Anand draws sixth consecutive game in Tal Memorial
Hari Hara Nandanan, TNN | Nov 22, 2011, 09.29PM IST
The World champion’s sixth game was against Vassily Ivanchuk and there was no difference to the pattern.
Viswanathan Anand never bothered to look beyond the draw against the Ukrainian in the Tal chess tournament in Moscow and got it easily with black on Tuesday.
Though Anand cannot be blamed for taking the logical result of the given position after his opponents also took him along those lines, his followers were certainly disillusioned because he has not tried to win a single game so far.
The positive side of the draws is that Anand is the world champion in all formats and he cannot be beaten; the flipside is that Anand cannot beat anyone and so how can he be world champion?
The world champion employed the Gruenfeld, one of his most trusted systems with black against Ivanchuk in the sixth round. Well analysed lines surfaces on the board and by the time Anand forced the exchange of queens on move 25, the end was in sight, though the game at no stage looked more than a draw. Four moves later, the rooks got exchanged and the position came down to a knight ending with six pawns with identical structures.
The kings made an attempt to march towards the opposite camp but at one point both of them had to repeat moves. Anand and Ivanchuk remained in second position with three points each after the 36-move draw.
The leaders also did not fare any better as Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia and Sergey Karjakin of Russia split the point in 40 moves of Nimzo-Indian defence to keep their pole position with 3.5 points each. Later, Levon Aronian of Armenia too kept his share in the lead with a 40-move draw in Gruenfeld defence against Boris Gelfand of Israel.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
1)There’s parity at the top nowadays.
2)Top players now take a very businesslike practical approach, what Garry K more or less derisively described as stock exchange chess. Basically analyzing tournament situations “coldly,” not wearing yourself out by going all-out for a full point all the time, not revealing your serious prep with a match coming up. Not the swashbuckling approach of bygone days, battling to the death in every game.
Anand will beat Gelfand in 6 games.
Anand is just going through the motions. Don’t expect anything else from Anand till after the 2012 title match. I expect him to uncork some surprises & novelties there.
Hey ! Ivanchuk-Anand was not a Grunfeld, mas a very drawish Lasker Defence of the QGD.