Gelfand, Anand still tied in chess championship

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.”