In the press conference Anand first spoke as if he was analyzing this at the board. But then when describing the choice at move 8, g4 or Bg5, it seemed that he was discussing home analysis. Then he stopped quickly, saying that he did not want to say more.
If you get to move 8 in home analysis and can predict Black’s move 8…Bf6, then home analysis by Anand’s team aided by computer could arguably go the rest of the way. Even Anand’s 9. Bxf6 looks like a mistake if you don’t see ahead to the end of the game. How could Anand make so many apparently clumsy mistakes that are only good (or at least acceptable) moves if this trap exists? Is it more likely that Anand saw the end of the game on move 9, which is a move he played rather quickly, or that his team had the whole thing prepped? I would say the latter.
Of course Anand’s talking about emotions and effort at the board in the rest of the press conference, but he has no obligation to reveal the extent of his home prep. His public comments never seem open or unguarded to me; they are strategic. But I think Gelfand resigned so quickly because he saw this picture.
Anand’s real self comes out in print interviews at times, but perhaps he is even less comfortable in a post-game press conference setting than most. Do you really expect the players to explain which moves they played are home prep and which are not?
I am a patzer, but I scratch my head as to why Gelfand did not try 17…Nc6. That saves the Queen after 18. dxc6…Qxc6. White is much better, with two pieces vs. a Rook and pawn and active play, with a looming Nf6+ among other things. At that level it might even be fair to say White is winning—but with the world title on the line, is it not at least worth playing out?
Houdini shows Black giving an Exchange after Nd5 (…Rxd5) to blunt the attack, leaving him down a piece for two pawns. Again, likely lost, but still…Kamsky would not have resigned here, I bet. For engine junkies: Houdini and Fritz say White is +1.2 to +1.3.
Then there is the one in 100,000 chance that Anand would have played too fast, moved the Bf1 and lost to …Nd4+. That’s what I woulda done.
No larger point. I’m not proposing that FIDE make everyone switch to Chess960 or some such. Home prep is a part of match play especially at the top level. The elephant is known to be in the room; I was just speculating about how big he is.
Mr. Gelfand seems to me to be a very conventional man who plays all the roles of his life conventionally. His behavior is perfectly correct in all cases that we know of. When it’s time to have a family, he has a family. When it’s time to prepare, he prepares. When it’s time to fight hard at the board, he fights as hard as anyone. And when it’s time to get out of the way so he isn’t hit by the gold pieces being showered on the board, he does that too!
In that sense he may not even have been in the mood for a fight at that moment. That’s the best answer I can give for why he didn’t play on with Nc6.
It wasn’t home prep. It was the old Anand showing himself again: the brilliant tactician. Of course computers saw it, but the GMs commenting
on the live feed saw absolutely none of it. That shows how deep it was.
As far as Gelfand giving up, the position was far worse than the engines indicated, and Gelfand was in no mood to keep torturing himself.
A switch to 3…c5 was probably anticipated during the match, but I’d think it was unlikely that major time was invested in …Nh5 either before or during the match. 8.Bg5 Bf6 9.Bxf6 may well have been computer prep.
If one trusts one’s computers and one thinks that the game continuation is unspeakably ugly-looking for humans playing White because of the weak dark-square complex, then one may wonder why the computer (or the Beowulf cluster that’s played many Monte Carlo simulations in this opening ) is recommending such an ugly line…and one might be more likely to look for tactics like Qf2!!
Or, alternatively, one might look for a really good move for Black that the computers may not understand–such as the …Re8xNe4 Exchange sac that Leko and Nepomniachtchi were analyzing.
I take Anand at his word that he analyzed Qf4 before Qf2. His press conference account that he saw it during the game at 11.exf5 makes sense.
) is recommending such an ugly line…and one might be more likely to look for tactics like Qf2!!