clearly better but is not something which can assure a victory.
23…g5 Anand allows capturing on e4 as 24. Bxe4 dxe4 25. Qxe4 Bb7 26. Qe3 Bc6 =. The problem is 24. Qc7. This gives white a very comfortable endgame with an edge. This is the type of position Gelfand can thrive on. It is his best shot so far in this match.
24. Qc7 += The other problem for Anand is he is in time pressure. It is not a fun position to defend with little time.
Grischuk: “Black’s task now is to at least make sure White has to play accurate moves to win.”
Anand has made some unusual moves today. This is causing him problems now.
24…Qxc7 25. Rxc7 f6 I do not like this move at all. Now white is nearly winning with 26. Bxe4 dxe4 27. Nd2 f5 28. Nc4 +/-
26. Bxe4 dxe4 27. Nd2 f5 28. Nc4 That is exactly what Gelfand played. I smell the first victory for Gelfand now. Wow. I am curious to hear Anand’s explanation for some of his unusual moves.
28…Nf6 29. Nc5 This is just about over. This is a classic example of good Knights versus bad Bishop. It is a bad day for Anand. It will be interesting to see how Anand will play after falling behind with only 5 games to go.
29…Nd5 30. Ra7 Black is trying but he is almost in zugzwang. His Rook and Bishop are seeing no action.
30…Nb4 Now 31. Nd6 and it is just about over.
31. Ne5 White is still better but 31. Nd6 is technically stronger.
31…Nc2 32. Nc6 Rxb2 Anand is giving up his Bishop for counter play. He is hoping for a miracle. 33. Ra8 or 33.Rc7 wins the Bishop on c8.
33. Rc7 Rb1+ 34. Kh2 e3 35. Rxc8+ It is almost over.
36. Rc7+ Kh8 37. Ne5 e2 38. Nxe6 if 38…e1=Q 39. Ng6+ Kg8 40. Rg7# 1-0
Anand resigns before mate. Gelfand take a lead with the score of 4 – 3 with 5 games to play. How will Anand react and respond in the next 5 games? A note of trivia: The last time Gelfand scored against Anand in a classical game was in 1993.
chessdom down?
The board window either never loads or takes too long. Can’t you have a system similar to what you had during Anand-Topalov 2010?
why is live pgn not working?
hummm must be down, so frustrating…
I have problems with the official site as well. It switches to an Anand-Gelfand game where white has just played Qxb3.
@anonymous
yes it is sunday morning and every one is taking in the game so chessdom is slow slow slow
@Susan
>>>Grischuk is saying that Anand may be having problems vs Kasparov and Nakamura because both are known for their high level of hatred.
What does this comment mean?
Rc8 17.Qe2
safety first? actually i wonder if Bg3 was bad? white has no real worries now, but liking anands position is looking flexible. if that makes sense (not using an engine – more fun)
Gelfand with the white pieces has achieved yet another 16 move draw against world champion Anand. I guess its easy money since even the loser gets 40% of 2.55 million.
Yes I hope Grischuk didn’t say or mean that exactly.
Yes I hope Grischuk didn’t say or mean exactly that.
Finally, gelfand takes the lead!!
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if anand checked the white king with his rook,then the king would forced to eliminate the rook,then anand would have again checked with the queen and in turn eliminated the knight!why he resigned?
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what if 38.Rh1 check, 39.K*R, 39.e1=Q check and then kill a knight
what if 38.Rh1 check, 39.K*R, 39.e1=Q check and then kill a knight
Anand has white tomorrow. Going after Gelfand tomorrow will be risky. Best is draw tomorrow, do homework on black and draw it, and then try to see with whites what is the wind direction . If I recall correctly, Anand has come from behind against Kamsky, then against Karpov(though he lost in the tiebreaker) and then against Topolov !. This time however looks a little more difficult situation for Anand, though his experience may help him escape.
Hi Susan Polgar,
Congrats,Gelfand.
