'I loathe people who keep dogs. They are
cowards who haven't got the guts to bite people
themselves' - August Strindberg
17th May 2012
Game five: drawn in 27 moves
The wait wasn’t long for enthusiasts
expecting the King Pawn Opening from World Champion, Anand.
Playing with white in the fifth game, he
opened with the king pawn for the first time in this game twelve match.
The surprise element as expected was
missing with the Israeli GM too having anticipated this move by Anand.
Gelfand counter surprised Anand by skipping his favourite Petroff Defence
and instead opted for the Sveshnikov Variation of the Sicilian Defence.
Anand was once again not his usual self, and it was another slow and safe
approach by the Indian, who is fighting in the Classical World Championship
format for the third time, having defeated Vladimir Kramnik in 2008 and
Veselin Topalov in 2010 ...
[read
more]
The fourth game of the ongoing World Chess
Championship at the Treyatov Gallery in Moscow was a rather tame affair, in
stark contrast to the lively, exciting and entertaining one played in the
third round yesterday. The eventual outcome, however, was the same as in the
third game – a draw after 34 moves ...
[more]
A well fought, fantastic struggle ended
without much fanfare, the World Champion Viswanathan Anand perhaps playing
it safe in the dying stages of game three of the World Chess Championship to
draw the game against Boris Gelfand.
The position was complex and appeared
promising for the NIIT MindChampion Anand, but experts commenting on the
game could not come to any firm conclusion, and only analysis by chess
engines later should provide more insights into the game.
It was one of those very rare times that
Anand found himself in time trouble, and impending checkmate threath with
both Gelfand’s rooks patrolling his seventh rank, had him settling for a
draw with repetition of moves. The game lasted 37 moves and literally had
the followers on the edge of their seats ...
[full
report with games]
The World Chess
Championship 2012 is being staged in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow,
between the current World Champion Viswanathan Anand of India and the winner
of the Candidates tournament Boris Gelfand of Israel. The match is over
twelve games and lasts from May 11 to 30. The prize fund is US $2.55
million, the winner getting $1.53 million (60%), the loser $1,02 million
(40%).
IM Malcolm Pein reports
In game one of the 2010 WCC final, Anand played the Gruenfeld against Topalov and after 24 moves he
could resign. In 2012, Anand had to face the Gruenfeld in the first game and
after 24 moves, the challenger Boris Gelfand had secured a draw with black
and will be the slightly happier of the two. Gelfand would have been
satisfied with a draw before the game and psychologically speaking, he
struck a small blow by springing a surprise and answering 1.d4 with the
Gruenfeld Defence ... [more]
Cup finals for the Wirral and Chester Leagues 2012
by John Carleton
Chester CC's
venue: The Town Crier
The start of May saw the end of unfinished
business in the form of the K.O. finals in each of the Chester and District
and Wirral Chess Leagues. First up was the match against Wrexham over 6
boards on the 1st May.
The balance of grades on the top 3 boards
saw Wrexham slightly favoured but this was offset by Chester having 2
whites. Chester's slightly greater advantage in grades on the bottom 3
boards was likewise balanced by the colours. In short, the match was too
close to call. The tension was palpable throughout as Cup holders Wrexham
strove to prevent a Chester League and Cup double. It was first blood to
Wrexham when Charles Morris's central control proved decisive against Jeff
Smith ... [...
continue reading]
10th May 2012
The 4NCL Fifth Weekend by John Carleton
Hinckley
Island Hotel
The Atticus team assembled
in a mood of well-founded optimism [contrasting
with the usual baseless over-estimation of our
prospects] after the fine result in the first of
our demotion pool matches. The subsequent
inspirational motivational input carefully
crafted by the Club Management Board also
contributed to the squad reaching close to peak
condition.
Assembled is perhaps a loose
description as the team were spread over the
bank-holiday hit motorway network until quite
close to the start of the first match of the
weekend against Cambridge University 2. We could
draw parallels with last season where we needed
two wins from the three matches to be confident
of promotion as this year we felt two wins from
three matches would maintain our elevated status
in division 2 ... [continue
reading]
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