The Hindu : Sport : Anand tames Adams

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 05, 2005

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Sport

Anand tames Adams

NEW DELHI: Firm favourite Viswanathan Anand tamed Michael Adams in the two tiebreak games to face Switzerland's Vadim Milov in the final of the Corsica Masters rapid knockout chess tournament at the French city of Bastia on Friday.

In the first of the two games, Anand, playing black, needed 53 moves in Sicilian Defence to break the defence of the British Grandmaster who had succeeded in drawing the two regular games. With white pieces, Anand wrapped up the mini-match 3-1 after a 55-move victory in Ruy Lopez.

Earlier, the opening battle, where Anand played white, began with Ruy Lopez and ended in a 34-move draw with the exchange of queens. The second game, in Caro Kann lasted 67 moves.

The other semifinal, between Milov and Hungary's Zoltan Almasi, saw two decisive games before moving into the tiebreak games. Milov beat Almasi in 68 moves in the first game. In the second, Almasi hit back in a marathon game to level the score. In the first tiebreak game, Milov managed to hold Almasi in 49 moves of French Defence. But in the second, Milov proved superior with white in 48 moves.

The results:

Semifinals: Game 2: Michael Adams (Eng) (1) drew with Viswanathan Anand (1); Zoltan Almasi (Hun) (1) bt Vadim Milov (Sui) (1); Game 1: Anand drew with Adams; Milov bt Almasi.

Tiebreak: Game 2: Anand (3) bt Adams (1); Milov (2.5) bt Almasi (1.5); Game 1: Adams (1) lost to Anand (2); Almasi (1.5) drew with Milov (1.5).

Quarterfinals: Game 2: Mikhail Gurevich (Tur) (0) lost to Anand (2); David Alberto (Lux) (1) lost to Almasi (1); Laurent Fressinet (Fra) (0) lost to Adams (2); Milov (1.5) bt Judit Polgar (Hun) (0.5); Game 1: Anand bt Gurvevich; Almasi lost to David; Adams bt Fressinet; Judit drew with Milov.

Tiebreak: Game 1: David (1) lost to Almasi (2); Game 2: Almasi (2.5) drew with David (1.5).

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