The struggle was extremely tense and dramatic

WORLD CHAMPION ANAND RETAINS THE TITLE

The tie-break of the match for FIDE World Champion was played on 30 May at the State Tretyakov Gallery’s Engineering Building

12 games with classical time control ended in a draw 6:6, so the champion was determined during the tie-break. Players had to play four games with the control of 25 minutes till the end with an increment of 10 seconds after each move.

The struggle was extremely tense and dramatic. The first game was very tough, each side had chances to win, but eventually all the pieces were exchanged and game was drawn.
In the second game Anand, playing white, won a pawn but Black got compensation and was defending precisely. However Boris Gelfand spent too much time and as a result blundered in the endgame. Anand won the second game in 77 moves.

In the third and fourth games Boris Gelfand got very good chances to equalize the score but failed. Vishwanatan Anand remains World Chess Champion! The awarding ceremony will be held tomorrow at 4 p.m. at the State Tretyakov Gallery’s Engineering Building. After the ceremony there will be final press-conference with World Champion and officials.

Player’s press conference and photos are available on the match’s official website: http://moscow2012.fide.com.

The FIDE World Chess Championship match between the world champion Viswanathan Anand (India) and the challenger Boris Gelfand (Israel) will take place from 10 to 31 May 2012 in the Engineering Building of the State Tretyakov Gallery. Chess championship match will be taking place in one of the world’s biggest museums for the first time.

Organisers of the match are FIDE (the World Chess Federation) and the RCF (the Russian Chess Federation). Initiator of the idea of holding the match in Moscow and its sponsor is the Russian entrepreneur Andrei Filatov (joint owner of the N-Trans Group). Other sponsors of the contest include businessman Gennady Timchenko and the Ladoga charitable foundation, and also the NVisionGroup, Novatek and Almaz-Antei companies.

Contact information for journalists:
Mark Glukhovsky
Press Attaché for the Russian Chess Federation
at the World Championship Match