Anand v Gelfand

[Alex Holowczak]

The whole thing has been turned on its head by Spain's TV station sending their entrant the following message - please don't win. To which their singer Pastora Soler agreed - I think it is not the moment, neither for Spain nor for Spanish public, to win Eurovision.

Having heard the quality of their recent entries, they've probably had this mantra for years!

Going to put £5.00 on the Russian Grandmothers to win it tonight.

Sweden are such strong favourites that I'm surprised the book is still open.

The results of one fan poll have Sweden winning by such a large margin that holding the actual contest is probably a waste of time!

[Jonathan Rogers]

Eurovision Song Contest, or Englelbert and the babushkas? The whole thing has been turned on its head by Spain's TV station sending their entrant the following message - please don't win. To which their singer Pastora Soler agreed - I think it is not the moment, neither for Spain nor for Spanish public, to win Eurovision. If we won, I think it would be impossible to stage the next edition because it costs so much money.
The message is clear - give us your (nil) points.

This reminds me of a recent Private Eye entry envisaging Germany playing Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain in the forthcoming euos and winning on (financial) penalties!

Normally it would be sacrilege to spoil a World Championship match thread with such topics, but this particular match can consider itself honoured to have a thread at all.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Yes, things appear to have reverted to type after a misleading flurry of excitement

[JustinHorton]

Monday may very well be a thriller though. (I have no basis for this statement other than the knowledge that I shall be travelling and will therefore miss it.)

[Ray Sayers]

1. Nf3 Nf6; 2. Ng1? Ng8?, 3.Nf3 Nf6, 4. Ng1? <Black attracts the attention of the Arbiter>....

[Richard James]

1. Nf3 Nf6; 2. Ng1? Ng8?, 3.Nf3 Nf6, 4. Ng1? <Black attracts the attention of the Arbiter>....

Ah! The Oliphant Opening!

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php ... 6&start=15

[Mats Winther]

This WCH match has given me support for my argument. Expert knowledge in chess openings, aided by computers, makes the player avoid critical lines, and instead they play amateur openings. This is bad publicity for chess. A draw in approximately 25 moves is to be expected in most games. Something must be done about the chess rules.
http://hem.passagen.se/melki9/valiantchess.htm

M. Winther

[IM Jack Rudd]

This WCH match has given me support for my argument. Expert knowledge in chess openings, aided by computers, makes the player avoid critical lines, and instead they play amateur openings. This is bad publicity for chess. A draw in approximately 25 moves is to be expected in most games.

Well, this argument only really applies to match play. In tournament play, there's more incentive to take risks to win.

[Matt Mackenzie]

People like Mats have to answer why that has suddenly become the case now - when it wasn't for the 2010, 2008 or 2006 WC matches (even leaving aside the question of tournaments, as Jack says) Computers weren't significantly less strong back then than they are now, if truth be told........

Its not mainly a computer thing, its a human thing. The styles of Anand and Gelfand are cancelling each other out - if anything might help here, it is lengthening the match (though as already pointed out, players might not be so conducive to that these days)

[Sean Hewitt]

If this match involved two of Topalov, Carlsen, Shirov, Svidler, Aronian or any number of others I doubt very much this discussion would be ongoing. The style of match is simply derived from the two players concerned.

[Mick Norris]

Well, it has just reached BBC News - I walked in the lounge 5 minutes ago to see Svidler talking about the match (Freeview channel 80)

[Mick Norris]

Game 12 is underway

[Paul Cooksey]

Kramnik in the commentary box on the official site. http://moscow2012.fide.com/en/

[Mick Norris]

Vishy varies at move 5 from Game 10

Kramnik has suggested abandoning the draw offer for the next match, playing 14 games, and having the tiebreaks at the start rather than end of the match

[Paul Cooksey]

Anand is really going for it, clearly he wants to end the match today