Another draw for Anand

Gelfand fails to break through Indians defence

World champion Viswanathan Anand played out his fourth draw in the World Chess Championship match against Boris Gelfand of Israel as the deadlock continued in the prestigious contest, here on Tuesday.

Playing black for the second time in the match, Anand continued his faith in the Slav defense and yet again did not have much difficulty equalising.

It was similar to the second game where Anand had gone for a surprise fifth move. The world champion adopted the same pattern, emphasising that it was not an opening gamble he had gone for in his first game as black.

The fact that Anand went for something new and that Gelfand could not find any way to break through is a good sign for the defending champion but as Anand himself mentioned, “I can’t tell you much about what was around unless I have a deeper look at it.”

The five-time champion was referring to a question in the post-match conference whether Gelfand could have done better.

There were some striking similarities to the second game as Gelfand found a way to win a pawn and it seemed secure for sometime.  The first real move again came from Anand when he went for the development of his rook on his 16th turn and by move 21 it was a perfect balance with level material on board. Gelfand fought to gain advantage but Anand nullified all his attempts with some perfect manoeuvres.

Gelfand made it clear with his 26th move that he was satisfied with a draw as the Israeli went for trading of queens, signalling his peaceful intentions. Soon after, Anand pushed his pawns on the queenside to a safer square away from the glare of Gelfand’s bishop and on move 34, the draw was agreed to.

Eight games still remain in the battle for the biggest crown in world chess and also for the prize fund of USD 2.55 million out of which 60 percent is reserved for the winner. With every game Anand gives the impression that he is pushing, equalising easily as black and pushing for something, except in game one, as white.

In the third game the Indian ace was tentalisingly close to a victory, something that might have given a big advantage in a short match like this.

The moves: Gelfand, B (2727) - Anand, V (2791):  1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Nf3 a6 6.b3 Bb4 7.Bd2 Nbd7 8.Bd3 0–0 9.0–0 Bd6 10.Qc2 e5 11.cxd5 cxd5 12.e4 exd4 13.Nxd5 Nxd5 14.exd5 Nf6 15.h3 Bd7  16.Rad1 Re8  17.Nxd4 Rc8 18.Qb1 h6  19.Nf5 Bxf5  20.Bxf5 Rc5  21.Rfe1 Rxd5  22.Bc3 Rxe1+ 23.Rxe1 Bc5  24.Qc2 Bd4 25.Bxd4 Rxd4 26.Qc8 g6 27.Bg4 h5  28.Qxd8+ Rxd8  29.Bf3 b6 30.Rc1 Rd6 31.Kf1 a5  32.Ke2 Nd5 33.g3 Ne7 34.Be4 Kg7. Game drawn.