The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Anand begins campaign in style

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Sunday, Aug 19, 2007
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Anand begins campaign in style

NEW DELHI: Defending champion Viswanathan Anand opened his campaign for a seventh straight rapid title in Mainz, Germany, by racing away to two victories before settling for a draw in the third round of the four-player World rapid chess championship on Friday.

A day after losing an exciting final of the World Chess960 to favourite Levon Aronian, Anand started his title-defence by shutting out Rustam Kasimdzhanov in 45 moves of Ruy Lopez. Enjoying the return to his favourite format, Anand accounted for Aronian in 40 moves before taking a 37-move draw with black pieces against Frenchman Etienne Bacrot.

Bacrot, who lost the opener to Aronian in just 22 moves, caught up with the Armenian after beating Kasimdzhanov in the second round. Three more rounds will be played after which the top two scorers will contest a four-game final.

Indian GMs win

Meanwhile in the Ordix Open rapid tournament that began on Saturday, Grandmasters K. Sasikiran, P. Hari Krishna and Parimarjan Negi won the first two rounds of the 11-round event that has attracted 781 players.

Rough ride

In Abu Dhabi, Indians had a rough ride in the sixth round of the Abu Dhabi Masters when Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Tejas Bakre, M.R. Venkatesh and S. Kidambi lost. Only K. Humpy managed to beat young compatriot S.P. Sethuraman, while G.N. Gopal drew with lower-rated Sami Khader of Jordan.

Good show

In Banyoles, Spain, Deep Sengupta, Aswin Jayaram and Nisha Mohota maintained their winning sequence after two rounds of the Banyoles International Open.

The results:

World Rapid championship (third round): Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 1.5) drew with Viswanathan Anand (2.5); Levon Aronian (Arm, 1.5) drew with Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzb, 0.5).

Second round: Anand bt Aronian; Kasimdzhanov lost to Bacrot.

First round: Anand bt Kasimdzhanov; Aronian bt Bacrot.

Ordix Open rapid tournament (involving Indians, second round): K. Sasikiran (2) bt Hans-Jurgen Dores (Ger, 1); Tobias Wenner (Ger, 1) lost to P. Hari Krishna (2); Berthold Bartsch (Ger, 1) lost to Parimarjan Negi (2).

First round: Frithjoj Wahl (Ger) lost to Sasikiran; Hari bt Piroska Palotai (Hun); Negi bt Heiko Frese (Ger).

Abu Dhabi Masters (sixth round, involving Indians): Surya Shekhar Ganguly (4) lost to Morteza Mahjoob (Iri, 5); Le Quang Liem (4.5) bt Tejas Bakre (3.5); Evgenij Miroshnichenko (Ukr, 4) bt M.R. Venkatesh (3); G.N. Gopal (3.5) drew with Sami Khader (Jor, 3.5); K. Humpy (3.5) bt S.P. Sethuraman (2.5); S. Kidambi (2.5) lost to Ulvi Bajarani (Aze, 3.5); Pal Kiss (Hun, 3) drew with Aditya Udeshi (3); Akshat Khamparia (3.5) bt Zeinab Mamedjarova (Aze, 2.5); Swati Ghate (2) lost to Saleh Salem (UAE, 3); B. Adhiban (2.5) bt Mohammad Saleh Yahya (UAE, 1.5).

Banyoles International Open (second round, involving Indians): Deep Sengupta (2) bt Arlette van Weersel (Ned, 1); Aswin Jayaram (2) bt Blanco Omar Garcia (Esp, 1); Nisha Mohota (2) bt Pijoan Josep Guevara (Esp, 1); K. Priyadarshan (1) lost to Michiel Larmuseau (Bel, 2); Batlle Pol Sabria (Esp, 0.5) drew with Swati Mohota (0.5).

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