All tied after 11 matches for Gelfand in the World Chess Championship

Israeli grandmaster Boris Gelfand and reigning world champion Viswanathan Anand of India played to a draw on Saturday in their 11th and penultimate match in the World Chess Championship. The two are now even at 5.5 points each.

The World Chess Championships, a three-week event, opened in Moscow on Friday, May 11. The title will be decided over 12 matches, and the winner will take home $1.53 million while second place will win $1.02 million. Each player has won one game; the other nine have been drawn. If the twelfth and final match, scheduled for Monday, ends in a draw, the contestants will compete in a series of four chess matches played in quick succession to determine the champion.

This is the fifth time Anand is defending his World Champion title, though he no longer holds the top world ranking, falling to No. 4 recently.

Gelfand, ranked 22, was born in Minsk and immigrated to Israel in 1998, quickly dominating the local chess scene and capturing a number of world chess tournaments, including the Chess World Cup in 2009.

He is regarded as a classical player who often has tricks up his sleeve. He defeated the world’s top players in the 2011 Candidates Cup round, which earned him a spot at the board opposite Anand.