On Chess: Format perks up world-title series
Saturday July 14, 2012 8:28 AM
Shelby Lyman
The recent 12-game World Championship match in Moscow between Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand seemed to many a stodgy affair.
Half the games were completed in 25 moves or fewer. Except games seven and eight, there was little excitement in the match until the four-game rapid-chess tie-breaker.
The highlight of the early phase of classical chess (several hours per game) was a 17-move win by Anand in the eighth game.
It was a desperate and welcome turn of events for the Indian grandmaster, whose chances to retain his title seemed slim after Gelfand had taken the lead in the seventh game and more than held his own in the first six.
Despite appearances to the contrary, many of the encounters were dynamic struggles in which each player coolly and often creatively thwarted the other’s attempt to create and press an advantage.
After a 6-6 standoff in the classical phase, Anand won a four-game rapid playoff with three draws and a win.
In contrast to much of the earlier play, the more impromptu and appreciably faster 30-minute playoff games were crowd pleasers, with the advantage and momentum often swinging back and forth between the two players.
The result was the fifth victory for Anand in world-title competition.
Anand, who said he thought he had “blown the match” after losing the seventh game, admitted: “In all fairness, this match could have gone either way.”
Full article here.
He almost did.