Gelfand beats Anand in chess title series

PanARMENIAN.Net - Indian master Viswanathan Anand's world chess crown shook on Sunday, May 20 when his Israeli challenger won the first game of their 12-match Moscow series after six successive and mostly uneventful draws, according to AFP.

The tortuous four-hour battle marked the Indian master's first defeat to Gelfand in a classical chess match since 1993 and put under threat a title he first won in 2000 and has held for the past five successive years.

"I started to drift a little bit at the opening," the 42-year-old admitted in the post-match press conference.

But he dismissed suggestions that he should have won or assumed a more aggressive strategy in opening matches during which his challenger at times appeared psychologically overwhelmed.

"I play one game at a time," Anand said.

The 43-year-old Gelfand now leads the series 4-3 under a scoring system that awards the winner one point and the loser none. Draws see players share a half point each.

The World Chess Championship is being contested in Moscow, seen by many as last century's capital of chess for the first time since an epic 1984-85 clash between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov was aborted and later replayed.