World champion Viswanathan Anand made a steady start to his campaign for a sixth title with a 40-move draw with defending champion Russia’s Sergey Karjakin as the 72nd edition of the Corus chess tournament opened at Wijk Ann Zee, near Amsterdam, on Saturday.
In fact,Anand had beaten Karjakin in the previous two meetings in this event with black pieces. On this day, Anand sacrificed a pawn for counterplay and eventually went on to finish the Ruy Lopez game with an extra pawn in a drawn position.
In group ‘B’, third seed P. Hari Krishna lost to rising star Anish Giri in 55 moves after trading a minor piece for three pawns early in the game. Parimarjan Negi’s fine defensive tactics saw him ward off the challenge of British youngster David Howell.in 61 moves.
In Group ‘C’, second seed Abhijeet Gupta drew with Dutch challenger Robin Swinkels in 49 moves while Soumya Swaminathan lost to America’s latest sensation Ray Robson in 51 moves on a day when all five Indians played with black pieces.
The results (first round, Indians unless stated) :
Group ‘A’: Sergey Karjakin (Rus) drew with Viswanathan Anand; Leinier Dominguez (Cub) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus); Peter Leko (Hun) lost toAlexei Shirov (Esp); Fabiano Caruana (Ita) drew with Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr); Sergey Tiviakov (Ned) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor); Jan Smeets (Ned) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (USA); Loek van Wely (Ned) bt Nigel Short (Eng).
Group ‘B’: Anish Giri (Ned) bt P. Hari Krishna; Anna Muzychuk (Slo) drew with Varuzhan Akobian (USA); David Howell (Eng) drew with Parimarjan Negi; Arkadij Naiditsch (Ger) drew with So Wesley (Phi); Ni Hua (Chn) drew with Erwin L’Ami (Ned); Emil Sutovsky (Isr) bt Dimitri Reinderman (Ned); Tomi Nyback (Fin) lost to Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Rom).
Group ‘C’: Robin Swinkels (Ned) drew with Abhijeet Gupta; Daniele Vocaturo (Ita) bt Sjoerd Plukkel (Ned); Peng Zhaoqin (Ned) drew with Robin van Kampen (Ned); Benjamin Bok (Ned) lost to Li Chao (Chn); Stefan Kuipers (Ned) drew with Kjetil Lie (Nor); Mariya Muzychuk (Ukr) lost to Nils Grandelius (Swe); Ray Robson (USA) bt Soumya Swaminathan.
