MOSCOW, May 29:
Defending champion Viswanathan Anand will have to fight it out in Rapid chess tiebreaker against challenger Boris Gelfand after a tied 6-6 result in the World Chess Championship match here tomorrow.
To start with, there will be four games under rapid chess rules with 25 minutes to each player and a ten seconds increment after every move is made.
In case of a 2-2 result, the two will play two blitz games with five minutes each with a three seconds increment.
There will be five such matches if the tie persists and finally an Armageddon game will be played with five minutes to white and four to black and white will be forced to win should this arise.
The tie-breaker is likely to see a high-tension drama which has been so far amiss from this world championship, which produced just two decisive games apart from ten draws.
Playing his third match since winning the world title in a tournament format in 2007, this has been the least absorbing contest in world championship matches for Anand.
In 2008, the Indian ace had won three out of four decisive games against Russian Vladimir Kramnik while in 2010 against Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, Anand had won three out of five decisive games to stake his claim for the world title.
It’s not only the decisive games but also the intensity in terms of prolonging a serious battle. Out of the ten draws, seven were under move thirty which goes to prove that the players are arriving at nowhere-to-go positions fairly quickly.
Totally in 12 games, the average numbers of moves have been less than thirty which is way below the last two matches.
Against Kramnik, Anand played 390 moves in all in 11 games averaging over 35 moves a game while against Topalov it was substantially higher at over 60 moves per game in 12 games lasting 627 moves.
This year only 351 moves have been played thus far in 12-classical games. (PTI )
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