Today in the first game of the World Championship match, the challenger Boris Gelfand of Israel played the Gruenfeld Defense 1. d4, Nf6 2. c4, g6 3. Nc3, d5 . Apparently it’s the first time he has played it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him play 2… g6 at all.
In the postgame press conference Anand said that he “expected to be surprised” and that he was indeed surprised by the opening. But as Nigel Short commented, a lot of current Israeli players play the Gruenfeld, and even that Ernst Gruenfeld was Jewish, so it’s a part of the culture there. Gelfand pulled it off and had an advantage after the opening, but it was not enough to convert. As a former Gruenfeld player (but I never learned to play it against strong opponents) I wonder if the Gruenfeld will be the “Berlin Defense” of this match and we’ll see a lot of new theory.
As a Gelfand rooter I was glad to see Boris showing a lot of confidence in his play and his general manner. I’ve predicted a tie match with Gelfand winning the tiebreak.