I'm amazed how Anand went through this match!
Maybe he was the only one in the whole world that never underestimated Gelfand. Not even for a minute. ..And this...while all spoke how Gelfand was not so good to take the chess crown from Anand! Amazing!..
Anand almost never smiled.. I never saw him so serious. He went for 'rapid' fluently, intentionally...knowing he was definitely better at the time management. And this was the only Gelfand's weakness, for sure. And the only one that Anand was sure of.
While Gelfand had it all - better opening preparation (two new openings with black - one for 1.d4 and another for 1.e4), perfect concentration, tactical abilities, great experience in winning matches (all the candidates) and strong motivation for winning this match..
Meanwhile, Anand's seconds made their job, too.. Only once, but still enough.. They prepared Vishy in the opening for his only win in the 'rapid' - the win that won the title!
Btw, may I say that I'm not a special Vishy fan?! 

akita wrote on 05/30/12 at 13:37:25:


In any case it would surely be surprising for someone who is 43 years old to hold on to the title for much longer.

gwnn wrote on 05/30/12 at 14:40:24:


I was pretty close, voted for Anand by 1, which it was, but in the tie-breaks...

I rooted for Gelfand, since he is a FC Barcelona fan, even a club member!

TalJechin wrote on 05/30/12 at 12:58:23:


I agree 100%

Frankly, the tiebreak wasn't all that well played, but still more interesting than the rest of the match.

Maybe a snooker or tennis format could be the way in the future? Many rapids would be more telling than 12-14 long games.

Fischer-Tal, 

Per your point, I think the hand ringing about the "boringness" of this world championship is taking place entirely among chess players. To the outside world, chess remains an equal parts fascinating and yet inaccessible contest. And the content of the game is largely irrelevant to them. Whether there are dashing combinational finishes, intricate positional struggles or dull grandmaster draws has no bearing. Let's be real, the only thing that would make a difference to the outside world is the presence or absence of larger than life, controversial or charismatic personalities or insular interests as in the case of interest in Anand on the sub-continent.

And while we hate the idea of a rapid play tie-break, it probably actually adds to the intrigue of the whole contest to the casual observer, as will the prospect of an Armageddon finish. It is clear that the interest of the ardent chess fan and the outside world are not aligned. And this illustrates the absurdity of continually making changes to chess to make it more exciting and popular with John Public