"Anand-Carlsen duel fires up chess fervor in India"

Story in the Tribune.

I'm glad that parents support their chess-playing children, but stuff like this makes me slightly suspicious:

Tamilarasi and her husband, a government official, gave it a shot, even letting their children take time off school to concentrate on chess.

Although chess sets are cheap, travelling to other states for tournaments can cost anywhere from 10,000 to 50,000 rupees ($160 to $800).

"We don't plan leisure trips or buy the latest clothing. Instead we direct our money towards the game," said Tamilarasi. "It is a risk but we are hopeful that our plans for our children to become chess champions will click."

Parents will do anything for their children.  Yes, for a middle-class person in India or the USA, spending $800 on the kids' chess isn't crazy.  But when parents prioritize chess over school (and to be fair, I'm not sure Ms. Tamilarasi is doing that: could be an overemphasis by the reporter), then I get suspicious.

Becoming a chess champion is a longshot. Transferring the skills learned in chess (both soft skills and cerebral firepower) happens all the time.

Oh yes, the world championship: games 1 and 2 have been non-events (I got up at 5 a.m. twice this weekend, and was back in bed by 5:30 both days).  ChessBase is one of many free sites with excellent coverage.

Anand on Carlsen

Interview in The Indian Express.

Anand post-match trash talking

Vishy has the utmost respect for Boris Gelfand, but (politely) gets a few things off his chest.

I love the "family interview" format: we also hear from Aruna and two proud parents.



And I couldn't help being amused by the omissions on this list:


Chess players [Anand] likes
1. Bobby Fischer
2. Mikhail Tal
3. Boris Gelfand
4. Ljubomir Ljubojevic
5. Vladimir Kramnik

"Lady Gaga would never be invited to play in the Tretyakov Gallery"

 Peter Doggers interviews Boris Gelfand on ChessVibes.

 ***

 Tamara Golovey and Leonid Bondar (who taught young Gelfand in Belarus) went to Moscow to watch the match, as did Eduard Zelkind of Minnesota. Other former students of Tamara came from New York, Austria, and Belarus to lend support to Boris. Even the sponsor of the match, Andrey Filatov, was a former student of Leonid: he, Gelfand, Susan Polgar, and Ilya Smirin had all studied at the Academy of Sport in Minsk, where Leonid once worked. We're very fortunate to have Tamara and Leonid here in Chicagoland!

Vishy!

I watched the World Championship playoffs from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m Chicago time.: exciting stuff!

Viswanathan Anand first won the unified World Championship in 2007: this is his third successful defense (Kramnik 2008, Topalov 2010, and now Gelfand 2012).  Understandably, Boris Gelfand's Chicago fans must be very disappointed, his childhood teachers Tamara Golovey and Leonid Bondar chief among them.  But Tamara can be very proud of her student's playing Anand on an absolutely level footing.

The third game of the playoffs was incredibly bizarre, even if one overlooks the tactic Gelfand missed on move 26.  Here's the rook ending:

The PGN has been cut and pasted from the official website, with Black's 51st move corrected
per Dennis Monokroussos (and confirmed by me from rewatching the video).  (Hmm: the official website appears to be wrong in another respect.  Ian Rogers includes a repetition of position on moves 55-57: see below.)  Black's 51st move was indeed the blunder 51...Kf5? and not the correct 51...Kf4!: had 51...Kf4 52.Rc8 been played, I can't imagine Anand missing the elementary intermezzo 52...Rc2+ 53.Kg1 Ke5.

It's amazing (and amazingly painful) to see a supergrandmaster blunder in this position:

What in the world was Gelfand thinking when he played 61.59.Rh7??  (My best guess is that Gelfand was trying to prevent Anand from playing ...Kb7 and setting up the Vancura position with a subsequent ...Rg5+, ..Rg6, and ...Rc6.  But there's no time for this: White's king simply runs immediately to the h-pawn and relives the Rh8 of guard duty.  You can check this yourself with the Shredder endgame database.  And as long as White has the rook on h8 and is threatening to push the pawn to h7, Black's king can't come any closer than the c-file because of the beginner's skewer trick (explained by Matt Pullin here).

Of course, when one is playing on a ten-second increment, as Gelfand was, there isn't any time for "thinking."  What a painful way to toss away the win!  (Time pressure blunders in world championship matches are nothing new, of course; and the mutual blunders in this rapid game are not at all representative of the overall high level of play in this match.)

If world champions and their challengers can get confused in positions with only five or six pieces on the board, we should be more forgiving of our own errors.  (This past weekend, I managed to lose a queen for rook and pawn on the White side of a Catalan in only eleven moves: hmm.)

Chess is hard.

***

P.S. May 31

Gelfand had more time than I thought, and the hallucination was mutual.  GM Ian Rogers quotes Anand in discussing the above position:

Despite having built up almost a minute on the clock through four quick moves, Gelfand returns the favour. The obvious 61.Kg3-g4 wins, whereas the text move (i.e., 61.Rh8-h7)  is too slow by one tempo. “I thought I would get a Vancura position,” said Anand, “but I don't.”

