World Chess Championship Round 11 - The stalemate continues

Gelfand in deep thoughts after Anand’s 8th move

Event:World Championship 2012 – Game 10 of 12

Game: Boris Gelfand (ISR) vs. Viswanathan Anand (IND)

Location: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Date: 26^th May 2012

Game 11 saw the return of Nimzo Indian defence, but it did provide its share of excitement, when, at move 8^th , V Anand stunned his opponent with a rare move. The game began with the standard moves, B Gelfand opting for the queen’s pawn opening and Anand deciding to go for the Nimzo Indian defence again. He had played the same variation in the 9^th game of the tournament which ended in a draw after as many as 49 moves. 1. d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4

Gelfand continued with the Rubinstein which is the most common response to the Nimzo Indian defence and the game continued on the standard route for the next few moves 4.e3 O-O 5.Bd3 d5 6.Nf3 c5 7.O-O dxc4 8.Bxc4. It is worth noting that these were the exact moves made by both the players in game 9. But on the 8^th move, Anand decided to go away from the normal and played 8…Bd7. The move was somewhat unexpected by Gelfand and he was completely taken by surprise. The hopes of a positive response from the game increased manifolds when Gelfand took more than 45 minutes analyzing the situation after the 8^th move.

Finally, Gelfand responded with 9.a3 attacking the bishop on b4. Anand could have exchanged the bishop with the knight at this stage; however, he opted not to go for it and instead moved the bishop to 9…Ba5. Anand however went ahead with the exchange a few moves later 10.Qe2 Bc6 11.Rd1 Bxc3 12.bxc3 Nbd7. When asked about this move in the post-match analysis he responded “There are a lot of subtleties in the position after the opening, I delayed the knight capture for a move as I thought it was right to do it now.”

Gelfand moved Bishop in order to make way for his pawn to be moved forward in case of a threat which came immediately as Anand placed his Queen attacking the pawn 13.Bd3 Qa5 14.c4 cxd4 15.exd4 Qh5 16.Bf4 Rac8.

At this point, Gelfand played 17.Ne5 putting the Queens in front of each other and happily willing for the exchange. Anand obliged with 17…Qxe2 18.Bxe2. This was followed with an exchange of the knights further simplifying the position 18…Nxe5 19.Bxe5. Gelfand had his rooks and pair of Bishops while Anand had his rooks, a bishop and a knight.

The focus of the game now shifted to the pawns at the centre with 19…Rfd8 20.a4 Ne4. The idea must be to move the knight to c3. However, the same was thwarted with 21.Rd3. Anand attacked the bishop at e5 by moving 21…f6 and forcing Gelfand to move the bishop 22.Bf4. 22…Be8 was designed to attack the pawn on the c flank and was tackled by Gelfand with a counter attack to the pawn at b7 23.Rb3 Rxd4 24.Be3 Rd7.

Anand offered a draw after the 24^th move after watching that the game was headed nowhere and both the players agreed to a draw. This brings the tournament down to the last game which will be played on Monday 28^th of May with both the players currently tied at 5.5 points each. Anand will enter the game with only a slight advantage of having the opportunity to play white. In case the last game also ends up in a draw, the tournament would proceed to a tie breaker round which, if required, is to be played on the 30^th of May.

Game 11 Details:

Nimzo Indian Defence: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 O-O 5.Bd3 d5 6.Nf3 c5 7.O-O dxc4 8.Bxc4 Bd7 9.a3 Ba5 10.Qe2 Bc6 11.Rd1 Bxc3 12.bxc3 Nbd7 13.Bd3 Qa5 14.c4 cxd4 15.exd4 Qh5 16.Bf4 Rac8 17.Ne5 Qxe2 18.Bxe2 Nxe5 19.Bxe5 Rfd8 20.a4 Ne4 21.Rd3 f6 22.Bf4 Be8 23.Rb3 Rxd4 24.Be3 Rd7 ½ – ½.