The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Anand draws, Parimarjan wins in style

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Sunday, Jan 14, 2007
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Sport - Chess

Anand draws, Parimarjan wins in style

NEW DELHI: Cautious draws appeared the order of the opening day of the Corus chess championship as six of the seven boards ended in peaceful verdicts at Wijk ann Zee on Saturday.

Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik were among those who settled for draws with black pieces. Anand and fellow ex-World champion Russia's Ruslan Ponomariov drew in just 22 moves before Kramnik reached a similar result in 33 moves against the Ukraine's Sergey Karjakin. Fourth seed Levon Aronian, like Anand, drew in 22 moves against Czech David Navara.

Later, top seed Topalov, too, was held in 24 moves by Alexander Motylev, the lowest ranked player in the 14-man field. Local hope Loek van Wely and Azerbaijan's Teimour Radjabov were engaged in the only other ongoing battle.

Significantly, fourth seed Parimarjan Negi broke the sequence of draws by stopping Dutch International Master Wouter Spoelman, rated 2414, in great style in the `C' section.

Playing white, the Indian Grandmaster sacrificed a rook and then went on to checkmate Spoelman in just 27 moves.

The results (first round): Corus `A': Ruslan Ponomariov drew with Viswanathan Anand; Sergey Karjakin drew with Vladimir Kramnik; David Navara drew with Levon Aronian; Alexei Shirov drew with Peter Svidler; Sergey Tiviakov drew with Magnus Carlsen; Veselin Topalov drew with Alexander Motylev; Loek van Wely v Teimour Radjabov (in progress).

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