And the official website appears to have an incorrect game score in another respect, omitting a repetition of position: the actual final moves were 55.Kg2 Re3 56.Kh2 Ra3 57.Kg2 Re3 58.h5! Re5 59.h6 Rh5 60.Rh8 Kxc6 61.Rh7 Kd6 62.Kg3 Ke6 63.Kg4 Rh1

Wow

Anand wins in 17 moves.: reminds me of games 9 and 10 of the Kasparov-Anand match.

Nice coverage on ChessBase: take their suggestion and check out the end of the game on the official video (beginning at 16:41:00 Moscow time).  A whole bunch of 2700 players were shocked, not just Gelfand.

Gelfand draws first blood

After six consecutive draws in the World Championship match between world champion Viswanathan Anand and challenger Boris Gelfand, Gelfand finally broke through to win game 7. In the final position, Anand has no reasonable defense against 39.Ng6+ Kg8 40.Rg7#. After 38...Rh1+ 39.Kxh1 e1(Q)+ 40.Kh2, Black would have to sac his queen with 40...Qxe5 41.dxe5, leaving White a rook up. WGM Natalia Pogonina, commentating at chessgames.com, observed, "Anand lost this game after provocative/weak play. Nothing special by Boris. Ok, 4-3 in Gelfand's favor, and now we are looking forward to fighting chess in the remaining 5 rounds."

As Pogonina indicates, there are only five games left in "regulation play." If the match is tied at that time, the tie will be broken by a series of rapid games, then blitz games if necessary, and finally if necessary an "Armageddon" game.

Oh yes, the World Championship

Game 6 in progress: right now, Kasparov and Svidler are discussing Gelfand's and Anand's chances on the live site.

Shipov on Anand-Gelfand

Hard to keep up with the World Championship in Moscow (let alone the U.S. Championship in St. Louis) with so much going on in Chicago!

English translation here (completed games) and here (live game).

The score after three games is 1½-1½: Gelfand has White in Game 4 (Tuesday, 6 a.m. Chicago time).

Anand-Gelfand: Game 1 drawn

Small surprises, but no bombshell: Anand plays 1.d4, Gelfand plays the Grünfeld, Anand plays an obscure sideline, and Gelfand finds the critical equalizing move 14...Ra7!  If anyone had slight winning chances in the final moves, it was Black.

Nigel Short's running video commentary to Game 1 is archived on the official site

 Other free sites with coverage:

The Week in Chess
ChessBase
ChessPro (via Google Translate)

Game 2 begins at 6 a.m. local time Saturday.

"A Couch Potato's Guide to the 2012 World Championship"

GM Ian Rogers previews the World Championship match between Viswanathan Anand of India and Boris Gelfand of Israel.  Play begins this Friday, May 11th, at 6 a.m. Chicago time.

 

Anand and Gelfand earlier today: photo credit: H-W Schmitt for ChessBase

The players checked out the site this morning: see more photos at ChessBase.  Both players have known each other for decades: it's an interesting display of mutual respect that they agreed that no anti-cheating security measures would be needed.

Anand is a 5-1 favorite over Gelfand.  (And George Foreman was a 4-1 favorite over Muhammad Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle.)  Kids, don't disrespect the player who won the last two Interzonals.  (Here's a good trivia question: name all the players who won or tied for first in more than one Interzonal.)

Local angle: our own Tamara Golovey was the first teacher of young Boris. On a couple occasions (World Cup and Candidates Matches), I've called Tamara to congratulate her on her student's win.  It pains me to confess to her that I always root for Vishy in World Championship matches.

Anand-Gelfand match awarded to Moscow

Story in WhyChess.

The hottest player in the world....

...is doubtless Radosław Wojtaszek, who recently finished months of work as a member of Vishy Anand's team.

Chess in Translation continues its serialization of Wojtaszek's comments on the games of the Anand-Topalov match.

human cluster, part two

Great story!  If you're not a Topalov fan, you may even find it heart-warming.

You must read Part One (also linked yesterday) and Part Two (on ChessBase, too).

human cluster

Another Anand interview on ChessBase.

Anand interview

With rediff.com.

Shipov on Game 12

Via Dana Blogs Chess.

World Championship tactics

This position could have occurred in today's game if White had played 41.Rxa8:

Topalov-Anand, game 12 (variation after 41.Rxa8)

Black to play and win

Hint: Black's Christmas list might include eliminating a certain defensive piece, then clearing the way for yet another piece, no matter the cost.

Anish Giri explains at ChessBase.  Interactive board here.

Vishy rules Sofia!

Anand wins!

I was not-so-discreetly checking chesspro.ru on my iPhone during a business meeting today....

Congratulations to Anand, and applause to both players for an entertaining match with minimal intrigue.

(Speaking of which, a certain musical about excessive intrigue at World Championship matches was just nominated for multiple Jeffs...)

World Championship game 12

Going on right now: it's a good one!

Today's winner is World Champion: if it's a draw, tiebreaks on Thursday.