Viswanathan Anand guns for 5th World Chess title today

It's a crucial day for India's Viswanathan Anand in his bid for his 5th World Chess title. He plays his World Championship tie-breaker with his challenger Boris Gelfand of Israel today.

Ff Vishy wins, he will be crowned World Chess champion for the fifth time. That after the two were level on scores at 6-6 after the 12th game. The tie-breaker today will consist of four rapid games first, and then 5 sets of 2 two blitz games if needed.

Anand, with his reputation of being one of the best rapid players ever, still holds an advantage but things have not exactly materialised the way he might have wanted in his last match.

Anand, who has inspired the younger generation in India to take to the game for the last 13 years as brand ambassador for IT company NIIT, started as an overwhelming favourite in the match. But the Indian Grandmaster could only force one victory in 12 games and lost one. This is indication enough that the first round has been won by the Israeli.

In the rapid chess, Anand will have to score 2.5 points in the four games scheduled on Wednesday. There will be 25 minutes to each player in this contest with a 10-second addition after every move is played. If the scores are still tied after these four games, there will be two more games with blitz chess rules. Should the tie persist, there are five such blitz matches to be played.

If the deadlock still continues, there will be an Armageddon game with five minutes to white and four to black and black wins the title in case of a draw also.

Anand's last tie-breaker in a World Championship final was in 1998, when he lost to Anatoly Karpov of Russia.

What is Armageddon?

In Armageddon, White must win to win the match, but Black only needs to draw to win the match. White has more time than Black and the discrepancy can often vary. But usually in FIDE World Championships, White has six minutes, while Black only has five, but in World Chess Championship 2012 the following time control is used: 5 minutes for White, 4 minutes for Black, plus 3 seconds increment from move 6. This is generally used in playoff tie-breakers after Rapids and Blitz games have failed to resolve the tie.