World Chess Championship

A few years ago, I spent a lot of time playing chess against my computer.  After awhile, I decided that no matter what else was going on, I would look to exchange queens as quickly as possible.  Any time my queen tried to do anything, she was almost immediately captured.  Today, when Boris Gelfand, the challenger, was playing black and trying to defend a 4-3 lead in the match, he would have been well-advised to heed my example.

The champion, Viswanathan Anand, opened with the usual P-Q4 and Gelfand responded with the same opening two moves he had used in games 1 and 3.

1. P-Q4  N-KB3
2. P-QB4  P-KB3

At this point, it looked like another Gruenfeld defense, but instead Gelfand went with a King's Indian Defense:

3. P-KB3  P-QB4
4. P-Q5  P-Q3
5. P-K4  B-N2

The basic idea is to concede the middle of the board to white's pawns, but to allow black strong counter-attacking positions against white's pawn structure.  This is known as "hyper-modern" chess, and it has been popular at the highest levels since the 1930's.  The main difference between the King's Indian Defense and the Gruenfeld Defense is that the King's Indian Defense allows for more offense on both sides.  Evidently Gelfand -- already up a point -- had decided to play aggressively.

6.  N-K2  O-O
7.  KN-B3  N-R4
8.  B-KN5  B-B3
9.  B x B  P x B
10.  Q-Q2  P-KB4
11.  P x P  B x P
12.  P-KN4  R-K1(ch)
13.  K-Q1  B x N
14.  R x B

Now at this point, the game seemed pretty much even.  Black had lost two bishops and a pawn, while white had lost a pawn, a bishop, and a knight.  Black's knight on KR4 was threatened by a pawn, and the computer in the official match broadcast expects black to play N-N2, a safe retreating move.  But Gelfand thought he had spotted something.  If he could get his queen to KB6, she would check the white king (on Q8) and would also threaten the white rook on KR8.  And white pawn at KB6 was undefended!  He decided to go for it, not realizing that it would lead to one of the most humiliating defeats in the history of the World Championship.

14.  . . . . .   Q-B3
15.  P x N  Q x P (ch)


OK, so now he's sacrificed his knight, but he's taken the pawn and now threatens both white's king and white's rook.  Apparently the live commentators thought it was a brilliant move and that Gelfand was on his way to another victory.  But it's all a trap.

16.  K-B2  Q x R???
17.  Q-B2!!!   resigns

Suddenly Gelfand's queen is trapped in the corner.  If she moves at all, white will capture her.  The computer suggests 17. . . . N-B3, which exchanges a knight for a pawn but allows the black queen to escape.  But as explained in this very good video, even that move leaves black in a pretty hopeless position, as white's knight will end up strongly placed on Q5.

As you can see from the great pictures on this link, Anand pretty much knew the game was over once he trapped Gelfand's queen, and Gelfand eventually realized that he had no choice but to resign.  It was simply a total disaster -- the shortest decisive game ever played in the history of the World Chess Championship.

Tomorrow is an off day, and it will be interesting to see how Gelfand reacts to this defeat.  I would suggest exchange queens as soon as possible.

SCORE AFTER EIGHT MATCHES:

Anand (IND) 4 - 4 Gelfand (ISR)