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Boris Gelfand is challenger for World Championship |
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Wednesday, 25 May 2011 18:55 |
World Champion Vishy Anand will be challenged by GM Boris Gelfand!
Israeli, Boris Gelfand won the sixth and last game of the final match in the FIDE Candidates Matches in Kazan against top Russian GM Alexander Grischuk and hence become challenger to the World Champion Viswanathan Anand of India. This match will take place in the first half of 2012.
In and extremely good performance by Gelfand, Grischuk stopped his clock after move 35 and four hours of play.
In the press conference immediately after the game, GM Boris Gelfand stated that he was somewhat "lucky" when his opponent chose a variation in the Gruenfeld Deence which was very familiar for him. With a novelty on move 13, white really surprised the Russian GM and after move 16 the clocks showed a very unusual picture: black had spent exactly one hour more than white: Gelfand 9 minutes, Grischuk 1 hour and 9 minutes.
Normally, this means that white was well acquainted with the postion, whereas black was heaidng for a lot of problems. But like a bolt from the blue Grischuk played the rook to a5, starting to attack the white king. For him it was clear that the only way was to look for counter attack in the difficult position he had. This very original manoeuvre pushed Geldand into deep thought for 47 minutes. Grischuk almost equalized on time , but a few moves later he was once again in trouble, having exactly one half of the opponent's time: white 1.02 hour, black 31 minutes.
He decided to continue his attack but this time Gelfand was not surprised. He answered after a few seconds. The game become extremely sharp and dramatic. Black offered a sacrifice of the exchange, but this would have been too dangerous and white continued his pressure. At that moment his strategy became more clear. Better pawn structure and pawn up for black was absolutely not good enough compensation for the strong white pieces.
Furthermore, Grischuk due to very difficult position was not able to escape from time trouble. For the third time, white had double more time than black: on move 24 Gelfand 28 minites, Grischuk 14.
It would have been a miracle if Grischuk could have survived in such a difficult position. This time it was not possible. Move by move, Gelfand was closer to the critical win and in a completely lost position Grischuk congratulated the new challanger. A real great game for the Israeli GM who made his biggest success so far in his career.
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