Chess

Anand switched to 1. e4 in Game 5, but it was to no avail, as Boris Gelfand was able to defend carefully in a Sveshnikov Sicilian to secure equality and hold the World Champion to a draw. At one point, computers gave Anand the slight edge, but most human commentators seemed certain that he never had enough to win, as even a full pawn might not have been enough to give him a truly significant advantage.

If you're beginning to get bored with the long string of draws, you're not alone. There have been plenty of complaints about the boring nature of the games, with only one game (the third) having real winning chances for one of the players. But if you're patient, there may be fireworks yet. I don't want to claim to be an expert on match strategy, but it would seem likely to me that Anand didn't switch to 1. e4 out of frustration; after all, he was able to gain something out of the opening in Game 3. It may well be that he's just probing for weaknesses and will try to get a decisive win  with one of his final three white games -- especially if he feels comfortable in his ability to draw as Black. Only time will tell: Game 6 is coming on Friday.

I didn't get a chance to update the blog yesterday, but if you were looking for updates on the World Chess Championship, you haven't missed too much. Today's Game 4 was never in much doubt, as Gelfand struggled to find any way to get an advantage against Anand's Semi-Slav.

Game 3 was a little different. Even if the result was the same, Anand definitely generated winning chances with White, and many analysts think that Anand missed a win in time trouble. That has to be a boon to those who are just waiting for Anand to break through and score in the match, as he has now easily come the closest to doing so thus far.

Wednesday is a rest day; Anand will be back again with the White pieces on Thursday. With the score tied 2-2, we're still looking for the first decisive result. However, this could easily prove to play out like a soccer match where the weaker team is trying to hold on to a draw; if Anand were to score, Gelfand might have to more aggressively fight for winning chances, which could put all three results into play during every game.

Another game, another relatively short draw. This one was slightly longer than in Game 1 -- Gelfand played his 25th move before ending the game -- but there was probably less play in it, with a draw always seeming the most likely result. Anand chose to play the Semi-Slav against 1. d4, and though Gelfand achieved a theoretical advantage, it was hard to call his edge anything but cosmetic. Of course, with the match still in its feeling out stage, the result wasn't too surprising. Some analysis of Game 2 can be found here.

Anand will be back with the White pieces on Monday after a rest day on Sunday. The final position, after White's 25th move:

Long matches -- especially at the World Championship level -- can sometimes begin with short draws as part of a feeling out process. Indeed, the first game of Anand-Gelfand ended in a relatively short draw too, but it was a fighting one, which might be a good sign for the chess to come. Anand played 1. d4 as expected, but Gelfand responded in a somewhat surprising manner by playing the Grunfeld, and even had a little pressure on the current champion for a while. That said, Anand was never in serious danger, and the game eventually petered out to a draw after just 24 moves. The final position:

For a few different takes on the game, check out the ChessBase recap of Game 1. Game 2 -- Gelfand's first opportunity with the white pieces -- will be played on Saturday.

The waiting is over: the World Chess Championship 2012 is ready to begin. In the red corner, we have the reigning champion: Viswanathan Anand. The challenger, of course, is Boris Gelfand, the veteran Super GM who comes into the match as a significant underdog. In terms of rating, it doesn't look like a severe mismatch: Anand's rating is just 64 points higher (2791 vs. 2727). But the fact that Gelfand hasn't been considered one of the main contenders for a World Championship in recent years, combined with Anand's great success in defending his title and Gelfand's low world ranking -- he's currently 22nd on the live ratings list -- have combined to make Anand a heavy favorite in the eyes of most fans.

The opening ceremonies for the match were held on Thursday, with Anand drawing White in the first game (and all other odd numbered games). Games will begin each day at 15:00 local time (7:00 in New York). I'll have updates on the match after every game -- here's looking forward to a great match!

