Svidler Leads Gelfand in Rapid Match
The Second Annual Gideon Japhet Memorial Open Chess Tournament in Jerusalem, Israel also features an 8-game rapid match between Super GMs Boris Gelfand and Peter Svidler.
The grandmasters play two rapid games per day, and at the halfway point, Svidler leads the top Israeli by a score of 2.5-1.5.
The two players are right next to each other on the classical rating list (Gelfand 13, Svidler 14), but in the rapid ratings, Svidler holds a clear advantage. In June's FIDE World Rapid Championship, Svidler finished tied for a respectable 6th; Gelfand did not play.
Svidler's most prominent memory of past trips to Israel was the time he nearly won it all (in blitz!):
"...perhaps the closest to a world championship title. I was basically one move away from being world blitz champion. I decided to do something very pretty instead of doing something very simple and lost the Armageddon game to Alexander Grischuk in 2006."
The players recalled meeting each other in 1989 -- Gelfand was playing an event while Svidler was attending a training session. Since then, they estimate playing each other about 60 times in all time controls.
Both games were drawn on Sunday. Game one was quite entertaining, even by rapid chess standards. "If only I could remember my preparation, then my preparation would be better than Boris's!" Svidler said of this sharp line.
When asked after these two games who is now the favorite, Svidler said, "judging by today, it's going to be a complete crapshoot. All bets are off if we continue playing like this."
Yesterday games three and four were played. Svidler broke through by winning with Black. Though he is best known for being an aficionado of the Grunfeld, he scrapped both that and the Dutch in favor of the King's Indian Defense. "The Dutch is a very fascinating opening, but playing it against people that know what they are doing is less fun than most people think," Svidler said.
We also learned after the game that Svidler is tired of answering questions about his weight loss, and Gelfand has taken up ping-pong to replace his love of tennis (although he can still play on clay courts).
"I prefer almost anything to (chess) training, that's my major problem as a chess player," Svidler said. "I'm a huge specialist on the subject of proper TV to watch."
Game four ended drawn, thus preserving Svidler's lead into today's rest day.
Games five and six will be Wednesday, while games seven and eight will conclude the match Thursday.
The tournament is being held in honor of chess fan Gideon Japhet, who died last year. His son, Gilad, is the main organizer.
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Mike Klein began playing chess at the age of four in Charlotte, NC. In 1986, he lost to Josh Waitzkin at the National Championship featured in the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer." A year later, Mike became the youngest member of the very first All-America Chess Team, and was on the team a total of eight times. In 1988, he won the K-3 National Championship, and eventually became North Carolina's youngest-ever master. In 1996, he won clear first for under-2250 players in the top section of the World Open. Mike has taught chess full-time for a dozen years in New York City and Charlotte, with his students and teams winning many national championships. He now works at Chess.com as a Senior Journalist and at ChessKid.com as the Chief Chess Officer. In 2012, 2015, and 2018, he was awarded Chess Journalist of the Year by the Chess Journalists of America. He has also previously won other awards from the CJA such as Best Tournament Report, and also several writing awards for mainstream newspapers. His chess writing and personal travels have now brought him to 99 countries.
