World Championship G4 – Gelfand unable to dent Anand's Semi-Slav

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%).

Round four: Gelfand unable to dent Anand's Semi-Slav

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.

Boris Gelfand and Vishy Anand before the start of game four: Well, let me see...

... why don't I just play 1.d4 as in game two?

1...d5 – will he, won't he go for the Semi-Slav again?

He went for it, and is playing super-fast. What to do, he has everything covered...

Ahhh, he starts to think. Have I got him out of book?!

He is thinking. Maybe Baris get him out of the book?!

Anand opted for the Slav defence and the game was a positional one, where the challenger Boris Gelfand could hardly get initiative despite pressing. When quizzed at the press conference on whether he had an edge because of the bishop pair, Gelfand responded: ”Optically White was better, but the pieces lacked co-ordination”. Anand, commenting on the draw quipped ‘The match is just developing and at this point we are just probing.” The Indian was also quick to add: "The ending today became a bit interesting”

The scores are still level at 2.0-2.0 after four games of the twelve-game match. Wednesday is a rest day and the fifth game will be played on Thursday, 17th May, when Anand will have the White pieces

Press Release by Team Anand at NIIT, photos by WGM Anastasya Karlovich

Game four: commentary by GM Romain Edouard

GM Romain Edouard, 21 years old, learnt to play chess at the age of five. He played his first national youth championship at ten, became a FIDE Master at 16, an IM at 17, and a GM at 18. Romain won the French and European U16 Championships in 2006, came second in the U18 section in European and World Championships in 2007, and came second in the French Championship 2010 (shared first on points with Laurent Fressinet). He has been a member of the French national team since 2009 (except in 2011). He won several international open tournaments: Bad Wiessee 2008, Zaragoza 2008, Echternach 2009, Andorra 2009, Hastings 2010, Echternach 2010, Clermont-Ferrand 2011, etc. as well as closed tournaments: Grand Prix de Bordeaux 2007, Antwerp 2011, Nancy 2012. Romain delivers his analyses of the World Championship in Moscow minutes after the games have ended, something we greatly appreciate.

Game four: commentary by IM Malcolm Pein

IM Malcolm Pein comments on the games on TWIC and live during each game via Twitter #telegraphchess.

Analysis of game four by GM Daniel King on Playchess

GM Danny King's analysis in his daily wrap-up show

IM Andrew Martin analyzes game four

GM Robert Fontaine and his video producer Gérard Demuydt are in Moscow produced video reports and interviews after each round for the French chess magazine Europe Echecs. In the round four report we see a bit of Moscow, the arrival of players, a résumé of the game, the press conference, and an interview with Dorit Golender, the Israeli Ambassador to Russia.

Scoreboard

Schedule

Days of play, with live commentators on Playchess.com. Note that the games start at 15:00h local time = 13:00 CEST, 07 a.m. New York or here in your location.

Links Official web site of the World Championship match All ChessBase reports on the World Championship All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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