Impressions on Game 9, Anand-Gelfand world championship match, Moscow 2012.
It is a rule of the thumb that you change openings after a loss. Viswanathan Anand didn't surprise anyone when he opted for the Nimzo-Indian Defence. A long time favourite of his to face the queen-pawn, it had to be deployed after Gelfand had managed to grind down the Slav in Game 7.
But it soon looked like the world champ was all at sea. His decision to trade away his bishops was unanimously condemned. A dangerous attack on his king was in the offing. At this point, Anand set a clever conceptual trap. He decided to offer the possibility that his queen could be taken, in return for a rook and knight. Gelfand could simply decline to grab it, and continue his build-up, with an idea to blast through the enemy defences. But as it turned out, this offer was too tempting to pass up. Captain Hindsight would say that snaffling the queen threw away a possible win. As commentator Grandmaster Shipov said, Gelfand had sold his gold watch for a rouble.
Anand soon got down to the serious business of fortress construction. This is a special art, where pieces and pawns working together form an impregnable position. Like any good fortress, a chain of mutually reinforcing posts had to be set up. Anand arranged his rook, knight and pawns in a defensive array, all supported by the energetic black king.
Gelfand working on the principle that a chain is as strong as its weakest link, began aiming for the pawns that supported the rook and knight. Was there a way of using his own pawns to storm the ramparts and then use the ensuing confusion to range into the enemy camp with his queen? In such a situation, it was well on the cards that the besieged castle might fall. Anand however was very alert to these possibilities and dropped back to a new configuration of forces. His king was denuded of pawns but it didn't matter - Gelfand could make no headway. Rather reluctantly, the Israeli challenger agreed to a draw. A chance - a rare chance - had been lost.
