Tuesday, Nov 04, 2003
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Chess
By Arvind Aaron
Viswanathan Anand, who won the Corsica Masters chess tournament for the fourth time, and his vanquished opponent Veselin Topalov pose with their trophies in Bastia on Monday.
After the two were locked 1-1, with two draws, they went for the semi-rapid tie-break games and that too ended 1-1 with both games finishing in draws. The blitz tie-break was introduced with each player having three minutes on the clock plus a two second increment for making each move. Here, Anand won 2-0 although he was slightly worse in the black game. The overall score was 4-2 (1-1, 1-1, 2-0). Tie-breakers favour Anand, owing to his speed, and Topalov could not match the speedy Indian today. Anand was too fast in the rook ending that came up in the fifth game. He vacuumed white's queen side pawns and the large number of spectators counting nearly 350 enjoyed the high-speed action. At times the computers could not relay the action at the board due to the sheer speed at which the players were going. The fifth game had five passed pawns, three for Anand and two for Topalov. Anand won that in 46 moves by promoting a pawn. Topalov was never in the second blitz game. In a Sicilian Defence, he lost a pawn and later when he lost a second pawn he had only twenty seconds on his clock. He decided to throw in the towel after 33 moves of an eventful finals. After averting danger in game three, game four also did not go well for the Indian. He played well to earn a draw in 32 moves after reaching an opposite colour bishop ending with rooks on board. Earlier in the first rapid game, Anand, who defended with black pieces in the Nimzo-Indian defence, sacrificed two pawns in exchange for having white's king in the middle of the board. The players raced to their first 16 moves in few seconds before Anand started to think longer and then Topalov fell back on the clock before he made his 18th move. Topalov's 14th move looked new and both players seemed prepared well in this sharp variation and there could not have been a more sharp variation for the finals. Topalov came down rapidly on the time and by move 29 was down to the last few seconds. The two-pawn advantage did not mean anything as Anand had a five-minute cushion on the clock. With the presence of opposite colour bishops, one pair of queen and rook on the board, Topalov repeated when he could not improve and utilise the pawns. They drew while repeating the position in 37 moves as Anand perpetually attacked the white queen with his rook. Topalov had only 25 seconds to Anand's two minutes and 43 seconds at that juncture. In the second rapid game, Anand took a sacrificed rook and allowed Topalov to get away with a draw in 29 moves in a very complicated position. Once they drew this, the first set of tie-break was called for. About his fourth victory, Anand said it came harder than before due to the strength of the field. "It was my best tour in France," said Anand. Speaking to The Hindu, he said "at Cap d'Agde I was playing very well in the evening and changing to morning was slightly a problem but I managed it well". "Both players are safe and solid," said Sasikiran watching the first set of tie-break games. He in fact predicted Anand to win game five and it happened. Sasikiran told The Hindu that his playing in the Tournament of Bastia prior to the Corsica Masters tired him out and that he would like to play only the Corsica Masters next year. He received a prize money of 1,500 euros for being the losing pre-quarter finalist here and a share of the prize fund for finishing joint second in the Tournament of Bastia. Anand's next tournament will be at Benidorm in Spain from November 26 to 30. It's also rapid tourney and the main rivals there would be Karpov, Judit Polgar, Radjabov and others. Anand also plays league games for his Bundesliga team Baden Oos this month.
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