Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand retained the World Chess Championships title, his fifth crown and fourth in a row, after beating Israel’s Boris Gelfand in a tense rapid game tie-breaker.
Anand beat Gelfand 2.5-1.5 in rapid chess tie-breaker at the Tretyakov Gallery here after the two Grandmasters ended the 12-game championship match with a 6-6 stalemate.
The first game of the tie-breaker ended in a draw in 33 moves before Anand beat Gelfand in the second game in 77 moves. The two of the remaining four-game rapid chess tie-breaker ended in a draw as Anand successfully defended his world championship title for the third time in a row.
This was 42-year-old Anand’s fifth World Championships title and fourth crown in a row. The Indian chess wizard bagged his first world title in 2000 before winning three in a row in 2007, 2008 and 2010. He has been the world champion since 2007.
Anand will pocket approximately USD 1.4 million — 55 per cent of the total prize fund of USD 2.55 million — while Gelfand will get the remaining amount.
The Indian ace won the 2007 crown in a tournament format among eight players. In 2008 and 2010, he beat Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria respectively after the format changed to championship match between the defending champion and a challenger.
Related posts:
- Chess World C’ship: Anand to play white in fifth game
- Anand’s last chance before tiebreak
- Anand stretched to tiebreaker by Gelfand
- Ronjan Sodhi creates history defending his World title
- Abhijeet Chaddha won the title of NIAGC
- It’s time to experiment for Ronjan as Olympic year begins
- World hockey series to begin from December 15
- Indian women move to final in Archery World Cup in Italy
- Dev Anand honoured by British actors union
- Ronjan Sodhi on top in double trap world rankings
