Fourth World Chess Championship game ends in another draw

‘We are just probing each other,’ says World Champion Viswanathan Anand of Israeli master Boris Gelfand

By Michal Shmulovich 15 May 2012, 7:46 pm Edit

Chess master Boris Gelfand (left) plays a game of chess against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (far right) and Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky in 2010 (photo credit: Alex Kolomoisky/Flash90)

The fourth match between Israeli Grandmaster Boris Gelfand and defending World Champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship ended in a draw Wednesday.

The match, the fourth consecutive stalemate, ended after 34 moves.

After the draw, Anand said: “The match is just developing. We are just probing each other.”

Prior to their first match, Gelfand said the two are on friendly terms, Haaretz reported.

The World Chess Championships, a three-week event, opened in Moscow last Friday. 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.

This is the fifth time Anand defends his World Champion title, though he no longer holds the top world ranking, falling to number 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 thought to be 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.