The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Cautious start by Anand

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 16, 2007
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Sport - Chess

Cautious start by Anand

NEW DELHI: Viswanathan Anand made a cautious debut in the Chess960 World championship and came out undefeated in three outings on the opening day at Mainz, Germany, on Tuesday.

In the four-player field, where Armenia’s Levon Aronian lived up to the expectations of being the favourite in this variant of the game by scoring 2.5 points, Anand displayed his defensive skills to share the second spot with Uzbekistan’s Rustam Kasimdzhanov.

In the first round, where Anand faced Kasimdzhanov with black pieces, the Indian mishandled a promising start and then survived after the Uzbek came under severe time trouble. Following the 50-move draw, Anand shared the point with Frenchman Etienne Bacrot in 28 moves. In the third round, Anand played Aronian who had won the previous two rounds and drew in 34 moves.

The contestants will play one another again and, after six rounds, the two players with most points shall qualify for the four-game final on Thursday. Unlike in the conventional form, Chess960 games begin with the pieces occupying random squares on the first rank for white. Accordingly, the pieces for black are placed in the corresponding rank. The starting position for the pawns is similar to one in conventional chess.

The results (third round): Viswanathan Anand (1.5) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 2.5); Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzb, 1.5) bt Ettiene Bacrot (Fra, 0.5). Second round: Aronian bt Kasimdzhanov; Bacrot drew with Anand. First round: Aronian bt Bacrot; Kasimdzhanov drew with Anand.