After Viswanathan Anand evened up the scores in Game 8, many pointed to Game 11 as potentially being the critical game of the match. It would be Boris Gelfand's last chance to score a win with White, and since Gelfand hadn't exactly been shooting for winning chances with Black, it was also likely to be his final shot at winning a game in the standard portion of the match.

In the end, though, Gelfand never got much in Game 11, settling for a draw after just 24 moves. Although Anand had gotten into some minor trouble in Game 9, he stuck with the Nimzo-Indian Defense, and this time never gave Gelfand a significant advantage. Certainly, there were points where Gelfand could have introduced a small amount of risk into the proceedings in order to play for the win, but that hasn't been his style. The most interesting part of the game came after Anand's eighth move, when Gelfand thought for the better part of an hour before moving! It was surprising, though perhaps Gelfand was pondering the best way to both gain some winning chances without taking any chances.

Game 12 -- with Anand taking White -- will be played on Monday. If that game should end in a draw, then the two will be forced to play rapid tiebreaks, which could degenerate into blitz tiebreaks and even an Armageddon game should the tie fail to be broken. Let's hope it doesn't get quite that far. If tiebreaks are necessary, I'll be sure to run through exactly what they'd entail in my next post.

Game 10 of the 2012 World Chess Championship ended in a rather quick draw, as Viswanathan Anand's attempt to move back to 1. e4 failed to surprise challenger Boris Gelfand. Even a couple of offbeat opening moves were answered instantly, and even early on, it seemed apparent that a draw was by far the most likely result. After 25 moves, Anand offered a draw, which Gelfand was happy to accept.

With ten games in the books, the match is now deadlocked at 5-5. In what amounts to a two-game match, it's hard to give anyone much of an edge; after all, even if you still believe Anand is the stronger player (as I do), it's not by very much - certainly, not enough to give him an appreciable advantage over just two games. Where Anand's biggest edge might lie is in the tiebreaks in the case of a drawn match; Anand is a renowned rapid and blitz player, and would likely be considered a solid favorite at that point.

That makes the next game all the more important. After a rest day on Friday, Gelfand will take White in Game 11 on Saturday. That might be Gelfand's best remaining chance to win the match, as a win would force Anand to win the final game on Monday in order to force a tiebreak.

Game 9 of the 2012 World Chess Championship saw Boris Gelfand take the white pieces and once against start by playing d4. Anand chose this time to go into the Nimzo-Indian defense, but faced some strong pressure from Gelfand. This eventually turned into a material imbalance, as Gelfand won Anand's queen in exchange for a rook, pawn and knight. Most humans and computers agreed that Gelfand was better, but he could never come up with a winning plan, as Anand was able to build a fortress position and hold the draw after 49 hard-fought moves.

That leaves us with just three games remaining in a match that's tied at 4.5-4.5. Depending on who you ask, either player could have the advantage now; most people would side with Anand, who has two White games remaining, though some have pointed out that it suddenly seems like Gelfand is generating more winning chances than Anand, especially if you consider Game 8 more a loss by Gelfand than a result of spectacular play by the current champion. I tend to side with those who see Anand as the favorite at this point, but both of the next two games are critical: a win by Anand in Game 10 would put enormous pressure on the challenger, while Game 11 will mark Gelfand's final opportunity to push an edge with White.

If Boris Gelfand had any momentum after winning Game 7 of the World Chess Championship, it's all gone now. In a King's Indian Defense, Gelfand made a tactical error that resulted in getting his queen trapped, causing him to resign on the 17th move. Gelfand missed a knight sacrifice that he could have played rather than resigning, but it was very difficult to find, and the resulting position was either dead lost or close to it anyway.

What a strange twist to what is quickly becoming a fascinating World Championship! With the match again tied 4-4 and just four games to play, the onus will now be on Gelfand to show that he can recover from today's terrible loss. I'll be sure to make another post with analysis later today.