Anand will be challenged by …

Anand will be challenged by Gelfand
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
http://kazan2011.fide.com

Israeli Boris Gelfand won the last, sixth game of FIDE Candidates Matches final in Kazan against Russian Alexander Grischuk and became challenger for the World Champion Viswanathan Anand from India. In an extremely good performance Grischuk stopped his clock after move 35 and four hours playing.

In the press conference immediately after the game Gelfand said he was lucky when his opponent chose variation in Gruenfeld, which was very familiar for him. With novelty in move 13 white really surprised Russian GM and after move 16 the clocks depicted a very unusual picture: black had spent exactly one hour more than white: Gelfand – 9 minutes, Grischuk – 1 hour and 9 minutes.

Normally it means, that white knows almost everything about the position, black has a lot of problems. But Griscuk played rook a5, starting to attack the white king. For him it was clear that there is the only way to look for the contra play. This very original maneuver pushed Gelfand in deep thinking for 47 minutes. Grischuk almost equalized the time, but few moves later, he was once more in troubles, having exactly half of the opponent’s time: white 1.02 hour, black 31 minutes.

Grischuk decided to continue his attack but this time Gelfand was not surprised. He answered after a few seconds. The game became extremely sharp and dramatic. Black offered a sacrifice of exchange, but this would be too dangerous and white simply continued his pressure. In that moment, his strategy became more clear. Better pawn structure and a pawn up for black was absolutely not a good compensation for strong white pieces.

Further more, Grischuk due to a very hard position, was not able to escape from the time troubles. For the third time white had double more time than black: in move 24 Gelfand 28 minutes, Grischuk 14. It would be a miracle if Grischukl could have survived in such a difficult position. This time it was not possible. Move by move Gelfand got closer to win and in a completely lost position Grischuk congratulated the new challenger. It was a real great game for the Israeli GM who made his biggest success in his career.