World Championship starts today

The World Chess Championship 2012 will be a match between the current World Champion Viswanathan Anand of India and Boris Gelfand of Israel, winner of the Candidates tournament. The match will be held in Moscow up to May 30 under the auspices of FIDE, the World Chess Federation. The prize fund is US $2.55 million, the winner getting $1.53 million (60%), the loser $1,02 million (40%). The two will play a match of 12 games, unless someone scores a decisive 6.5 points at an earlier stage. In case of a tie, there will be a rapid / blitz playoff. Anand played his first World Championship match in 1995 for the PCA, and lost to Garry Kasparov. Between 2000 and 2002 Anand held the FIDE World Champion title and later became the undisputed World Champion in 2007 by winning the World Championship tournament in Mexico City. He then defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008 in Bonn, Germany and also in 2010 against Veselin Topalov in Sofia, Bulgaria. Anand won numerous tournaments in his career, including Wijk aan Zee (1988, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2005 joint with Veselin Topalov), Reggio Emilia (1992), Alekhine Memorial (Moscow, 1992), the PCA Interzonal (Groningen, 1993), Biel (1997) and Linares (1998, 2007, 2008). In 2009 Gelfand won the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia and thus qualified for the Candidates matches held in May 2011 in Kazan, Russia. Seeded fourth, the Israeli beat Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) in the quarterfinals, Gata Kamsky (USA) in the semis and Alexander Grischuk (Russia) in the final, qualifying for the 2012 World Championship match against Anand. Gelfand has won numerous tournaments in his career, including Wijk aan Zee (1992), Biel (1993), Dos Hermanas (1994), Belgrade (1995), Tilburg (1996), Malmö (1999), and Pamplona (2004 Statistics Between 1984 and 2012, Anand played 1496 games: +440-265=791 in tournaments with classical time control. Playing white he scored 68%, and playing black, 56%. Between 1991 and 2012 he played 1224 games in rapid chess and blitz: +527-151=564. Between 1983 and 2012 Gelfand played 1591 games in classical time control tournaments: +463-212=916. Playing white he scored 63%, and playing black, 52%. Between 1991 and 2012 he played 878 games in rapid chess and blitz: +300-209=369. Classical chess- The two men played 35 games with classical time control. The first game ended in a draw, after which Gelfand dominated, winning 4 games in a row playing white. In 1993 Boris scored his 5th and last victory, and he has not since defeated Vishy. In the 1997 FIDE Knockout Championship, the Indian drew head-to-head; nine years later he gained the lead by 6:5 in Wijk aan Zee in 2006. Rapid chess- Anand confirms his status as rapid chess king: he never lost a game against Gelfand until they traded victories in Monaco in 2008. Vishy and Boris played only one tie break in the 2000 World Cup, the Indian only gaining an edge in “Armageddon”. The lion’s share of the games was played in Monaco in the Amber tournaments. Inmates tournament- Cepca will be sponsoring a tournament among inmates of the Mandaue City jail next Friday May 18 starting at 1pm. Depending on the number of participants, format will be 5-7 rounds Swiss with a time control of 10 minutes and an increment of 5 secs. This is a project of Mandaue City jail warden, Supt. Jessie Calumpang and Cepca so the prisoners can “ learn from a game that rewards patience and problem-solving and apply it to their own lives.” After the tournament, Cepca members Jojo Muralla, Dante Arguelles, Jun Olis and Mike Banebane will play a simul among the prisoners . Winners of the tournament and simul will receive cash prizes.