Anand vs. Gelfand WCC 2012 started

[Guenther]

Why 18.a3 is a novelty?Yes in depth 16,17 is a novelty but in Strelka depth 22 18.h4 is the best move

Do you know the meaning of 'novelty'? And what has Strelka to do with all of this?

[Strelkaman]

Yes i know the meaning of Novelty.In game 3 Gelfand's move e4 was indeed a novelty+best move because both houdini and Strelka rated as the best move at depth 22.A novelty is a prototype move outside the well known opening theory that has been established until the present of the novelty move.But with the logic that everything is a novelty doesn't mean that everything is the best move also.I wrote about Strelka because i analyze the position with Strelka

[AdminX]

[Event "World Chess Championship Match"]
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "2012.05.17"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Anand, Viswanathan"]
[Black "Gelfand, Boris"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "B33"]
[WhiteElo "2791"]
[BlackElo "2727"]
[Annotator "Robot 3"]
[PlyCount "48"]
[EventDate "2012.??.??"]
[EventCountry "RUS"]
[TimeControl "40/7200+30:20/3600+30:900+30"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8.
Na3 b5 9. Nd5 Be7 10. Bxf6 Bxf6 11. c4 b4 12. Nc2 O-O 13. g3 a5 14. Bg2 Bg5 15.
O-O Be6 16. Qd3 Bxd5 17. cxd5 Nb8 18. a3 Na6 19. axb4 Nxb4 20. Nxb4 axb4 21. h4
Bh6 22. Bh3 Qb6 23. Bd7 b3 24. Bc6 Ra2 *

[d]5rk1/5ppp/1qBp3b/3Pp3/4P2P/1p1Q2P1/rP3P2/R4RK1 w - - 0 25

[Strelkaman]

Houdini evaluates now 3 lines 23.Bd7(depth 30) 23.Bg4(depth 28) 23.Qc2(depth 25).Strelka 5.5 thinks 23.Qc4 as the best move(200m.positions/depth 24) Anand plays 23.Bd7 and now i think he lost his little initiative

[AdminX]

[Event "World Chess Championship Match"]
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "2012.05.17"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Anand, Viswanathan"]
[Black "Gelfand, Boris"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B33"]
[WhiteElo "2791"]
[BlackElo "2727"]
[Annotator "Robot 3"]
[PlyCount "53"]
[EventDate "2012.??.??"]
[EventCountry "RUS"]
[TimeControl "40/7200+30:20/3600+30:900+30"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8.
Na3 b5 9. Nd5 Be7 10. Bxf6 Bxf6 11. c4 b4 12. Nc2 O-O 13. g3 a5 14. Bg2 Bg5 15.
O-O Be6 16. Qd3 Bxd5 17. cxd5 Nb8 18. a3 Na6 19. axb4 Nxb4 20. Nxb4 axb4 21. h4
Bh6 22. Bh3 Qb6 23. Bd7 b3 24. Bc6 Ra2 25. Rxa2 bxa2 26. Qa3 Rb8 27. Qxa2
1/2-1/2

[d]1r4k1/5ppp/1qBp3b/3Pp3/4P2P/6P1/QP3P2/5RK1 b - - 0 27

[JuLieN]

1/2-1/2

Thanks for the posts, Ted.

Shall we even bother commenting this result? The players just don't care for the spectators.

[rbarreira]

1/2-1/2

Thanks for the posts, Ted.

Shall we even bother commenting this result? The players just don't care for the spectators.

Let's see if we have any nice translators today

[Guenther]

Maybe disappointing for the spectators, but I am impressed how well Gelfand seems to be prepared!
It will be a tough nut to crack for Anand when most expected an 'easy' match win for Anand.

Guenther

[JuLieN]

1/2-1/2

Thanks for the posts, Ted.

Shall we even bother commenting this result? The players just don't care for the spectators.

Let's see if we have any nice translators today

Yes we do

Am I the only one under the impression that the players looks very uncomfortable today?

BTw, I have an idea to motivate them. Right now, whatever they do, they'll get a lot of money. If one of them was to forfeit all his games he would still get 40% of the total prize. ($1.53 millions for the winner, $1.02 millions for the loser, which is not a motivating difference enough....) The idea would be: right, the total price is worth $2.55 millions and 12 games are planned: let's make a won game give $212,500, and a draw or a loss would give $0. 12 draws = $0 for both. And if they complain to the rule, there's an easy answer: "why do you even bother to come compete if you think you have no chance?"

EDIT: alternative idea: giving the winner of each game s/x of the money (s= total left sum, and x = number of remaining games).

[tomgdrums]

1/2-1/2

Thanks for the posts, Ted.

Shall we even bother commenting this result? The players just don't care for the spectators.

The candidates tournament from last year was much the same.

Only three of the games were decisive! It is interesting to note that of those three decisive games Gelfand won 2 of them.

So Anand can not afford a mistake or Gelfand will make him pay.

It is hard to root against either one of these players. It would be nice to have a decisive game at some point. I noticed Anand was taking a bit more time to think (at least from what I saw) then Gelfand.

At some point someone is going to have to take a bit of a risk. Another thing to note is that as the draws pile up the tension will probably increase as each player will NOT want to be the first one to crack. Could create some interesting tension.

Edit:

I will say it does kind of make me miss Topalov!