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Viswanathan Anand will start with white in the game against Boris Gelfand
It is time for the opening moves in Moscow. World champion Viswanathan Anand will play with white in the opening game on Friday against challenger Boris Gelfand of Israel in the 12-game match for the 2012 World Chess Championship. Anand drew white in the opening ceremony at Moscow's Tretyakov Art Gallery on Thursday.
Anand, having widened his repertoire since 2008, is likely to stick to his Queen-pawn opening with white against Boris Gelfand of Israel unless, of course, he has found some chinks in his rival's armour. Anand has almost the same team of seconds -- trusted Peter Heine Nielsen of Denmark, Radoslav Wojtasek of Poland, Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan and Surya Sekhar Ganguly of India -- and even if he has to try something new it is quite unlikely that the World champion would unravel it at the start. Basically, he can draw from the reserves of his earlier preparation.
"It always helps you when you work with the same set of people for long. We have been working with each other for quite sometime and we have respect for each other. This team has worked for me," Anand had said of his seconds after his last match.
While Anand has a record of changing track in his openings (from e4 to d4), Gelfand belongs to the old Soviet school which does not believe in the idea of change for surprises. With white, he has invariably played the Queen-pawn opening against Anand. The last time they met in 2011, it was a Queen's Gambit Declined and in 2009 there was a Catalan -- both were drawn.
Thus, it is to be expected that when Gelfand has white, he would either play the Queen's Gambit Declined, Catalan or Slav defence, indicating that Anand would prefer solid systems to ensure a draw. "I think Anand would be happy to get draws with black against Gelfand and try to win with white," said Chennai-based Grandmaster RB Ramesh.
Curiously, Gelfand last beat Anand in a classical game with white in 1993. Having said that, it is not right to say Gelfand will play only Queen-pawn openings. The Israeli had used the King-pawn opening to win a game in the Candidates tournament against Anatoly Karpov in 1995.
Anand has employed all kinds of openings against Gelfand since 2007 in blitz, blindfold and rapid formats. So it is difficult to harbour a guess as to what the Indian would do when he has white.
The last time when they met in the World championship (tournament) in 2007, Anand drew against Petroff with white. And the last Anand win against Gelfand came in 2006 in Wijk aan Zee with a Najdorf Sicilian. Interestingly, Gelfand says he has found some weakness in Anand's games. "Yes, I have discovered weaknesses in his game, but I will not discuss them. The way to beat Anand is perfect preparation, form and a will to fight. And some luck to get the right kind of opening on the board."
Gelfand's team on paper has his trusted second Alexander Huzman, who moved to Israel from Soviet Union in 1992, and Maxim Rodshtein.
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