2012-05-31T03:36:38+00:00
I enjoyed following this match live on the official site. They had GM commentators for all the games. I found Peter Leko to be the best. He analysed positions well and quickly. Peter Svidler was good too, but he too often said something like " I don't know much about this position". Shipov's coverage as usual was awesome! Anand's strategy was interesting. He used rare continuations against Gruenfeld defense and played Rossolimo variation of the Sicilian in some games. Gelfand's c4 in Game 12 was appreciated even by Anand. But, Anand's decision not to pursue Game 12 even though he had huge time advantage, completely baffled me! I still wonder 'why'. I feel some of the draws were more exciting than the 2 decisive games. But, the 8th game triumph of Vishy gave a high, especially knowing later to be the shortest world championship win! Rapid games were just too tense to follow but enjoyable. And, the official site did not go down during tie-breaks! This how Anand felt about his opponent - "I never felt like a favourite. I've known Boris too long for that." Here are some of the resources to know more about match 1. Official site 2. Chess in translation3. Anand-Gelfand: Psychology4. Judith Polgar5. Moscow6. Anand Retains World Title After Exciting Playoff7. Press Conference 8. Post match interview9. ChessBase10. Dana's rapid games review11. How Vishy Anand retained his world chess title12. Walk the Talk I wish Indian electronic media gave more time to the coverage. Any channel could have hired 2 Indian players, and had post-game analysis, say at midnight :) I would have watched, and would have been interesting to know our very own player's perspective.