Israeli chess reached a milestone Thursday in Moscow when Boris Gelfand became the first Israeli to try to win the worlds top chess title. Gelfand, 44, will try to defeat reigning world champion Viswanathan Anand, of India, in a 12-game, three-week tournament in the World Chess Championship. The championship opened officially Thursday with the drawing of lots to determine who would play which color first. Anand won the draw for white, and with it the right to make the first move in the first game. The winner will be the first player to win 6.5 points, with each win worth one point and each draw half a point. Should neither player garner the necessary points, a tie-breaker game will be held May 30. The winner of the long and grueling contest will be awarded $1.55 million. The second place prize is worth $1 million. The World Chess Federation ranks Anand as the fourth best active player in the world, with a cumulative rating of 2791 from past tournaments and games. Gelfand ranks 20th, with a rating of 2727. Anand, who has been the world's chess champion since 2007, appeared subdued Thursday, but was willing to banter. When asked if the match could be compared to the famous 1985 duel in which Garry Kasparov beat then-champion Anatoly Karpov, he responded, "To call such a match 'the battle of the century' is a much more appropriate; it took place during the ninth decade [of a century] not in the second decade." Gelfand appeared tense. Sharing an anecdote with the press, he recalled how he closely followed a match between Karpov and "a candidate" several decades ago. The Soviet mouthpiece at the time, Pravda, deliberately omitted the players full name -- Viktor Korchnoi -- because he had defected to the West. When the Israeli anthem was played Thursday, Gelfand's face was serious. Perhaps he was reflecting on the long way he had come. Born in Minsk, Belarus, he eventually made aliyah, became Israel's top representative in international chess forums, and has claimed several titles.
