Viswanathan Anand fights back to hold Gelfand in game 9

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After two decisive games, defending champion GM Viswanathan Anand of India held on to a draw with Israeli GM Boris Gelfand in 49 moves in the ninth game of the world chess championship at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow on Wednesday.

The 12-match series is now tied 4.5-4.5. However Anand will have the advantage of starting two games with white pieces compared to Gelfand's one game with white pieces in the remaining three games. The tenth game will be played on Thursday.

Facing Gelfand's queen pawn opening, Anand moved away from his usual solid Slav defence and played the Nimzo Indian defence. Both players chose to play the mainline Nimzovich variation.

After move 16, Israeli GM looked better with his double bishops compared to Anand's double knights, as the Indian GM's pieces were tied up compared to the open nature of Gelfand's pieces.

But Anand tricked Gelfand to play a pawn move in the centre that led to trading of his two bishops and the ensuing position led to the Israeli GM holding a queen against Anand's rook and a knight.

After trying hard to use the advantage of holding a queen, challenger Gelfand couldn't break the champion's fortress of rook and knight placed in exact squares. The Israeli GM agreed to Anand’s draw offer after 49 moves.

“Obviously, I missed something in the opening. My position was much worse due to white bishops. But I tried to provoke Gelfand to play the pawn push in the centre and it worked,” said Anand at the post-game press conference.