(JTA) — Israeli grandmaster Boris Gelfand lost in a tiebreaker in the title match of the World Chess Championship in Moscow.
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand of India defeated Gelfand, 2 1/2 to 1 1/2, in the four-game rapid chess tiebreaker on Wednesday. They had finished the 12-game championship match in a stalemate.
Gelfand, 43, a Belarus native who came to Israel in 1998, won the the World Championship 2012 Candidates Tournament in Kazan, Russia, as the fourth seed in May 2011, allowing him to advance to face Anand in the World Chess Championship of 2012.
Anand will take home $1.5 million and Gelfand $1 million.
