Gelfand-Anand G4, another Chebanenko Slav, drawn after 34 moves (VIDEO)

The fourth match game between Boris Gelfand behind the white pieces and Vishy Anand behind the black pieces was drawn after 34 moves. Again the World Champion from India defended himself with a Chebanenko Semi-Slav and again he got equality with Black quite easily. The score is 2-2 with eight more games to play.

Four games, four draws in Moscow | Photos © Anastasia Karlovich & Alexey Yushenkov

The 2012 World Championship match still hasn't seen a decisive game. Now that the fourth game ended in a draw as well, on Thursday a World Championship match starts that will last only eight games. Obviously it's too early to speculate, but some journalists have already been joking about the nightmare scenario of twelve draws, when a rapid and blitz tiebreak will have to decide this match...

Like in the second game, a Chebanenko/Meran came on the board. Gelfand deviated at move 10 but Anand had clearly expected the move and continued playing fast. In fact it was theory until 16.Rad1, which created some sort of 'Babylon tower' (with the whole d-file filled with pieces), as Sergey Shipov called it.

A few moves later White 'won' the bishop pair, which made commentator Jan Timman believe that White must have a tangible advantage. However, not long afterwards the position had become dry and just like in the second game, the advantage of white's bishop against black's knight wasn't serious enough for Gelfand to continue playing.

Here's our video report, which includes some more observations by the legendary Dutch GM Jan Timman:

[Event "WCh 2012"]
[Site "Moscow RUS"]
[Date "2012.05.15"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Gelfand, B."]
[Black "Anand, V."]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "D45"]
[WhiteElo "2739"]
[BlackElo "2799"]
[Annotator "Doe,John"]
[PlyCount "68"]
[EventDate "2012.05.11"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Nf3 a6 6. b3 Bb4 7. Bd2 Nbd7 8. Bd3
O-O 9. O-O Bd6 10. Qc2 (10. Rc1 e5 11. cxd5 cxd5 12. e4 dxe4 13. Nxe4 Nxe4 14.
Bxe4 Nf6 15. dxe5 Nxe4 16. exd6 Qxd6 17. Be3 Bf5 {was the first match game.})
10... e5 11. cxd5 cxd5 12. e4 exd4 13. Nxd5 Nxd5 14. exd5 Nf6 15. h3 Bd7 16.
Rad1 {A prophylactic move which also makes Qb1 possible (after Rc8) and
White's rooks will continue to be connected. Besides, as Gelfand showed during
the press conference, he liked the fact that the whole d-file is now filled
with pieces!} Re8 {A new move.} (16... Rc8 17. Qb1 Rc5 18. Bg5 {Levin,
E-Martynov,P/St. Petersburg 2012}) 17. Nxd4 ({Viorel Bologan suggested} 17. Qc4
$5) ({and Jan Timman} 17. Qb2 $5 {both with the idea to take on d4 with the
queen.}) 17... Rc8 18. Qb1 h6 19. Nf5 Bxf5 20. Bxf5 {Jan Timman had the
feeling that White must have an advantage here, and that the next couple of
moves by Gelfand must somehow be slightly inaccurate because the position will
be equal soon. According to Gelfand, the white pieces lacked coordination; if
he could put his bishop from f5 to f3 in one move he would agree with Timman's
verdict.} Rc5 21. Rfe1 Rxd5 22. Bc3 Rxe1+ 23. Rxe1 Bc5 24. Qc2 (24. Bxf6 gxf6 (
24... Qxf6 $4 25. Re8+ Bf8 26. Bh7+ Kh8 27. Rxf8#) 25. Qe4 Rd2 26. Qg4+ Kf8 {
is nothing for White.}) 24... Bd4 ({Anand felt that} 24... Qb6 {might have
been even more accurate.}) 25. Bxd4 Rxd4 26. Qc8 g6 27. Bg4 h5 28. Qxd8+ Rxd8
29. Bf3 b6 30. Rc1 Rd6 31. Kf1 a5 32. Ke2 ({At the press conference the
players looked at} 32. Rc6 $5 Rxc6 33. Bxc6 Kf8 34. Ke2 Ke7 35. Kd3 Kd6 36. Bb5
Kc5 37. Bc4 Nd5) 32... Nd5 33. g3 Ne7 34. Be4 Kg7 1/2-1/2

Match score