Anand vs Gelfand in the news

The World Chess Championship 2012 was staged in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, between the current World Champion Viswanathan Anand of India and the winner of the Candidates tournament Boris Gelfand of Israel. The match was over twelve games plus tiebreak, and lasted from May 11 to 30. It was won by Anand in the tiebreak. The prize fund was US $2.55 million, the winner getting $1.53 million (60%), the loser $1.02 million (40%).

Press reports

The Telegraph: Everest moment in chess: ‘I won because I won’
The Telegraph virtually brought out an Anand special on Thursday. He occupies the front page with a huge photo of his face and a column by IM Venkatachalam Saravanan. And there are many more in the sports page too!

“I won because I won,” was how Viswanathan Anand summarised his tie-break victory over Boris Gelfand in the World Chess Championship on Wednesday. Describing the rapid games as very tense affairs with relatively steady play from Gelfand, he attributed his victory to holding his nerves in the tense rapid encounters. Anand’s superiority in handling the clock was the crucial factor where Gelfand faltered repeatedly in the four games. Most of the time, Gelfand was seen playing with less than a minute in his clock, whereas Anand always kept more than three minutes in his clock, thus showing his experience in playing rapid games. Read the full story here.

Newly-crowned world chess champion Viswanathan Anand and runner-up Boris Gelfand on Thursday met Russian President Vladimir Putin over a cup of tea in his residence. Anand, who clinched his fifth World championship title yesterday, said that he had learnt chess in a Soviet cultural centre in his hometown when he was a child. “So we brought this on ourselves!” Mr. Putin said. Mr. Putin heaped praise on both the players for their “outstanding game.”

Zee News: Is Viswanathan Anand the greatest ever chess player?
India's chess legend Viswanathan Anand can lay claim to be one of the all-time greats in the sport after he won his fifth World Championship title beating Israeli challenger Boris Gelfand in the tie-breaker in Moscow Wednesday. Widely considered as the greatest Indian sportsman, the 42-year-old Anand has been among the game's elite for more than a decade and a half. Anand first won the World Chess Championship title in 2000 beating Latvian Alexei Shirov in Tehran in 2000. He then followed it up with wins in 2007 (Mexico), Bonn (2008), Sofia (2010) and now Moscow (2012). The win adds lustre to his six chess Oscars. Anand has won the Chess Oscar "an award given by polling votes from the global chess fraternity, including players and best writers across the world", a record five times with the wins coming in 1997, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2008. See also: High time we consider Anand for Bharat Ratna (the Republic of India's highest civilian award for the national service, including artistic, literary, and scientific achievements).

NDTV: A gold medal and $1.4 million for Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand received a gold medal, prize money of US $1.4 million, a memento and a piece of contemporary art displaying him and challenger Boris Gelfand, for his world chess championship win at a ceremony here on Thursday. Stating that his connection with Russia has been very deep, Anand said, "I benefitted a lot from playing chess in Russian Cultural center in Chennai and my second grandmaster norm was also made at the Cultural center in New Delhi. The connection with Russia is quite deep, as I also played a lot of tournaments here while growing up." The speculation over Anand's team also ended. It remained the same as it was four years back with Peter Hiene Nielsen, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Radek Wojtajsek and Surya Shekhar Ganguly as his seconds for this match too.

