India Defeat Israel In World Championship Match Warm-Up

An Indian team defeated their Israeli counterparts in a curtain raiser for the World Chess Championship which starts on 10th May in Moscow.

The friendly match in New Delhi pitted four players each from the home countries of the world championship match opponents Vishy Anand (India) and Boris Gelfand (Israel) against one another, with the Indians running out clear winners by a score of 29½-18½.

The match, sponsored by the Airport Authority of India, took place from 2-4 April in a Scheveningen format, with blindfold, rapid and blitz games being played.  The time control for the blindfold and rapid games was 25 minutes plus 10 second increment; the blitz games were 3 minutes plus 2 second increment.

The Indian team was headed by Krishnan Sasikiran, the Indian #2 ranked player after world champion Vishy Anand. Current Indian Champion Abhijeet Gupta, B Adhiban and G N Gopal completed the Indian team line up.

Israel were led by Illya Smirin along with Tal Baron, Vitaly Golod and Gil Popliski.

The opening of the match in New Delhi

All the games are available for replay at the official website here.

Tal Baron and GN Gopal during their blindfold game

Pictures from the official match website here and the official blog of the Delhi Chess Association.