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 five: drawn in 27 moves

The wait wasn’t long for enthusiasts expecting the King Pawn Opening from World Champion Viswanathan Anad. Playing with white in the fifth game, Anand opened with the king pawn for the first time in this twelve-game World Championship match against challenger Boris Gelfand.

The surprise element as expected was missing with the Israeli GM too having anticipated this move by Anand. Gelfand counter surprised Anand by skipping his favourite Petroff Defence and instead opted for the Sveshnikov Variation of the Sicilian Defence.

World Champion Anand played 1.e4 and faced the Sicilian Sveshnikov

Anand was once again not his usual self, and it was another slow and safe approach by the Indian, who is fighting in the Classical World Championship format for the third time, having defeated Vladimir Kramnik in 2008 and Veselin Topalov in 2010. It was once again a technical and positional battle which beginners and amateurs may find difficult to follow, but neither player conceded an inch. They followed the well analyzed and dissected main line of the Svehnikov and play was focussed on the queen side with pieces swapped at regular intervals. After 26 moves each player was left with a queen, rook and opposite colour bishops which had them unhesitatingly settling for a draw without anything left in the position.

Ilya Smirin and Alexander Grischuk doing commentary during round five

This was the fifth successive draw in as many games and leaves the score tied at 2.5-2.5.Gelfand will wield white pieces in the 6th game scheduled on Friday night.

Game five analysis by GM Romain Edouard

GM Romain Edouard, 21 years old, learnt to play chess at the age of five. He played his first national youth championship at ten, became a FIDE Master at 16, an IM at 17, and a GM at 18. Romain won the French and European U16 Championships in 2006, came second in the U18 section in European and World Championships in 2007, and came second in the French Championship 2010 (shared first on points with Laurent Fressinet). He has been a member of the French national team since 2009 (except in 2011). He won several international open tournaments: Bad Wiessee 2008, Zaragoza 2008, Echternach 2009, Andorra 2009, Hastings 2010, Echternach 2010, Clermont-Ferrand 2011, etc. as well as closed tournaments: Grand Prix de Bordeaux 2007, Antwerp 2011, Nancy 2012. Romain delivers his analyses of the World Championship in Moscow minutes after the games have ended, something we greatly appreciate.

Game five analysis by Malcolm Pein

IM Malcolm Pein comments on the games on TWIC and live during each game via Twitter #telegraphchess.

Analysis of game five by GM Daniel King on Playchess

GM Robert Fontaine and his video producer Gérard Demuydt are in Moscow, producing video reports and interviews after each round for the French chess magazine Europe Echecs. We are grateful to receive the reports very soon after the end of the games, so that we are able to publish them on the same day. It is also great to catch a glimpse of the many interesting personalities that visit the World Championship.

Andrew Martin comments on game five

Pictures by Anastasya Karlovich in Moscow

Scoreboard

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.

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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