The Hindu : Anand outwits Karpov, enters quarterfinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 28, 2003

Sport

Sport - Chess

Anand outwits Karpov, enters quarterfinals

By Arvind Aaron

Cap d'Agde Oct. 27. Former world champion Viswanathan Anand scored a marathon 98-move victory over Anatoly Karpov of Russia to book a quarterfinal berth in the World rapid chess championship here at the CCAS premises in Cap d'Agde, France on Sunday.

Anand turned what looked like a lost rook ending at one stage into a memorable win. He now faces FIDE World champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in the second quarterfinals.

After a weekend of exciting action and nerve-wracking tie-break games, the quarterfinalists were spotted. The pairing for the next stage is: Kramnik v Polgar, Ponomariov v Anand, Bacrot v Grischuk and Topalov v Svidler.

Anand, in a must-win situation to avoid the play off, played the queen's Indian defence with the black pieces and his opening knowledge gave him a time lead and equality. When he offered the queen exchange it looked like he was playing for what the position will give him and not for the win the tournament situation demanded.

When Anand was in the rook ending, it seemes would be out of the tournament. However, Karpov having a minute and a few odd seconds started to err and Anand was back in the race.

Fighting with hope, the Indian promoted a pawn and turned the tide on the wily 52-year-old Karpov. Even the queen against rook and pawn ending looked like a draw. But Karpov buckled under the pressure exerted by the Indian on the board and on the clock.

Anand bested Karpov in his own forte, the endings. The Indian did not have any advantage from the opening but kept playing quick and maintained a steady lead on the clock. When it was queen for Anand against rook and pawn of Karpov, the weaker side did not have the fortress draw.

On the 98th move, Anand had Karpov in a zugzwang and his rook move would lose the pawn and later the rook itself as the king was restricted to the last rank.

Shirov who could have tied with Anand if he had won, managed to draw Svidler by repetition of moves. Leko beat Lautier with the black pieces and was unlucky that Karpov lost to Anand. He was hoping to have a tie-break with Anand and Shirov for the last qualifying place. Judit Polgar took a gamble by taking a quick draw against Grischuk with the white pieces. Her expectations worked as Shirov did not win.

Svidler won Group B with five points winning three games and drawing four. Grischuk finished second with a solid performance for his 4.5 points. Anand finished third with better S.B. tie-break score and Judit Polgar was fourth on four points.

In group A, the qualification fell in place with Kramnik, Ponomariov and Bacrot remaining undefeated on 4.5 points to take the top three places. Topalov beat Gelfand 1.5-0.5 in the blitz play-off after they scored 3.5 each from the round robin phase.

The results (round seven): Group A: Bareev lost to Azmaiparashvili, Bacrot drew with Kramnik, Ponomariov drew with Topalov, Adams drew with Gelfand.

Group B: Karpov lost to Anand, Svidler drew with Shirov, Lautier lost to Leko, Polgar drew with Grischuk.

Placings after round robin phase in tie-break order: Group A: 1-3: Vladimir Kramnik (Rus), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr), Etienne Bacrot (Fra) 4.5 each; 4: Veselin Topalov (Bul) 3.5; 5: Boris Gelfand (Isr) 3.5; 6-8: Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Geo), Michael Adams (Eng), Evgeny Bareev (Rus) 2.5 each.

Group B: 1: Peter Svidler (Rus) 5/7; 2: Alexander Grischuk (Rus) 4.5; 3-4: Viswanathan Anand (Ind), Judit Polgar (Hun) 4 each; 5-6: Alexei Shirov (Esp), Peter Leko (Hun) 3.5 each; 7: Joel Lautier (Fra) 2; 8: Anatoly Karpov (Rus) 1.5.

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