Anand-Gelfand: 12th match game drawn, tiebreak on Wednesday (VIDEO)

The 12th match game between Vishy Anand and Boris Gelfand ended in a draw, which means the match will be decided on Wednesday with a rapid/blitz tiebreak. Today the opening was another Rossolimo Sicilian and although Anand started ambitiously with an early push of the h-pawn, yet again the game reached an ending quickly and at move 22 the World Champion offered a draw.

Heading for a tiebreak: Vishy Anand and Boris Gelfand | Photos by Anastasia Karlovich & Alexey Yushenkov

The 12th match game in Moscow didn't go quite as we predicted, but it did end in a draw rather quickly and so we can all prepare ourselves (take off a day from work or school?) for a tiebreak on Wednesday, in which both excitement and a decisive result are guaranteed.

By looking at the first few moves, many fans felt that the World Champion had come to the Tretyakov Gallery to win his game. He repeated his Rossolimo of game 10 against the Sicilian, but with a slight change. Again, Gelfand had to use a lot of time on the clock, just like the day before.

An early h2-h4 by Anand, which involved a pawn sacrifice, looked especially aggressive. Everyone, including commentator of the day (on the official website) Vladimir Kramnik, was looking forward to a great fight.

However, Gelfand's long thoughts resulted in a number of excellent defensive moves. Where his opponent had given him a pawn, he responded by giving back two pawns! This led to an ending with an extra pawn for the Indian, and the bishop pair for the Israeli. The question was whether this provided enough compensation.

And then, all of a sudden Anand offered a draw, and it was all over.

What is this? Really confusing.

was Kramnik's reaction in the commentary booth.

I can only have one explanation: [Anand] just couldn't stand the pressure of the last game. It is not a good sign for Anand fans, at least for today: he cannot hold the pressure. It is one of the strangest decisions I ever saw in the World Championship matches.

At the press conference Anand used some general terms to explain why White doesn't have much in the final position. When a journalist asked if they could elaborate a bit more, Gelfand's answer was:

We are here to play the match, we are not here to entertain spectators. We don’t have to play out the moves; commentators can explain that.

Anand said, more general about the whole match:

We really had a tense struggle and agreed to a draw only when we understood that a game wasn’t going anywhere.

Here's our video report of game 12, which includes some comments by Peter Svidler and a remark by Boris Gelfand about Dutch football!

A lot of reasons have been given for how the match has progressed: the number of games (only 12), the influence of computers, the cautious approach by the players, et cetera. One thing is for sure: a lot of fans and also a number of top players are disappointed about this match. At least they'll be treated with a nice dessert on Wednesday, just like in the match between Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov five and a half years ago.

Tiebreak
At 12:00 local time (10:00 CET), a 4-game rapid match starts. There has already been a drawing of colors, and it is Boris Gelfand who will start with White. The players get 25 minutes on the clock and 10 seconds increment per move. Whoever scores 2.5 or more in the rapid games, wins the match overall.

In case of 2-2, after a new drawing of colors a match of two blitz games follows, with 5 minutes plus 3 seconds increment on the clock. In case of a level score, another 2-game match will be played. If still there is no winner after five such matches (a total of ten games), a sudden-death game will be played.

The player who wins the drawing of lots may choose the color. The player with the white pieces receives 5 minutes, the player with the black pieces 4 minutes with an increment of 3 seconds per move, from move 61. In case of a draw the player with the black pieces is declared the winner.

[Event "WCh 2012"]
[Site "Moscow RUS"]
[Date "2012.05.28"]
[Round "12"]
[White "Anand, V."]
[Black "Gelfand, B."]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B30"]
[WhiteElo "2799"]
[BlackElo "2739"]
[Annotator "Doe,John"]
[PlyCount "43"]
[EventDate "2012.05.11"]

