Moscow, May 25: Defending champion Viswanathan Anand will have to withstand pressure from challenger Boris Gelfand in the penultimate game if the Indian ace has to remain within striking range of winning his fourth straight world championship title.
After the seventh round won by Gelfand and a great performance by Anand in the eighth game, everyone had believed that the championship is now tantalizingly poised in favour of the reigning champion.
Gelfand, however, with his copy-book accuracy has falsified such claims and if anything, the match is evenly poised with just two games to go under normal time control.
Should the trend continue, the match will be eventually decided in tiebreak games of shorter duration, something that last happened in 2006 when Russian Vladimir Kramnik proved superior to Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria.
With the scores tied 5-5 after game ten, not many are giving Anand preference to win in the stipulated 12 games. At the same time, there are not many in any doubt about the possibility of an Indian win should the game stretch to the tiebreak stage.
This is of course borne out of Anand's immaculate performance in the faster version of the game over past two decades.
The Israeli should know better as his last victory over Anand before this match came in a rapid game a few years back while in normal games Gelfand was able to end a 19-year itch after winning the seventh game here.
That said, Anand remains favourite but the 11th game will be crucial when the Indian will play his last black.
