Friday 25 May 2012

2012 World Championship - Two players share the lead

I had wanted to write the above headline a couple of days ago,but Gelfand spoiled it by beating Anand in Game 7. Fortunately Anand was able to level the scores in the next game, but it isn't as funny a joke as if we had got to this point with only drawn games to show.
But 4-4 is now 5-5, which at least means we will be seeing the full 12 games. In terms of position (to borrow a Poker phrase), Gelfand has an advantage in playing White in the next game. It gives him a marginally better chance of victory, and a lead going into the final game. In fact I think Gelfand has to win Game 11 to have any chance of winning the match, as I suspect we may see a repeat of Anand - Topalov if the match is tied at 5.5. While Anand has been in this situation a couple of times, seeing the World Championship Title within his grasp may provoke a brain explosion from Gelfand.
As for games 9&10 they were interesting in a way, without being enthralling. Game 9 saw a Q v R+N ending which was defended fairly easily by Anand, while an interesting opening in Game 10 quickly petered out to a draw.
BTW If you want another take on this match (without it being too different from my own piece of poetry from a few days back), check out David Smerdon's column at Chessvibes. Even the comments are interesting, if a little combative.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"In fact I think Gelfand has to win Game 11 to have any chance of winning the match, as I suspect we may see a repeat of Anand - Topalov if the match is tied at 5.5. While Anand has been in this situation a couple of times, seeing the World Championship Title within his grasp may provoke a brain explosion from Gelfand."

Gelfand has a good track record and I think his chances in the tiebreak are close to 50%. More importantly, I think he gives himself 50%, so he won't self-destruct like Topalov in my opinion.