Love-all at Moscow

Sport,to a certain degree is spectacle,and the element is at no time milked as thoroughly as during a one-on-one,high-stakes clash. Football managers routinely suffuse the media,in the lead up to a big game el clasico say,or a Manchester derby,with veiled barbs,put downs and mind games. The weigh-in before a title bout in boxing is almost engineered,in its eyeball to eyeball standoff-ishness,to raise frenzy to a fever pitch.

Littered with fierce rivalries

Chess,despite its sedentary set up,has put in its two cents worth. The BobbyFischer-Boris Spassky final in 1972 branded the match of the century, saw the eccentricities of the players provide the perfect sub-plot to the Cold War wrangling. Garry Kasparov made aggression and opponent-baiting an art form in the 1990s. Before his 1993 final against Nigel Short,he claimed My opponent is Short and the match will be short. The Vladimir Kramnik-Veselin Topalov contest in 2006, which went by the rather less edifying epithet of Toiletgate, saw the Bulgarian dub Kramniks frequent visits to the rest room suspicious. Kramnik forfeited the next game in protest. Topalov said he would turn down offers of a draw,promised to wring the older Anand dry during the 2011 championship.

It is not just the mellow fruitfulness of age that tinges the Anand-Gelfand encounter a different shade. Both Anand and Gelfand have known,and played each other several times,over the past two decades. Gelfand is a wonderful person and a great chess player. We have played together since our junior days and are good friends, Anand had said in an interview with The Indian Express a few months back.

Anand played a couple of tournaments here Israel in 1998 and 2000 and since then the relations have been good. The majority here will support Gelfand,but there will be no antagonism towards Anand, said Israeli GM Alon Greenfeld,captain of the national team,in a telephonic interview.

The chairman of the Israel Chess Federation Moshe Slav said the good relations between the two countries also played a key role in the build-up to the match. Since the match is between two friendly states and not politically charged like Russia vs America in the past,the attention is on a purely sporting basis, said Slav.

Friendly but tough

Greenfeld,however,says the sanguine disposition of the players is not to be mistaken for a lack of intensity. It will be friendly but tough. There is a lot at stake and one cant expect the players to celebrate together or go for a drink once the match is over, he said.

One has to go almost a century back to find a set of older opponents in the final of a World Chess Championship match,but that is just one,and not even the most important,of the reasons why the Anand-Gelfand contest promises to be unique.

Head to head classical format

It was almost 23 years ago that Anand and Gelfand played each other for the first time,at Moscow in 1989. The game ended in a draw.

Gelfand had the measure of Anand in the early encounters,winning four of their first seven games and drawing the rest. The Indian GM had to wait for almost four years to register his first win over Gelfand.

Since 1994,however,Anand effected a remarkable turnaround,and has not lost a single classical game to the Israeli since. In the 28 games they have played from 1994,Anand has won five and drawn the rest.

While Anand is unbeaten against Gelfand for close to 19 years running,he also has the remarkable record of never having lost a game to the Israeli GM playing white pieces.

Both players come into the match on a patchy run of form,though in the tournament format. Anand finished sixth in the Tal Memorial and fifth in the London Classics while Gelfand fared even worse,finishing ninth at the Tal Memorial and 10th in Tata Steel.

If the players remain even at the end of the 12 games of the final,the title will be decided on a play-off in the rapid format. Anand is considered to be one of the best short format players of all time and enjoys a 8-1-19 W-L-D record against Gelfand in the rapid format.