Boris Gelfand

Moscow: Viswanathan Anand faltered in the second step of his ‘black barrier’ and lost to Boris Gelfand, in the seventh game of the World Chess Championship, here, on Sunday.

Gelfand leads 4-3 and Anand is now left with three white pieces in the remaining five games to restore parity.

For the first time in the match, Gelfand managed to obtain a strategically complex middlegame position from where he could put pressure on Anand.

Gelfand varied from the previous game with 6.c5, drastically altering the course of the game by blocking the centre.

As Anand opened the c-file early, play was on the queenside, where white consistently managed to apply pressure with his major pieces.

When Gelfand voluntarily accepted an isolated pawn in the centre in move 11, Hungarian Grandmaster Peter Leko declared that this would be a tough game. White had an isolated pawn on d4, whereas black had a light squared bishop which could not be developed actively.

Anand took time to make his moves from the opening, slightly lagging behind Gelfand. Since the nature of the position was not tactical, it was a question of deciding on keeping the pieces on correct squares rather than concrete calculation.

Just when white appeared to be sitting comfortably, Anand drastically altered the course of the position with his 15th move, and that shattered the kingside pawn.

However, Gelfand played it safe, and did not capture Anand’s knight on f6 and decided to exchange black’s active dark bishop instead.

This has become a pattern of Gelfand’s play, avoiding complicated play in favour of simple strategic advantage.

Anatoly Karpov felt that even though white’s position appeared only slightly better, black had to be careful in his defence.

Anand, later, admitted that he should have defended more precisely when he had to play with an inactive light squared bishop at b7. Anand said he could not defended the position properly starting with 20…Rab8.

Under time pressure, Anand made a risky kingside pawn push in the 23rd move.

A nervous Anand made a blunder in the 25th move, landing himself in a very difficult position.

By the 30th move, Gelfand had a commanding position, with his dominating knights and a rook occupying the seventh rank. Anand’s king, rook and bishop were all tied to the first rank.

Gelfand found a winning finish when he allowed Black’s advanced e-pawn to Queen but threatened unavoidable checkmate on opponent’s king which was cornered on h8. Anand threw in the towel after white’s 38th move without waiting for the inevitable.