Any thoughts on Chess World Championship match?

[mighty maron]

Well, Gelfand finally drew first blood. A rather dull game, Anand was left with a bad bishop, and white knights penetrated easily.

Now things look bad for Anand, he has 3 chances left with white. What shall he play? In chessbookie (played with worthless tokens, but still solid parimutuel lines), Grunfeld is favored at +160, followed by Sicilian +171. After that, all other option are +1000 or higher (English, QGD, Petroff, etc).

In other things, chess matches of this level tend to be dull. Very few decided games in recent long mateches: Kasparov-Kramnik, Kramnik-Leko, Kramnik-Topalov, Kramnik-Anand, Anand-Topalov... I do not remember an exciting match recently. Only Topalov dinamic style made some lively moments, but he finally was defeated twice.

Anand has over twenty years of high level player. If he ever has a novelty or pet line to show the world, now is the time. It should get more interesting, it has too

[mighty maron]

Well, Gelfand finally drew first blood. A rather dull game, Anand was left with a bad bishop, and white knights penetrated easily.

Now things look bad for Anand, he has 3 chances left with white. What shall he play? In chessbookie (played with worthless tokens, but still solid parimutuel lines), Grunfeld is favored at +160, followed by Sicilian +171. After that, all other option are +1000 or higher (English, QGD, Petroff, etc).

In other things, chess matches of this level tend to be dull. Very few decided games in recent long mateches: Kasparov-Kramnik, Kramnik-Leko, Kramnik-Topalov, Kramnik-Anand, Anand-Topalov... I do not remember an exciting match recently. Only Topalov dinamic style made some lively moments, but he finally was defeated twice.

Even b4 this, Kaspy-Short, and the 5 Kaspy-Karpov matches did not set the world on fire on the board. The drama from the 2k matches were from length, attrition, and the difference of styles.

[FindTheLock]

wow, gelfand with a nice crushing position in game 7! It's rare to see anand dominated like that in a chess game. Forced mate on it's way with no way out. I wonder what the odds on Anand are now? 5Dimes doesn't seem to have an offer for it. I have no doubt in my mind Anand can take 1 out of 5 from Gelfand.

[mathdotcom]

Even b4 this, Kaspy-Short, and the 5 Kaspy-Karpov matches did not set the world on fire on the board. The drama from the 2k matches were from length, attrition, and the difference of styles.

Kasparov Karpov were all incredible matches I have no idea what you're talking about

People still discussing them

Kasparov-Short games all had a ton of play in them

Don't agree at all

[FindTheLock]

anand wins the next game with a nice queen trap. I'm kind of surprised gelfand was so aggressive holding the lead.

[mathdotcom]

Just a huge blunder on Gelfand's part

[mathdotcom]

Tiebreaks obviously favor Anand here but not as much as people think.

Liking my Gelfand +282 or whatever the number was

[mathdotcom]

Could you imagine if Pinnacle had live betting on this ???

[mathdotcom]

Anand wins best of 4 rapid games 2.5-1.5

Such a joke to have WCh decided this way, but it is what it is.

Gelfand really was outmatched in the rapid format.