Anand strikes back to level in World chess

Moscow: Defending champion Viswanathan Anand struck back with vengeance and scored the much-needed equaliser against Boris Gelfand in the eighth game of the World Chess Championship now underway here. On a day when everything worked in favour of Anand, Gelfand simply could not hold his thoughts together and ended up blundering his queen for little compensation. It turned out to be the shortest match in the recent world championship history lasting just 17 moves.

The win helped Anand level the scores at 4-4 and much to contrary expectations, the Indian ace has made a big comeback in the 12-games match. It was surprise time again for Anand when Gelfand chose the Kings Indian defense to enter the Saemisch variation.

However, there was little impact on Anand who was definitely much better prepared this time. The shocker came on move seven for Gelfand when Anand went for a rare sideline which was obviously a part of his home preparation. Gelfand responded well, but it was clear that he was taken out of his preparation early in the game, something that team Anand had been striving for the last seven games.

Anand took his chances on the eighth move when he had some choices, and trading the long-diagonal black Bishop with his own, Anand forcibly dented Gelfand's pawn structure but it also gave the Israeli hope about his own position given the double edged nature of the game.

The middle game soon became razor-sharp as Gelfand went for a complicated game, and on the 12th move Anand pushed one of his king side pawns forward to push back a black knight and Gelfand lost his cool here instead of going for a passive defense.

The real blunder by Gelfand happened on move 14 when he simply brought his queen forward to attack a white pawn and subsequently the white rook, forgetting that the rook was taboo, as his queen was getting trapped.

Anand did not waste much time and when Gelfand realised his mistake it was all over. The Israeli resigned immediately instead of prolonging his agony. "I had to calculate a lot of variations, I simply miscalculated," conceded Gelfand in the post-match conference.