The World Chess Championship will be decided in tiebreakers after expert
defensive play by Israel’s Boris Gelfand saw him hold out for a draw in the 12th
and final game against defending-champion Viswanathan Anand on Monday, keeping
the overall score tied at 6-6 in Moscow.
The players shook hands after
the 22nd move by Anand, who was playing with the white pieces.
The winner
of the dramatic final will now be determined on Wednesday after the challenger
and the champion shared just one victory each in the 12 games so
far.
Wednesday’s showdown will begin with four rapid games, with the time
control coming down to 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move.
If the score
is still tied after the four rapid tiebreakers, colors will be drawn and two
blitz games (five minutes plus 10 seconds per move) will be held.
Two
more blitz games will follow if there’s still no winner, and the process will be
repeated, if necessary, until five blitz matches have been played.
Should
there still be nothing to separate the players after 10 blitz games, a single
sudden-death “Armageddon game” will determine the champion.
The winner
will claim over $1.5 million in prize money, with the loser to go home with just
over $1 million.
The 44-year-old Gelfand, who moved to Israel from Minsk
in 1998, is hoping to become just the 16th undisputed world champion since
1886.
“The match has been very tough and intense, there is a lot of
background theoretical work which is invisible,” said Anand, who has a
reputation of being one of the best rapid players ever.
“Almost all the
games have been hard fought, we only drew when it is obvious to us that we are
going nowhere.”
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