Tiebreak time!
After 12 games at classical time controls, Gelfand and Anand are all square at six games a piece. The tiebreaks kick off in a little over two hours: four rapid games, followed by (if necessary) blitz matches and potentially even an ‘Armageddon’ blitz finish. And in a few hours’ time, we’ll have a World Chess Champion.
Usually I and the chess world at large feel a little sad at the end of a WCC match – after all, these spectacles don’t come around that often – but not this time. As readers will have gathered from my previous post, I’ve found this match underwhelming, to say the least, and my co-commentators and most other grandmasters agree. My post received a fair bit of attention on ChessVibes and on the Internet Chess Club, with opinions being thrown around on both sides of the board as to whether it was fair to criticise the match, and this has of course been a hot topic through the ChessFM commentary of the games.
Whether that has to do with the topic itself or, more likely, because there’s really not much to say about the games themselves, is another question. With the exception of Gelfand’s sole win (and, to a lesser extent, Gelfand’s sole blunder), this match hasn’t had a smidgen of excitement. The only times I’ve even raised my eyebrows has been when these two players have (repeatedly) agreed to draws in positions with plenty of play left for both sides. And this isn’t just my opinion – Kramnik’s “I see no reason why white should take a draw here” at the end of the 11th game crystallised what we were all thinking.
My only explanation for the ease of which both players are happy to repeatedly sign the scoresheets is that perhaps it was both Anand and Gelfand’s match strategy to take things to tiebreaks. I can understand the logic here to some extent. Gelfand is up against arguably the best classical match player in the world at the moment, so by definition, moving the match to shorter time controls must be beneficial – and he is quite a good rapid player himself. On Anand’s side, it’s clear his opening preparation has been less than World Champion standard to say the least, so the rapid games, where his openings don’t have to be watertight and the result hinges more on over-the-board ingenuity, should suit him best. Furthermore, Gelfand’s arguably more prone to unexpected blunders, the chances of which obviously increase under the pressure of the clock.
So I guess this goes some way to explaining the short draws to date. But it’s a risky strategy on both sides: Anand, the favourite, has allowed the title to be decided now with a factor of randomness, while if Gelfand doesn’t win, he’ll surely rue not having pressed a little harder in the couple of games where he had an edge but was happy not to test Anand’s defences.
While the quality has been surely lacking in this match, at the end of the day it’s still a World Championship, and we still get to experience the drama of tiebreaks, so I remain optimistic that chess fans will get some redemption in a few hours. Contrary to the popular opinion in the press, I think Gelfand’s a much better shot in the rapid games than people give him credit for – in fact, I’d wager his chances at around 45%. His mental state coming into this game has been very impressive, if a little unambitious, and his preparation has been superior. If he can hold off the gross blunders, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Gelfand ate dinner tonight as the new World Chess Champion.