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%).
Moscow impressions by Eric van Reem
Before we come to the main theme of our exposition a quick jaunt through chess
history.
A special chess photo exhibition in the big lobby of the Multimedia Art Museum
Photo by Boris Dolmatovsky of the Karpov-Kasparov match in Moscow 1984
The last picture made the front page "Vedomosti" on May 11, 2012
The caption of the above picture reads: "Chief arbiter of match Svetozar
Gligoric tests a chair of Anatoly Karpov." We seem to remember it had collapsed
under Karpov's weight – probably around 130 pounds in 1984 – which
would explain the smile on Kasparov's face.
It is just a ten minute walk from the museum to the Botvinnik Central Chess
Club, and it is easy to see that you arrived at the right place when you get
there: the above memorial plaque, dedicated to Mikhail Botvinnik, was unveiled
by Vladimir Kramnik and Vishy Anand on the last day of the Botvinnik Memorial
in September 2011. It reads: “Five times World Champion, founder of the
National Chess School, Mikhail Moiseevich Botvinnik, worked in this building
from 1988 to 1995”.
This was the match all the journalists had been waiting for! On Saturday, 19
May a blitz Scheveningen was taged between a team of blonde players and a team
of brunette players at the Botvinnik Central Chess Club. The regulations were
actually quite simple: a 2100+ Elo was required, but the hair colour was the
main entry ticket, and there was also a dress code: the blondes had to wear
light coloured clothing, brunettes dark costumes.
The tournament under way – genuine competition to the Anand-Gelfand
thing
Julia Dogodkina (blond) vs Olga Grigorieva (brunette, black dress)
Irina Vasilevich vs Maya Gvilava
Yulia Dogodkina in action
Anna Burtasova (right), chess journalist and photographer, against Valentina
Gunina
16-year old talent Maria Severina (Elo 2247), who almost got a
draw against Kasparov in the simul one day earlier.
The scoreboard, with the blonds winning 36.5-24.5. Valentina Gunina, Olga
Gira and Alina Bivol
scored six points each, Maria Severina (blond) and Olga Grigoreva (brunette)
scored 5.5 each.
White roses for team blonde: Maria Severina, Alina Bivol, Maria Fominykh, Valentina
Gunina, Irina Vasilevich, Julia Dogodkina and Olga Girja (correct us if we
are wrong)
Red roses for team brunette (24.5 points): Varvara Saulina, Anna Burtasova,
Elmira Mirzoeva,
Yana Melnikova, Olga Grigorjeva, Maja Gvivala, Darja Charochkina and Anna Vasenina.
The group photo of both teams with their flowers
All photos by Eric van Reem from the team Anand, who is maintaining a
chess blog
in Moscow. He is the hero of the volcanic
2010 World Championship match in Sofia.
Eric, 44, from Deventer, The Netherlands, works for Lufthansa as Star Alliance
Controller in the Hub Control Centre at Frankfurt Airport and lives in Dietzenbach,
close to Frankfurt. He studied Dutch and English at Amsterdam University and
for ten years was the Editor of the magazine "Computerschaak". He
was also the press officer of the Chess Classic Mainz tournaments and the Euwe
Memorial 2011 in Amsterdam. Eric wrote the Chess960 rules for the FIDE handbook.
He is married to Svala (from Iceland) and has two sons, Dennis (13) and Nils
(9). Listens to Joe Bonamassa and JJ Grey when writing and editing his blog.
Scoreboard
| Players |
Rtng |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
Tot. |
Perf. |
+/– |
| Vishy Anand |
2791 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
0 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
4.0 |
2727 |
–7 |
| Boris Gelfand |
2727 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
1 |
0 |
|
|
|
|
4.0 |
2791 |
+7 |
Remaining 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.
| Tues |
May 22 |
Rest day |
|
| Wed |
May 23 |
Game 9 |
Daniel King |
| Thur |
May 24 |
Game 10 |
Yannick Pelletier |
| Fri |
May 25 |
Rest day |
|
| Sat |
May 26 |
Game 11 |
Daniel King |
|
|
| Sun |
May 27 |
Rest day |
|
| Mon |
May 28 |
Game 12 |
Sam Collins |
| Tues |
May 29 |
Rest day |
|
| Wed |
May 30 |
Tiebreaks |
|
| Thurs |
May 31 |
Closing |
|
|
Copyright
ChessBase
