Moscow: Viswanathan Anand displayed solid defensive technique with black pieces to hold Boris Gelfand to a draw in the fourth game of the World Chess Championship, here on Tuesday. The score is 2-2, with eight more games to go.

Anand repeated the same set up with the pawn on a6 in the Meran Variation of the Slav Defence. Gelfand resorted to a safety-first attitude, not taking any risks even though he had the white pieces.

Adopting a simplified setup, Gelfand varied from the second game with a minor shift in placing his pieces with 10.Qc2. But essentially, he opted for the same strategy in the middlegame, neutralising the central Pawns of both the sides.

Gelfand’s strategy with white pieces in the match seems to be to play for positions without any dynamic content. The Minsk-born Grandmaster probably wants to aim for positions with a small strategic plus, even at the cost of symmetrical pawn structures. This probably results from his analysis of Anand’s World Championship match against Kramnik in 2008, when Anand scored two crucial victories with black pieces in dynamic variations of the Slav Defence.

Anand played his moves confidently and quickly in the opening phase, indicating his preparedness for the variation, once again gaining more than half an hour on the clock over his opponent. In a direct contrast to the intriguing third game, both the players showed relaxed attitudes at the board in executing their moves.

At this stage, the only advantage white could gain was to obtain the bishop pair on the 20th move. White’s bishops were placed on the longest adjacent diagonals in a classic formation known as ‘Horowitz’s Bishops’ thus giving a small long term advantage for Gelfand.

Anand’s centralised rook on d5 and his powerful dark coloured Bishop seemed to give him enough stability in the position. He played flawlessly between moves 17 to 23, bringing him closer to equality.

At the post-match media conference, Gelfand admitted: “My bishops were not co-ordinating well in the position. If the light coloured bishop was on f3 instead of f5 it would have been of considerable advantage”.

Anand found an intelligent strategy with 23…Bc5, offering to liquidate the position further at the cost of accepting a fractured pawn structure in the Kingside.

The cleverness of the idea was that though Anand’s pawn structure was bound to become worse, more simplification meant lack of pieces for Gelfand to take advantage of the position.

Gelfand pondered and then decided to decline Anand’s offer, but he couldn’t find any way to improve his position. The game further got simplified into an ending where neither player had any tangible play. Gelfand brought his king easily into the centre, but Anand’s Knight and Rook were good enough to hold the position, and the peace treaty was signed after the 34th move.

Anand summed up quite well. “The match has been tough so far, with four fighting draws”.