Impressions on Game 10, Anand-Gelfand world championship match, Moscow 2012.
Before the game Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam in the commentary box pointed out some interesting statistics. Five out of seven Game 10s in previous world championship matches had seen White triumph. This pattern, delightful as it was to Anand fans, did not endure.
Anand had white, his penultimate turn with the colour. Once again he switched openings, selecting the king-pawn. Gelfand replied with a Sicilian, doubtless intending another Sveshnikov Variation.
Anand instead opted for the Rossolimo Attack, named after the Russian-Greek-French-American grandmaster Nikolai Rossolimo. Despite its fearsome name, the variation, which involves an early outing with the white bishop merely avoids the hyper-analyzed lines of the main Sicilian repertoire, preferring a positional treatment of the situation. Bobby Fischer favoured this variation during his 1992 "rematch" with Boris Spassky winning some fine games with it.
According to his Grandmaster Peter Svidler, Anand was aiming at a position which was not "clickable" i.e crunched to discrete solutions by software machines. The game after all should not become a competition between software engines and who is the better engine operator. The choice could also be a seen as a pragmatic admission, a concession to Gelfand's preparation which has been outstanding so far.
As it turned out, the Israeli challenger was very well prepare even for this offbeat line. As early as the fifth move, Gelfand showed his hand. He came up with a superb novelty, moving his king pawn to e5. The pawn had advanced just a couple of moves earlier and now it proudly marched again, straight into a square menaced by the white knight. Gelfand played this instantly and resumed his trademark strolling around the stage.The idea was not to land a hay-maker but take the game into very specific, pre-analyzed channels. Anand had wanted a slow buildup, resulting in a middle-game that would have some "juice". At least that was the plan, but Gelfand short-circuited it with this novelty.
The world champion had to take the proffered pawn if he was to have any chance of an advantage but it was clear that Gelfand was playing down a line which had been thoroughly 'scrubbed' by computers. The resulting position, sans queens, was quite sterile. Anand declined Gelfand's offer for peace, but had to accept the inevitable a few moves later.
