World Championship G10 – An offbeat Sicilian is flavor of the day

by ChessBase
5/24/2012 – With two whites to go, Anand chose 1.e4 as one means to try and keep his opponent off-balance. Gelfand was ready with his Sicilian, and even Vishy's 3.Bb5, and fairly offbeat 5.b3, were replied to nearly instantly. The queens came off by move eleven after which the position remained equal until their handshake at move 25. Illustrated report with GM analysis and videos.

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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 ten – An offbeat Sicilian is flavor of the day


Gelfand arrives first at the board, showing a hunger for play that is fitting


Strike a pose

As in the fifth game, Viswanathan Anand started the tenth game with 1.e4. The opponents once again played the Sicilian Defence, but on the third move the world champion veered away from the Sveshnikov variation, choosing 3.Bb5. Just two moves later Boris Gelfand showed a new plan – 5…e5, which resulted in an interesting position with mutual chances.


The play gets underway


5...e5? Never saw that before... is it good?

Judging by how quickly the moves were made, the Israeli grandmaster had analysed this variation very deeply.


The online coverage by the Russian Federation has been nothing short of stellar. In
Russian they had Sergey Karjakin, Ilya Smirin, and Alexander Grischuk providing commentary.


In English, Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Alexander Morozevich, and Peter Svidler opined.
For game eleven, Kramnik will be the full-time commentator in English. Don't miss it!

Soon the queens were exchanged, the position simplified considerably, but, according to many experts, all three results of the game were still possible. Black’s position was weakened by doubled pawns on the queenside, but he had the two-bishop advantage. New exchanges followed, and the position simplified even further. On move 25 the opponents agreed to a draw.


Vladimir Potkin, Vladimir Below, and Anatoly Karpov gave a simul to talented children

Game ten analysis by GM Romain Edouard


Game ten analysis by Malcolm Pein

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


Rest day reflection by GM Daniel King

Analysis of game ten by GM Daniel King on Playchess


Video commentary by Andrew Martin

 


GM Robert Fontaine and his video producer Gérard Demuydt are in Moscow, producing video reports and interviews after each round for the French chess magazine Europe Echecs. We are grateful to receive the reports very soon after the end of the games, so that we are able to publish them on the same day. It is also great to catch a glimpse of the many interesting personalities that visit the World Championship.

 


Video report by Vijay Kumar for Doordarshan Indian TV Network

 

Pictures by Anastasya Karlovich in Moscow

Video stream of the round (from the official World Championship site)

Once again the Russian organisers are providing unprecedented coverage,
with a HD video stream of the action and commentary by visiting grandmasters.


Scoreboard

 Players
Rtng
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Tot.
Perf.
+/–
 Vishy Anand
2791
½
½
½
½
½
½
0
1
½
½
   
5.0
2727
–9
 Boris Gelfand  
2727
½
½
½
½
½
½
1
0
½
½
   
5.0
2791
+9

Remaining 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.

Fri May 25 Rest day  
Sat May 26 Game 11 Daniel King
Sun May 27 Rest day  
 
Mon May 28 Game 12 Sam Collins
Tues May 29 Rest day  
Wed May 30 Tiebreaks  
Thurs May 31 Closing  

Links

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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