The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Anand requires only a draw for victory

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 09, 2004

Sport

Sport - Chess

Anand requires only a draw for victory

By Arvind Aaron

MAINZ, AUG. 8. Making best use of the opportunities at the board, Viswanathan Anand is set to score a big victory in the Chess Classic match and retain his hold at Mainz in Germany.

At the end of the third and penultimate day on Saturday, Anand leads Alexei Shirov of Spain 4-2 and requires only a single draw from the last two games to win his second event in German soil this week.

"I had checked this variation (that occurred in game six) today, and after black accepted the pawn in the 15th move, my computer got excited and jumped to about three points in evaluation," said a jubilant Anand who credited his victory in game six to his home preparation.

Later, when the organiser said it was one of the best days of the Chess Classic with all kinds of records broken in the open tournament and yet another Anand victory, the Indian intervened to correct him.

"Hans-Walter, not yet," Anand calmed him down.

Shirov's problems with the opening theory in the reverse games of the day continued for the third day running that he inverted an opening order in game six and was swiftly punished for it by the ever agile Indian.

The worst part of his memory was that he failed to remember the move order of his own game against Ivanchuk at Monte Carlo 2003 that was the stem game. Shirov chose to play the Ruy Lopez with the black pieces and Anand opted for the anti-Marshall attack.

On the 14th turn, Shirov blundered by withdrawing his bishop back to the original square and overlooking white's reply. Shocked at having allowed that, Shirov accepted the bait and took the sacrificed pawn and lost a rook for knight in the process. Having won the exchange, Anand polished him off with highly accurate play in the shortest (30 moves) game of the match.

In the fifth game played earlier, Shirov had an extra pawn to show with white but Anand fought well to hold from an open variation of the Ruy Lopez in 43 moves.

Black's pieces were so active that Shirov took a draw.

"I do not think Shirov missed or had any chance," said Grandmaster Ubilava, who added, "may be Vishy could have forced a dead draw little earlier."

The moves:

V.Anand-A.Shirov, match game 6, Ruy Lopez, C88: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.h3 Bb7 9.d3 d6 10.a3 Qd7 11.Nc3 Nd8 12.d4 exd4 13.Nxd4 Re8 14.Nf5 Bf8 (14...Ne6) 15.Bg5 Bxe4 16.Nxe4 Rxe4 17.Rxe4 Qxf5 18.Bxf6 Qxe4

19.Bd5 Qf4 20.Bxa8 Qxf6 21.c3 c6 22.Qd4 Qe6 23.Qb6 Qc8 24.Re1 Qd7 25.Qxa6 d5 26.a4 bxa4 27.Qxa4 g6 28.Rd1 Bc5 29.b4 Bb6 30.c4 1-0.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport