FIDE World Chess Championship Match - Round 8

Anand equalises the score

The eighth game of the match began exactly like the third one, which was the only game where Boris Gelfand was on the verge of defeat but still managed to survive.There’s no surprise that as soon as on move 3 Black moved away from the previous games. A pawn structure appeared on the board that is typical of Saemisch system of the King’s Indian, but there was a significant difference in the position of the pieces: both white knights were on the queenside. Trying to use this circumstance, Black decided to go for complications on the kingside, thus provoking Viswanathan Anand to push forward the g-pawn, which would weaken his king’s position. The world champion picked up the gauntlet and sharp play started where the opponents had to calculate a great number of lines. Gelfand miscalculated one of them: as he admitted, when making his move 14…Qf6, he hadn’t noticed the reply 17.Qf2!, after which Black’s position immediately became hopeless. Since he failed to find a defence against large material losses or a mate attack, the challenger resigned.

Anand regained the balance: after 8 games the score is 4-4. Tomorrow, on 22 May, the opponents have a rest day. The ninth game will be played on Wednesday, 23 May. Gelfand will play White.