If you're looking for something to watch as you wait for the World Championship to start (and don't worry -- I'll have plenty to say about that over the rest of the week), you should be able to enjoy some great chess by keeping up with the 2012 U.S. Chess Championship. This year, the tournaments are back to a rather simple round-robin format, and the two events both have impressive prize funds. The 12 players in the U.S. Championship will be competing for $160,000 in prizes, while the ten women fighting for the U.S. Women's Championship will split a purse of $64,000. In the Championship, there's also a $64,000 prize for anyone who can duplicate the 11-0 result Bobby Fischer famously put up in the 1963-64 U.S. Championship.

If anyone has a shot at doing that (and in these days where all 12 players are fairly strong grandmasters, that's asking a lot), it would probably be tournament favorite Hikaru Nakamura. Of course, Gata Kamsky will be regarded by most as a co-favorite, and plenty of other talented Americans will have a realistic chance at finishing at the top of the heap in two weeks' time. Meanwhile, IM Anna Zatonskih comes in as both the highest-rated player and the defending champion of the Women's Championship, making her the clear woman to beat in that field.

Here's a rundown of who will be playing in each section:

U.S. Championship

• GM Hikaru Nakamura (2848)
• GM Gata Kamsky (2804)
• GM Alexander Onischuk (2736)
• GM Yasser Seirawan (2723)
• GM Robert Hess (2717)
• GM Varuzhan Akobian (2709)
• GM Alexander Stripunsky (2700)
• GM Ray Robson (2674)
• GM Alejandro Ramirez (2668)
• GM Yury Shulman (2666)
• GM Aleksandr Lenderman (2665)
• GM Gregory Kaidanov (2658)

U.S. Women's Championship

• IM Anna Zatonskih (2563)
• IM Irina Krush (2500)
• WGM Camilla Baginskaite (2419)
• WGM Sabina Foisor (2413)
• WGM Tatev Abrahamyan (2350)
• WIM Viktorija Ni (2349)
• IM Rusudan Goletiani (2337)
• FM Alisa Melekhina (2321)
• WIM Iryna Zenyuk (2329)
• NM Alena Kats (2233)

Here's a roundup of some of the new content on the site you might have missed from the last month:

• A look at Chess: The Musical, perhaps the most famous example of chess in the arts.
• An article on the emerging "hybrid sport" of chessboxing, in which competitors must excel both on the board and in the ring.
• A guide to how team chess works.
• Advice for beginners on how to choose an opening repertoire.
• A list of five key ideas that new players should focus on if they want to improve their chess.
• A look at the US Chess League, the team league that has run for the last seven years and features many of the United States' top players.

If there's anything in particular you'd like to see added to the site in May, please let me know by leaving a message in the comments section of this post!

Part of this is now old news in the world of scholastic chess, but it's worth giving more attention to: the kids of IS 318, a public middle school in Brooklyn, made waves a couple weeks ago when they won the National High School Chess Championship. That's right -- a team comprised of 7th and 8th graders beat the best high school teams from around the country, a feat that made their victory at the Junior High School championships this past weekend somewhat anticlimactic. But IS 318 didn't suffer a letdown, winning the K-9 section at that tournament as well, completing (as far as anyone can tell) an unprecedented scholastic chess double. Congratulations to the kids at IS 318, and their teacher Elizabeth Spiegel, for this incredible accomplishment!

After six exciting chess games -- many featuring openings that we'd never expect to see Vladimir Kramnik or Levon Aronian to play in a competitive situation -- the Zurich Chess Challenge ended in a 3-3 draw. Game six ended in a draw to conclude the match, though Kramnik may have missed a chance to win during time pressure. Perhaps the most exciting game of the match was the third game, in which Aronian sacrificed a queen in exchange for a number of pieces (the variety and value of those pieces fluctuating a couple of times during the game), though it was ultimately in vain, as that game accounted for Kramnik's only win.

Overall, it was an exciting match that gave chess fans plenty of action, even if there were only two decisive games. We can only hope the Candidates tournament for which the two players were preparing will have nearly as much action!

A few days back, I mentioned that Magnus Carlsen would be on the Colbert Report. You can find a video of that interview here. It's actually Carlsen's second recent appearance on American television, following this interview on 60 Minutes.