Chess - The Scotsman 17/05/2012

How should Black continue?

IT was the calm after the storm of game three, as Boris Gelfand and Viswanathan Anand settled again for yet another sedate draw in game four of the World Championship match at Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery. Neither has managed to break the deadlock as yet, and the match stands at 2-2 ahead of another rest day.

Minsk-born challenger Gelfand had slightly the better of the position though, but again there was a major clearance of pieces from the board that left both players with no obvious line of attack or points of weakness. Gelfand’s slight middlegame edge was nebulous at best, and Anand found the key move of 26 ...g6! that avoided any possibility of the bishop recapturing the queen on c8 to attack the pawns on b7 and a6, allowing the white rook passage to the seventh rank.

Gone are the days of the epic battles between Fischer-Spassky, Korchnoi-Karpov and Kasparov-Karpov when title matches became a war of attrition fought over 24 games or more. Now, with the match only being 12 games, and so much at stake, both players are extremely cautious and daren’t risk even one loss, and are not willing to venture something dangerous unless forced. We could be witnessing contentless games here in the match, where both players are just checking each other’s computer-aided preparation.

Another key factor is that Anand and Gelfand are friends. Sometimes – like the matches noted above – an added edge of ruthless rivalry is needed to stir the passions.

B Gelfand - V Anand

World Championship, (4)

Semi-Slav Defence

1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 e3 e6 5 Nf3 a6 6 b3 Bb4 7 Bd2 Nbd7 8 Bd3 0–0 9 0–0 Bd6 10 Qc2 e5 11 cxd5 cxd5 12 e4 exd4 13 Nxd5 Nxd5 14 exd5 Nf6 15 h3 Bd7 16 Rad1 Re8 17 Nxd4 Rc8 18 Qb1 h6 19 Nf5 Bxf5 20 Bxf5 Rc5 21 Rfe1 Rxd5 22 Bc3 Rxe1+ 23 Rxe1 Bc5 24 Qc2 Bd4 25 Bxd4 Rxd4 26 Qc8 g6! 27 Bg4 h5 28 Qxd8+ Rxd8 29 Bf3 b6 30 Rc1 Rd6 31 Kf1 a5 32 Ke2 Nd5 33 g3 Ne7 34 Be4 Kg7 draw agreed.