Chess - The Scotsman 25/01/2012

BORIS GELFAND’S rise to become the next world championship challenger has shone new light on whether players can enjoy more than just Indian summers when they pass 40.

Two decades ago Gelfand took a rapid rise to the top of the chess world, winning tournament after tournament – starting with joint victory at the 1988 World Junior Championship – creating complex and powerful games along the way. He won Olympic gold on board two of the USSR team in 1990 and topped the Biel World Championship Interzonal in 1993.

However, unable to defeat Garry Kasparov and with the chess world beginning to go into a prolonged schism, Gelfand’s world title dreams faded, though he remained a fixture in the world’s Top 10 for more than a decade. It seemed Gelfand, having moved from Belarus to Israel in 1998, was suffering a slow but steady decline until 2007, when he unexpectedly finished second behind Viswanathan Anand in the World Championship tournament in Mexico.

A World Cup win followed in 2009, and last year he surprised everyone by winning the Candidates tournament to become Anand’s challenger for May’s World Championship match in Moscow – but the player the fans want to see facing Anand is not 43-year-old Gelfand, but the 21-year-old World No 1, Magnus Carlsen.

M Carlsen - B Gelfand

74th Tata Steel GM-A, (7)

Slav Defence

1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 e3 Bf5 5 Nc3 e6 6 Nh4 Bg6 7 Nxg6 hxg6 8 Bd3 Nbd7 9 0–0 Bd6 10 h3 dxc4 11 Bxc4 0–0 12 Qc2 Qe7 13 Rd1 Rac8 14 Bd2 Nb6 15 Bf1 e5 16 dxe5 Bxe5 17 Rac1 Rcd8 18 Be1 Rxd1 19 Rxd1 Rd8 20 Rxd8+ Qxd8 21 g3 Qe7 22 Bg2 Bd6 23 Bd2 Qe6 24 b3 Nbd5 25 Ne2 Nb4 26 Qb1 Qf5 27 e4 Qc5 28 Nf4 g5 29 Ne2 g4 30 h4 Nd7 31 Be3 Qc2 32 Qxc2 Nxc2 33 Bxa7 Ba3 34 Nc3 Bb2 35 Nd1 Bc1 36 Bf1 Nb4 37 a4 Nf6 38 e5 Nd7 39 Bd4 Nc2 40 Bc3 Nc5 41 Be2 Ne4 42 Bxg4 Nxc3 43 Nxc3 Bb2 44 e6! fxe6 45 Bxe6+ Kf8 46 Ne4 Nd4 47 Ng5 Ke7 48 Bg8 Kf8 49 Bc4 Ke7 50 Kg2 b5 51 Bg8 Kf8 52 a5 1–0