World Championship G1 – a fighting draw sets the tone

The World Chess Championship 2012 is being 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 is over twelve games and lasts from May 11 to 30. The prize fund is US $2.55 million, the winner getting $1.53 million (60%), the loser $1,02 million (40%).

Round one report

By IM Malcolm Pein

In game one of the 2010 WCC final, Anand played the Gruenfeld against Topalov and after 24 moves he could resign. In 2012, Anand had to face the Gruenfeld in the first game and after 24 moves, the challenger Boris Gelfand had secured a draw with black and will be the slightly happier of the two. Gelfand would have been satisfied with a draw before the game and psychologically speaking, he struck a small blow by springing a surprise and answering 1.d4 with the Gruenfeld Defence.

The d-pawn! Anand tells FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov which move to make...

... and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov ceremoniously starts the first game with 1.d4

Boris usually plays Slav, Semi Slav, Queen's Gambit or Nimzo/Queen's Indian and so he immediately demonstrated that he has plenty of ideas. The Gruenfeld is considered a bit risky at the very top level. Kasparov lost a few times with it, but Anand has not faced it often, so it was a shrewd choice. As they say in the financial markets there was a 'flight to safety' as Anand opted for 8.Bb5+ which has a reputation of being a harmless line but one which requires a little accuracy from Black. On move nine, Anand decided to play aggressively and avoid 9.0-0 which he has played before but which can lead to dull equality. 9.d5!? was almost a novelty but I thought it had been played before. I couldn't place it but then, in the darker recesses of my (very unreliable) memory I remembered losing a game against GM Gyozo Forintos at the Benedictine International in Manchester 30 years ago. But ChessBase is a wonderful thing sometimes and it turns out that was with 9.0-0 0-0 10.d5 Qa5 11.Rb1. So I can't claim ownership of that move, but the way it turned out, it wouldn't be much of a claim.

Press photographers bustling around the stage at the start of game one Anand-Gelfand

Vishy Anand watches as Boris Gelfand goes for the Gruenfeld with 2...g6 and...

3...d5. This must have come as a bit of a surprise for the World Champion.

Gelfand comfortably navigated the complications and when Anand went in for a long think after 13...Qa5 the silicon collective, otherwise known as 'Let's Check' had decided Black was more than okay. Anand had sacrificed a pawn and by the time he retrieved it, Gelfand had safely castled. Then it was just a question of whether Black had something tangible, as he was in possession of the bishop pair and a potentially strong passed 'a' pawn. 22...Bd7 was more ambitious but as the players said after the game, Black had no real advantage. One shouldn't pay too much attention to a computer assessment of +0.1-0.2.

Commentary on game one by Daniel King

Commentary on game one by Andrew Martin

Pictures by Anastasya Karlovich and Alexey Yushenkov

Scoreboard

Schedule

Days of play, with live commentators on Playchess.com. Note that the games start at 15:00h local time = 13:00 CEST, 07 a.m. New York or here in your location.

Links Official web site of the World Championship match All ChessBase reports on the World Championship All games in PGN The games are being 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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