The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Anand keeps lead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 08, 2004

Sport

Sport - Chess

Anand keeps lead

By Arvind Aaron

MAINZ, AUG. 7. Two fighting draws resulted on day two and both the players were not satisfied with the quality of play. Defending champion Viswanathan Anand kept his lead over Alexei Shirov of Spain at 2.5-1.5 as they reached the halfway mark in their best of eight Chess Classic rapid chess match on Friday.

It is not normal for white to be on the defensive. To defend with white so early in the match was unfortunate and it happened after Anand lost the thread of the moment in game three and later Shirov ventured into a line with a poor record for the light colour in game four.

The 2.5-1.5 lead for Anand with a victory and three draws indicates that a close match is in the offing. Anand needs the first game of the day to warm up like in the 2003 edition.

Anand went for the open variation of the Ruy Lopez as black in game four and sacrificed a knight in exchange for planting two dangerous pawns on the seventh and sixth ranks. Into a long and well analysed variation, Shirov's 23rd move was a dubious novelty.

Missed chance

With a big lead on the clock and a premeditated plan, Anand missed his chance and drew a rook ending after 42 moves. A subtle bishop move backwards to its original square (28...Bf8) was what Anand missed and it made the difference between a draw and a win. In game three, Anand went for an anti-Marshall opening with the white pieces against Shirov and came up with an opening novelty on move 14. This fortified white's centre and together with the weak pawn break by black on move 23, white could control the game. Down on the clock and on the board, Shirov pinned the white king and queen on move 35 to enter an ending with an extra pawn.

Svidler level

In the World Chess 960 Championship, holder Peter Svidler of Russia came back to draw level at 2-2. As white had won all four games in this match and no draws were recorded, Armenian challenger Levon Aronian was asked if white had any significant advantage over conventional chess.

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