Who will win - Anand or Gelfand?

There's a high probability that gelfand may opt for 1.e4 tomorrow. Although time'll only tell the truth

christiansoldier thnx 4 d recap of the game

Strange that Anand went for the non critical 8.Bb5+  against the Gruenfeld, he must have expected Gelfand to play it at some point. If thats really all he has in the exchange variation Gelfand can draw every game in that line.

What does a statement like this even mean?  We're not talking about your Uncle Ernie.  We're talking about the world champion.  He knows more about the Exchange Grunfeld than most people know about anything.

Just wondering how Magnus is not the one playing for the Championship?

What's his reason for not showing up? He is ranked world #1 and is expected to be World Champion sometime. What is he waiting for?

Quite enjoyed today's match & Gelfand will be pleased. Like the ''underdog'' hence am rooting for him though do agree on a good day Anand is better-player. The slight question mark is Anand has not been playing his best for a while now & will he come good when it counts ?

There should be little discussion of Carlsen here. This match is between Gelfand & Anand by right & Carlsen irrelevant in this title-fight. His time is still to come.

Not purely that. I do admire Gelfand's play & he is best in the world at certain systems/openings. Anand has more flair & greater repertoire.

Also Anand has perfect temperament to be champion & could remain there for some time as did Kasparov.

Is the time control in this match the FIDE standard 40/90m+30s, G/30m+30s?

Clear-information here :

http://moscow2012.fide.com/en/

Well todays game started such standard QG stuff by Anand yet by accepting doubled-pawns on c-file was very impressed by Gelfands lines.

Thanks a lot, buddy.

Anand.

Is Magnus Carlsen the best? Why? Because he is world no: 1? If that is the case, why world no:2 or no:3 is not the challenger, but world no: 20?

(I hope world no:2 & no: 3 turned up for the qualification matches )

Anyone please tell me Anand's statistics against Carlsen and Gelfand. Thanks.

This has been discussed to great detail before, but Carlsen did originally turn up for the qualification and won the first event. Among the players that refused to turn up were Topalov and Kramnik, who didn't want to qualify from the same starting point as Carlsen and Aronian.

Then FIDE changed the rules so Topalov and Kramnik were given Candidates spots without qualifying, as they had demanded, and the longer final match was substituted with a knockout of the sort Khalifman and Kasimdzhanov had won in the past. The players that were most positive about this change were of course those that were given a spot they otherwise wouldn't have had. Aronian won all his Grand Prix tournaments, but the only reward he got was one spot of eight, together with players that had refused to play the qualification.

So Carlsen withdrew, the knockout produced another sensation, and here we are.

Anand has looked much weaker the last years than in 2007-08, the last one and a half year I think Vallejo is the only 2700 opponent he has beaten, and his Elo performance has been below top ten level. Whatever happens here the winner of the next Candidates will be the big favourite in the title match, especially considering that the next Candidates will be a double round robin and not another of those blitz tiebreak minimatch events.

Vishy may have passed his peak, but I don't think that Gelfand can beat Vishy yet.

Anand is tactical genius! It is difficult for Gelfand to outcalculate him!!