Times of India: Factfile of Viswanathan Anand's World Chess Championship titles

• 2000-2001 New Delhi-Iran: Won for the first time winning in knockout format. Starting with 128 players, Anand marched his way ahead in New Delhi to set up the finale with Alexey Shirov of Spain. It was a six-game final that lasted only till the fourth. Anand won three and drew one at Tehran in Iran to be crowned the world champion.
• 2007 Mexico City: Pitted against the best in the world in a match tournament spread over 14-games between eight players, Anand was in his elements and won this event in style. This also gave him the right to play the next world championship in a match format against the seemingly invincible Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.
• 2008 Bonn (Germany): The World championship was back to a match format, something which the chess world had been craving for a long time. Anand started as the underdog against Kramnik but the entire world saw a grand transformation in the Indian. It was a 12-games match that ended after 11. Anand won three, lost one and drew the remaining seven to reach 6.5 points. The transformation was in preparation. Kramnik was simply outdone thanks to some extremely well done homework. Anand became the first player in the history to win world championship in three different formats: Knock out, match tournament and match.
• 2010 Sofia ( Bulgaria): It was eruption of an Icelandic volcano that disrupted all flights across Europe. Anand had to undertake a 30-hours journey by road to reach Sofia. He asked for three days extension but was granted only one day. He was playing against all odds against the lion - Veselin Topalov - in his own den. Anand started with a first round loss but won the title winning the last game with black pieces. The loss was shattering for Topalov. He slipped from being the top player then to number 12 now.
• 2012 Moscow: The toughest title clash for Anand ended in the tiebreaker. Boris Gelfand was written off much before the match started. Anand was an overwhelming favourite but the Israeli gave it all he had. He even came close to winning one of the rapid tiebreak games, hard to predict what might have happened had he won that simple position. Yet, all the credit to Anand. He struck when it mattered. Whether it was the eighth game after he lost the seventh or the rapid games when he pushed Gelfand around in equal position. After a 6-6 deadlock, a 2.5-1.5 triumph for the world champion in the rapid games.

NY Daily News: Putin praises Indian chess schools for Anand's success
Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday lauded Russian and Indian chess schools that produced players like Indian World Champion Viswanathan Anand. Anand, who beat Israeli challenger Boris Gelfand to win his fifth World title, met the Russian leader at his Moscow residence here Thursday. "In India and Russia and in the former Soviet Union, chess schools are probably the best in the world," Putin told Anand. "Chess has always been a source of pride for our nations." Anand recognised the role played by the Soviet Union in his formative years, learning the game at a Soviet cultural centre while he was growing up, making the Tretyakov Gallery, one of Russia's top museums, a fitting venue. Gelfand, who grew up in Belarusian capital Minsk, tagged along for the visit and remarked Russia was regaining its place on the world chess stage. "In the last few years Russia, and Moscow in particular, has returned to its position as the capital of the chess world," he said. "This match, I think, was the best-organised chess match in history. It will push the development of chess."

AP: Despite loss, Israeli chess grandmaster wins fans
Israel's latest cultural hero is neither the usual army general nor a sexy celebrity – he's a bespectacled 43-year-old Belarus-born chess grandmaster. Israelis have been riveted by Boris Gelfand's three-week battle for world chess supremacy. Despite coming up just short this week, losing in a sudden-death round, his efforts have attracted new fans and drawn attention to Israel as a surprising chess powerhouse. His duel with world chess champion Viswanathan Anand of India was broadcast live on Israeli TV, thousands joined Gelfand fan pages on Facebook and his moves became water cooler talk in Israel – even among those who can't tell the difference between a rook and a bishop.

Times of India: Israel PM keenly follows Anand-Gelfand match
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an amateur chess player and an enthusiast of the game, closely followed the 12th game of World Championships between his countryman Boris Gelfand and India's defending champion Viswanathan Anand in Moscow. The game was broadcast on a giant screen in a room adjacent to the Prime Minister's office where Netanyahu watched it between meetings and spoke with Natan Sharansky, a former minister who was a promising chess player as a child, about the moves.

Scoreboard

Classical chess games

Rapid chess tiebreak games

We were asked by some readers what the final column of the top table, +/–, meant. It gives the number, calculated by the ChessBase program (or Fritz), of real rating points players have won or lost as a result of this event. This will be reflected in the next FIDE rating list, but is already given in the Live Ratings:

• Live ratings update from 31 May 2012, 05:06 GMT

Links Official web site of the World Championship match All ChessBase reports on the World Championship All games in PGN: Classical games + Rapid The games were broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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