1. e4 {Perhaps slightly surprising. Some experts had expected 1.d4.} c5 2. Nf3
Nc6 3. Bb5 {Again no Sveshnikov but another Rossolimo instead.} e6 4. Bxc6 bxc6
5. d3 ({Apperently Gelfand's new concept against} 5. b3 {still stands:} e5 6.
Nxe5 Qe7 7. Bb2 d6 8. Nc4 d5 9. Ne3 d4 10. Nc4 Qxe4+ 11. Qe2 Qxe2+ 12. Kxe2 Be6
{Anand,V (2791)-Gelfand,B (2727)/Moscow RUS (10) 2012}) 5... Ne7 6. b3 {A
subtle variation on the same theme as in game 10. Here Gelfand thought for
about 20 minutes. There are several setups and move-orders to consider.} ({
Alternatives are} 6. Qe2 Ng6 7. h4 h5 8. e5 f6 9. Qe4 Kf7 10. Na3 d5 11. exd6
Qxd6 12. Nc4 Qd5 13. Ne3 Qxe4 14. dxe4 e5 15. g3 {Topalov,V (2739)-Shirov,A
(2715)/Monte Carlo 2002 and also}) (6. O-O Ng6 7. Ng5 f6 8. Nh3 d5 9. Qh5 Bd6
10. f4 O-O 11. c4 dxc4 12. dxc4 e5 13. f5 Nf4 14. Nxf4 exf4 15. Nc3 Rb8 16. Qe2
Qc7 17. b3 g5 {Bologan,V (2686)-Shirov,A (2741)/Poikovsky 2008}) 6... d6 $146 {
A novelty in this position.} ({After} 6... d5 {White can play in Nimzo-Indian
style with Nc3. Ba3 and Na4, targeting the c5 pawn.}) (6... Ng6 7. e5 f6 8. Bb2
Be7 9. O-O O-O 10. Nbd2 fxe5 11. Nxe5 Nxe5 12. Bxe5 d6 13. Bg3 e5 14. f4 exf4
15. Rxf4 Bf6 16. Rb1 Be6 17. Ne4 Bd4+ 18. Kh1 d5 19. Rxf8+ Qxf8 20. Ng5 Bd7 {
Salinnikov,D (2401)-Brodsky,M (2532)/Voronezh 2005}) 7. e5 Ng6 8. h4 $5 {
Quickly played, showing that Anand prepared this idea, and that he was really
going for it!} Nxe5 9. Nxe5 dxe5 10. Nd2 c4 $5 {Immediately giving back the
pawn. Gelfand spent another 20 minutes on this move and had 59 minutes left to
reach move 40. A risky strategy, according to Vladimir Kramnik: "It's a
complicated position and it will stay complicated for a while. You don't know
when the crisis will come, in five moves from now or later." The ex-World
Champion didn't really understand the text move.} 11. Nxc4 {Played after 19
minutes, leaving 1 hour and 36 until 40.} (11. bxc4) 11... Ba6 {After another
six minutes.} ({Kramnik was also looking at} 11... Bb4+ 12. Bd2 Bxd2+ 13. Qxd2
{and then} Ba6) 12. Qf3 (12. Bb2 {is not really attractive because of} Bxc4 13.
bxc4 {and now either} Qa5+ ({or} 13... Rb8 {look fine for Black.})) 12... Qd5
13. Qxd5 {Anand goes for an ending a pawn up, but Black will have excellent
compensation. Kramnik was very surprised about this decision.} ({After} 13. Qg3
{Anand probably didn't like} Bxc4 14. bxc4 Qa5+ (14... Bb4+ $2 15. Ke2 $1) 15.
Bd2 Bb4) 13... cxd5 14. Nxe5 f6 15. Nf3 e5 16. O-O Kf7 17. c4 {Gelfand had 45
minutes left here; Anand 1 hour and 15.} Be7 {Interestingly, Peter Svidler
thought that White might still be a bit better here while Vladimir Kramnik
thought that Gelfand might decline a draw offer at this moment.} 18. Be3 Bb7 {
37 minutes left.} 19. cxd5 {After about 8 minutes.} Bxd5 20. Rfc1 a5 $5 (20...
Rhc8 {would "almost force a draw by force" (Kramnik).}) 21. Bc5 (21. Rc7 Rhc8
22. Rac1 Rxc7 23. Rxc7 Ke6 24. Nd2 a4) 21... Rhd8 22. Bxe7 ({Kramnik was very
much surprised that Anand offered a draw in this position. "After} 22. Bxe7
Kxe7 23. Rc7+ Rd7 24. Rac1 {there is absolutely zero risk for White and Black
is still a pawn down." The time on the clock was 56 minutes for Anand and
almost a bit less than 17 minutes for Gelfand to reach move 40.}) 1/2-1/2

Match score