I am ignorant about clock rule in this tournament,can anybody throw light on it please.
By the by – “Anand” should employ a person to monitor his clock and update him,not just the next game,till the last game of this tournament.
Its very unusual for “Anand” to be at time pressure.
“Anand” got to fix time problem.
Okay,coming to the game – “Gelfand” exhibited good game show.
By
Venky [ India – Chennai ]
remember 1995? anand won game 9 after 8 draws then kasparov went up a gear and destroyed him starting with a home cooked masterpiece in game 10. anand could repond tomorrow very strongly. he’s not finished yet so don’t underestimate him.
This was a Fluke. You can’t have a number 20 rated player the World Champion. Bogolubov won a game or two here or there but not the match. Lets remember who is who here in this match.
With Levon on his side, and Anand having the same old suspects,who must be as tired as he is, Gelfand is probably going to become the next World Champ. Also until now whenever Anand lost a game, in-between his string of draws, it was attributed to not wanting to show his hand,due to the forthcoming match with Gelfand. But, though there is some truth to this, Kasparov’s assessment seems quite correct. Anand has lost interest,lost that sparkle in his eye, and Gelfand of course is very very much more motivated.I shall be pleasantly surprised if Anand can pull out of rut he finds himself in.
Its I think Good that Gelfand struck first. A Very painful reminder of how bad the World Champinship title has faltered. I mean..If a guy rated 27th or 28 th in the world can be World Champion then…the title means nothing. Mr Anand was a great player.but Mr Gelfand has him figured out. Mr Gelfand would never be able to survive against anyone else in the top 5 but in FIDES parameters…anyone can win. Congrats aaaaagain Fide for proviiding us with yet another World Champion who nobody will remember his name. And to Mr Anand…you deserve this.
Haha…Gelfand Worl Champion…who would take that seriously haha..Pathetic way to lose for a World Champion. The weak challenger deserves victory.Chess is in a very bad place. Even if Mr Gelfand wins the match..nobody in his right mind will believe he is the best player on the planet..not even close.
Thanks, Susan. Great commentary.
And, if you really happen to hear Anand’s explanation for his unusual moves … please post an update sharing it 😉
Cheers.
Jörg
With Anand’s loss, Nakamura is now #5 in the world according to rating.
If Gelfand wins, he is the World Champion. That is the whole point. He has gone through all the stages. I don’t understand why people have a problem with that?
If Gelfand wins match, he is world champ and best player fair and square. In baseball and US football it happens all the time that a team can have a better record during the regular season, but lose in the playoffs or world series. Nobody complains that the system is not fair. These other guys had every chance to compete during the candidates match, but Gelfand won. His performance here means he deserves the title if he can keep it up.
On Move 10, could Anand have played pawn to C4? That way, he could have kept that file closed.
I never stop to wonder why people think of Elo-rating as more important than an actual WCC match. Many comment that match is a joke as we have “#6 Vs #27”. I think this has no substance to it. Boris Gelfand went on to win the Candidates tournament, which indeed represented the strongest group of leading Super-GMs at that time, except for Carlsen. Grischuk who replaces Carlsen actually made it all the way to final with Gelfand and lost, which only proves that Candidates was super-tough tournament. So GM Gelfand in every way is a legitimate challenger.
In recent interview, after his win in Wijk an Zee, Lev Aronian stated that he wants to become a WCC, but has no interest in FIDE or any other ratings.
People seem to confuse Chess with Tennis when it comes to ratings. In Chess it is not cumulative. Imagine a GM of 2650 going on to play against 2250-2300 FMs a whole lot of it, say hundreds of (worthless) games. He’d soon bump up his Elo for a good 100 or even 200 points and get into a 2800 club. What would that prove in terms of his/her chess strength…?
When i played this game, i found out that Anand would have come out tops if he had sacrificed his rook checking the king, then queening on e-1+, thereafter eliminating the knight threat… this error is not championship stuff, or is it??