Chess - The Scotsman 16/05/12

WHEN Boris Gelfand sat down to play Viswanathan Anand in their best-of-12-game match at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, he joined an exclusive club in becoming only the 28th player to compete in a world championship match since the undisputed title was created 126 years ago.

The Soviet-born Israeli is regarded as a heavy underdog. Only 11 percent of fans think he’ll win, according to an online poll on the match’s website (moscow2012.fide.com/en/). The pre-match head-to-head stats of 6-5 to Anand with 26 draws suggest a closer contest though than Gelfand’s ranking as world No 20 might indicate.

And the challenger had the best of the two opening short draws of the match. But game three was a real game after the phoney war of the first two – and Anand would have done well to remember the old adage that “passed pawns must be pushed,” as he squandered a possible shot in a complicated double rook ending, which ended in a third draw to tie the match at 1.5-1.5.

At the press conference, the players looked at a few chances but Anand felt that 34 d7! Rcc2 35 Rc4 Rb2+ 36 Kc1 Rxa2 37 Rc8 Rf2 38 Re6+ “might win too” – and he could be right, as 38... Kh5 39 g4+!! (trying to promote with check) 39... fxg4 40 fxg4+ Kxg4 41 Re4+! Kh3 (41... Kg3 42 Rg8+ ) 42 Rh4+! Kg3 43 Rg8+ and wins. The best try for Black seems to be 34 d7 Rcc2 35 Rc4 Rxc4 36 bxc4 but White has winning chances.

V Anand - B Gelfand

World Championship, (3)

Grünfeld Defence

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 f3 d5 4 cxd5 Nxd5 5 e4 Nb6 6 Nc3 Bg7 7 Be3 0–0 8 Qd2 e5 9 d5 c6 10 h4 cxd5 11 exd5 N8d7 12 h5 Nf6 13 hxg6 fxg6 14 0–0–0 Bd7 15 Kb1 Rc8 16 Ka1 e4 17 Bd4 Na4 18 Nge2 Qa5 19 Nxe4 Qxd2 20 Nxf6+ Rxf6 21 Rxd2 Rf5 22 Bxg7 Kxg7 23 d6 Rfc5 24 Rd1 a5 25 Rh4 Rc2 26 b3 Nb2 27 Rb1 Nd3 28 Nd4 Rd2 29 Bxd3 Rxd3 30 Re1 Rd2 31 Kb1 Bf5+ 32 Nxf5+ gxf5 33 Re7+ Kg6 34 Rc7? Re8 35 Rh1 Ree2 36 d7 Rb2+ 37 Kc1 Rxa2 draw agreed