After gaining his title in 2007 and defending it successfully against two players of his own generation in 2008 match against Kramnik and 2010 match against Topalov, Viswanathan Anand was awaiting a new challenger in 2012.
After the 2010 cycle, FIDE decided to change the qualifying format once again. Instead of the World cup followed by a final challenger match, an eight-player Candidates tournament, held in the form of the knock-out matches, was introduced.
A number of players and associations protested against the new format. The world number two (and the future World Champion) Magnus Carlsen even withdrew from the tournament (and was replaced by Grischuk). In the official letter to FIDE, he stated that:
„Reigning champion privileges, the long (five year) span of the cycle, changes made during the cycle resulting in a new format (Candidates) that no World Champion has had to go through since Kasparov, puzzling ranking criteria, as well as the shallow ceaseless match-after-match concept, are all less than satisfactory in my opinion.“
(Source: Chessbase: Magnus Carlsen drops out of World Championship Cycle)
The other participants were determined on the basis on the several criteria:
- Loser of the World Chess Championship 2010
- Winner of the World Cup 2009
- First three prize winners in the Grand Prix Series 2008-2010
- Two best rated players (based on average of July 2009 and January 2010 ratings)
- Tournament organizer wild card
Despite Carlsen’s absence, the tournament was held as planned. Boris Gelfand, the number four seed, emerged as a somewhat surprising winner after beating Veselin Topalov, Gata Kamsky and Alexander Grischuk, respectively. Thus, he gained the right to challenge Anand in a match for the World Title.
The Anand – Gelfand match took place between the 10th and 30th May of 2012 in Moscow, Russia. The same format from the previous matches was retained: 12 classical games were played with the traditional time control, with the potential blitz/rapid tiebreak in the event of the tie.
Despite being one of the „oldest“ World Championship matches in the history (both players have crossed the 40 year age barrier), the match was extremely close and hard fought. By employing Grünfeld defence and Sicilian Sveshnikov with the Black pieces, Gelfand neutralized Anand’s White pieces rather effectively. On the other hand, with the White pieces, he kept probing Anand’s customary Semi-Slav Meran Defence After series of six draws, he managed to open his account with a win in the game seven.
The turning point happened in the 8th game. Anand switched to the sharp 3 f3 system against the Grünfeld. Gelfand answered with the somewhat rare 3… c5 move. He quickly miscalculated a tactical trick, got his queen trapped as early as move 17 and was forced to resign. This game was the shortest lost in the history of the World Chess Championship.
After the eight-game, a series of four draws followed. Once again after Kramnik – Topalov, a rapid tiebreak ensued. Anand probably had nothing against such a turn of events, as he has always been considered as a very strong player with the faster time controls.
And indeed, the rapid tiebreak was dominated by Anand. After winning the second rapid game (game 14 overall), he won the match and retained his title.
Despite losing by a very narrow margin, Gelfand remained a true gentleman. Even though he felt he wasn’t inferior in the course of the match, he congratulated Anand. He also revealed that he declined the help of Garry Kasparov before the match because Kasparov was Anand’s helper in his previous match against Kramnik.
A true class act.
SOURCES
Wikipedia: World Chess Championship 2012
Magnus Carlsen drops out of World Championship Cycle
ChessVibes: Boris Gelfand Interview – Part 1
ChessVibes: Boris Gelfand Interview – Part 2