No breakthrough yet in world chess championship
The fourth game in the world chess championship between Indian GM Viswanathan Anand and Israeli GM Boris Gelfand also ended in a draw at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow on Tuesday.
The series is now tied 2-2. After a day’s rest, the fifth game with Anand holding white pieces will be played on Thursday.
On Tuesday, both the GMs repeated the first nine moves from their second game, where Anand played Slav defence against Gelfand’s queen pawn opening.
After rattling off the initial moves in quick time, Gelfand played a queen move instead of the actual rook move on the 10th turn to alter the course of the game.
However, nothing much changed for Gelfand including the eventual result. The Israeli GM had to contend with a draw despite holding a bishop pair compared to India GMs knight and a bishop.
“I had a slight edge, but my pieces were not coordinated well to make use of it,” said Gelfand in the post-game press conference. He added that at the end of the day, Anand managed to balance the game.
Gelfand offered the draw before making his 35th move and Anand accepted it immediately.
“The endgame slightly became interesting. Maybe I should have been a little specific in my moves,’ said Anand, adding that the world championship series is just developing. “It has been four draws so far and I am still probing,” he added.
While the championship is yet to see a decisive result, the spectators had a visual treat when an interesting position occurred on the board.
During moves 16, 17 and 18, all squares on the queen file were occupied by pieces and pawns. While Anand noted that it was reasonably common to find such a position on board, Gelfand was excited.
He said it was a marvel especially to reach such a position in a game played inside an art gallery.
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