King Anand retains his crown

CHESS: A KNIGHT’S TOUR

Successful chess players are often esteemed with titles, trophies, money and rating points for their efforts. But no honor can compare to being crowned the World Chess Champion, the King of Chess.

Every few years, though, the Champion must prove his worth by putting his title on the line. He must defend against the Challenger, a supergrandmaster who has successfully emerged from elimination competitions where he had to overcome the rest of the world’s best players. For the past several weeks in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, that dramatic clash between Champion and Challenger has occupied center stage of the chess world. World Champion Viswanathan of India has confronted an extremely well-prepared and determined Challenger, Boris Gelfand of Israel.

Anand, a national hero in India, became his country’s first Grandmaster just 24 years ago. He first won the International Chess Federation World Championship in 2000, but that title was in dispute. In 2007, he won the undisputed title. In 2008, he defended his crown against Vladimir Kramnik, the person who had convincingly taken the title from Garry Kasparov. He succeeded in defending his crown once more against another former Champion Veselin Topalov.

Gelfand, a former World Junior Champion, has been one of the world’s top GMs for over two decades. He has won more than two dozen tournaments. In the 2007 Championship that Anand won, Gelfand tied for second. To become challenger, he had to survive the 2011 Candidates tournament where he even overcame America’s hope U.S. Champion Gata Kamsky, a former World Champion Challenger himself. Former title challenger David Bronstein once pointed out that “To play a match for the World Championship is the cherished dream of every chess player.” The only thing remaining was for Gelfand was to win that confrontation.

For the first half of the 12game match, neither side could manage to use the first-move advantage of the white pieces to score a point; all games were drawn. In game seven, Gelfand broke through, leaving Anand in title trouble. Then, right away, almost incomprehensibly, the Challenger mentally short-circuited, falling into a quick and rather silly queen trap. Four more draws ensued and the match was drawn. To break the tie, four Rapid Chess games were played in which each side had less than a half-hour to make all their moves. Known for his speedy play earlier in his career, Anand was favored, and that proved correct. He won the second game while drawing the others.

The title is not the only reward received by the Champion. He was given $1.38 million for winning. Gelfand’s near-miss did enrich him by $1.15 million. Aged champion

At 42, Anand is now one of the oldest chess players in the world’s top-100. Amusingly, he is one year younger than the challenger he just defeated.