Anand Topalov WCC 12th round

12th and final round of the classical games. Just as predicted by many that this championship could go down the stretch, we may even see a tie break match here although it is Topalov who will be handling the white pieces. Going into the last round, both scored 5.5 - 5.5, with two wins for both players. Anand's team would be more than happy if Anand hold on to a draw as the tiebreak matches, which they believe, would be favorable for the current champ. According to timesofindia.com:

The tiebreaker consists of four rapid games of 25 minutes each and if that set is also drawn, a blitz game will decide the match. In both cases Anand would be the favourite not only based on his reputation but his head-to-head record against Topalov in these formats.

Topalov will certainly press for a win, like Anand did in the penultimate game on Sunday. However, the last two games would have given Anand's confidence a boost because with black in Game 10, he played doggedly, throwing the once-bitten Grunfeld back at Topalov...Topalov would like to close the match in regular play because he wouldn't want his opponent to call the shots in the rapid tie-breaker.

So do we expect an all out assault from Topalov? We will see tonight.

Chessdom will have a special live guest commentary for the final round and it will be no other than current Women's World Champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk. http://live.chessdom.com/anand-topalov-2010-g12.html