Chess Fan Israeli PM Netanyahu Follows Anand, Gelfand Game 12 Live

Gelfand playing chess with
Israeli PM Netanyahu and
Sharansky in 2010.

Jerusalem: Chess has really caught on in Israel thanks to Grandmaster Boris Gelfand playing the 2012 World Chess Championship against India's Viswanathan Anand in Moscow. Game 12 - the last one in the classical time controls during the match - was played on Monday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is a chess lover followed the entire match even during his busy schedule! 

The official website off the championship had a high-definition live broadcast of Game 12 - as of all other games - and the same was relayed on a giant screen in a room next to Prime Minister Netanyahu's office. The Israeli Prime Minister watched the game along with former minister Natan Sharansky in between meetings.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu loves chess and is known to promote it enthusiastically. He had met Israeli Grandmaster Gelfand in March 2010. Meanwhile, thousands of Israeli chess fans have landed in Moscow to cheer their favourite chess player. Gelfand is the first Israeli chess player to have gone so far high up on the chess ladder. 

Anand and Gelfand are tied at 6-6 points after 12 chess games of classical time control and a tiebreak would be held on Wednesday to decide the 2012 World Chess Champion. You can follow the live broadcast of the chess match tiebreak from India time 1 pm onwards at the official website.

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World Chess Championship 2012 Goes into Tiebreak Slugfest with Game 12 Draw

World Chess Championship 2012 

Game 12 about to begin. Photo: Official Website.

Game 12 of the Anand, Gelfand 2012 World Chess Championshi phas ended in a draw. The match will now be decided on Wednesday with a rapid/blitz tiebreak. In Game 12, the opening was another Rossolimo Sicilian and although Anand seemed to be in an attacking mode initially, the game ended in a draw in 22 moves.You can tune in to the live tiebreak broadcast of the 2012 World Chess Championship on May 30, Wednesday at the official website at 1 pm India time.

The World Chess Championship 2012 is being staged in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, between the current World Champion Viswanathan Anand of India and the winner of the Candidates tournament Boris Gelfand of Israel. The match is over twelve games and lasts from May 11 to 30. The prize fund is US $2.55 million, the winner getting $1.53 million (60%), the loser $1.02 million (40%).

Here are the Game 12 moves to replay in our Chess King applet

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A Piece for Every Chess Game - Dedicating a Tretyakov Masterpiece to Every Game at Anand-Gelfand 2012 World Chess Championship (Посвящение шедевры Третьяковской Каждая игра в 2012 году, Ананд, Гельфанд Чемпионате мира по шахматам)

The venue for the 2012 World Chess Championship between India's reigning world chess champion and challenger Israel's Boris Gelfand is a unique one. The Match is being staged in the Tretyakov State Gallery in Moscow. After a 6-6 equal score, for the first time in the history of chess, a rapid/blitz tiebreak play would decide the champion! 

But, back to art and chess. They indeed go together. Theory of technique, style, and methods all find a fascinating interpretation – a unique one at that – in a master's hands: both in art and chess. 

Every single position during a chess game is a work of art. Every move creates a new painting. Every chess player is an artist. Like for art, interpretation is everything.

The State Tretyakov Gallery is one of the most famous museums in the world. Its collection highlights Russian art with exclusive completeness from the ancient time (11-12th century) to the present day. 

Shilpa Mehra dedicates masterpieces from the Tretyakov Gallery to each of the 12 games of classical control at the 2012 World Chess Championship between Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand. Read this full special chess article here.

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Gelfand: Vishy is not just an excellent speed chess player – he’s an excellent player in all time controls!

At the press conference after Game 11, the challenger explained why he had spent almost 40 minutes pondering the opening. “What can I say? We were playing a rare system, and you hardly ever see 8...Bd7. I knew it was an important moment – White had to decide what to do next. I had many options... I came up with a basic plan and started to play a lot quicker. The first critical moment arose at the 16th move. I spent a lot of time on this move as well because I knew that White had quite a few options once again. I needed to get my pawn to a5 somehow and play Ne5. I started by moving the knight. Perhaps 17.a4 would have been a more accurate move.”

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Game 12 Live Today 2012 Anand, Gelfand World Chess Championship 4.15 pm India Time

Day 19 of the World Chess Championship 2012 between India's Viswanathan Anand and Israel's Boris Gelfand is here with chess Game 12 - the final one - to be played today. If the world chess champion is still not decided today and the game ends in a draw, the tiebreak would be played on Wednesday. You can watch Game 12 Live on the official website from India time 4.15 pm onwards. In the commentary box would be 14th world chess champion (2000) Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and New in Chess editor Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam.

As you know, the world chess championship 2012 is being held in a most beautiful venue - the Tretyakov Gallery.

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Who Is Andrey Filatov? - Forbes Profile, Interview of 2012 World Chess Championship Main Sponsor

This is the English version of the interview with Andrey Filatov - the main sponsor of the 2012 Anand, Gelfand World Chess Championship in Moscow. It appeared in Russian in Kommersant.

The opening of the main chess event of the season – the world championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand – is taking place at the State Tretyakov Gallery. The driving force behind staging this contest in Moscow and the main sponsor of the match, ANDREY FAILATOV, a shareholder in the N-Trans Group, told Kommersant’s correspondent ALEXEY DOSPEKHOV why he decided to invest money in chess and how he plans to change the economics of chess and link it to Russian art.

– I’m primarily interested, of course, in your motivation. Why finance a world championship chess match? Is it to boost your own image, a desire to help the sport you were very seriously involved in when you were young?
– A country that fights for all the major international events – the APEC summit, the Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup, the Universiade – simply cannot ignore a competition which at one time was one of its main symbols. When Boris Gelfand, who was a student friend of mine, won the candidates’ tournament, he said that the venue for the match had not been decided yet, but there were various rumours going around that it would be either in India or somewhere else. It turned out that there had indeed been no application from Moscow, so I had a think and decided we had to try.

Click on photo to see
Andrey Filatov's Forbes profile

– You realised there was a good chance of winning?
– On the contrary, I wasn’t sure we would win the right to host the match. But I could see that in any case one way or another there would be a winner. If Moscow’s bid failed, Boris Gelfand would earn a bigger prize fund, because the rival bid would have to beat it with money. And if it won, so much the better: the country would gain a serious competition that had not been staged here in the history of modern Russia. You’ll agree that’s a simple and understandable motive. Then it started to develop in terms of the current situation with chess, a new economics of chess, and the main points on which it could be based.

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