Smyslov_Fan wrote on 05/12/12 at 17:07:32:


Riazantsev had been getting great positions in this variation, but Anand improved with 14.-Nf6!.

IMJohnCox wrote on 05/12/12 at 23:00:28:


ICC commentary on other events before this have usually said Anand looked jaded, no inspiration etc. which is fair comment if you look at the last year. I find it hard to agree with those who say he is saving up all the good stuff for a World Ch match. Don't think you can switch it off and on like that so easy.

Why am I only one of the few who voted for the choice that Gelfand will win?

I thought David Smerdon was interesting on ICC today; advancing the case that the match starting with (say) four draws would favour Gelfand.

Actually the ICC commentators generally make Anand a much less strong favourite than I would, possibly because they need to make the thing sound interesting. Yermo and Seirawan the other day were making it sound like Vishy's lost interest in the game and was ready to retire when he could find a convenient opponent to lose his title to, which isn't my impression.

The first game was surely plausibly eventful? It just happened to burn itself out. 

Going by the comments from the post game interview on Twic and what Short was saying on the live commentary it wasn't totally trivial today. Just an attempt for white to get a slight edge to work with which got neutralised by some precise play.

It happens Gelfand does seem very commendably calm, which is definetly a promising sign for him.

Above someone asked about other sites with coverage: I signed up for the coverage at The Chess Mind.  It's $12 for the match, and you get a video + pgn + pdf after each game.  Well worth it.

Comfortable draw for Vishy - doubt if he ever left preparation !!

TalJechin wrote on 05/10/12 at 10:42:55:

Whoa. I believe this is a myth. I believe Shirov did get a firm match offer but that Shirov rejected it. Shirov demanded a richer purse for the loser. Shirov's demand was rejected by Kasparov, and when Shirov continued to insist on his demand, the impass ended Shirov's opportunity to challenge.

By the time another offer came along (from Brain Games?), Shirov's status as the rightful challenger had grown a bit stale and decayed partly by the couple years of time that had passed since Shirov won the challengers' match, and partly because Shirov had earlier rejected Kasparov's firm offer of a title match for Shirov.

Anand was next offered the title match, but declined due to his commitments to Kirsan/FIDE to stay in the FIDE bubble. So Kramnik was next offered.

History shows that Kramnik was a very worthy opponent to be challenger for the WCChamp title against the greatest chess player ever.

Financially, $650,000 was the total purse offered to Kasparov and Shirov. Kasparov want the winner/loser split to be $450,000/$200,000 (I think). Shirov demanded that the loser's share be more than $200,000 (not the best display of sporting confidence).

Shirov wrote about this to the public on Mig Greengard's blog website several years ago.

// Not the link I was searching for, but this link does graze the Shirov match issue.
http://www.chessninja.com/dailydirt/2008/05/kamsky-shirovtopalov-match.htm#comme...