Close call for Anand

By Arvind Aaron

WIJK AAN ZEE, JAN. 26. Alexei Shirov of Spain came close to disturbing Viswanathan Anand's undefeated course in the 10th round of the 63rd Corus chess tournament here on Thursday.

Shirov is in joint lead with seven points from 10 games along with former world champion Garry Kasparov of Russia. Kasparov made a 55-move draw with Jeroen Piket of the Netherlands in his game. Alexander Morozevich of Russia, who scored his fifth victory with the black pieces, moved to third place with 6.5 points.

Shirov missed good winning chances to surrender a valuable half point in time pressure and drew after 49 moves in the fifth hour of play with Anand.

Anand played the French defence as black. Anand's choice of the Rubinstein suggested that black was satisfied with a draw. From a position where white had the lead in development and black had fewer pieces to exchange off, Anand's series of inaccuracies began. The mistake from move 19 was well exploited by Shirov. White's eagerness to win the rook for minor piece on move 32 when black was in a traffic jam gave shades of equalising chances to black. Anand excelled in defence and handled the rook and bishop ending against two rooks admirably.

The results (tenth round): A. Fedorov (Blr) 3.5 lost to A. Morozevich (Rus) 6.5; V. Topalov (Bul) 4 drew with V. Kramnik (Rus) 6; P. Leko (Hun) 4.5 drew with V. Ivanchuk (Ukr) 5.5; A. Shirov (Esp) 7 drew with V. Anand (Ind) 5.5; J. Piket (Ned) 3.5 drew with G. Kasparov (Rus) 7; J. Timman (Ned) 4 lost to S. Tiviakov (Ned) 3; L. van Wely (Ned) 4 lost to M. Adams (Eng) 6.

The standings after round 10: 1-2 G. Kasparov, A. Shirov 7/10 each, 3 A. Morozevich 6.5, 4-5 M. Adams, V. Kramnik 6 each, 6-7 V. Anand, V. Ivanchuk 5.5 each, 8 P. Leko 4.5, 9-11 J. Timman, V. Topalov, L. van Wely 4 each, 12-13 A. Fedorov, J. Piket 3.5 each, 14 S. Tiviakov 3.

The moves:

GM A. Shirov-GM V. Anand, round 10, French defence, C10: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Bd3 c5 7.0-0 Nxe4 8.Bxe4 Nf6 9.Bg5 cxd4 10.Nxd4 Be7 11.Bf3 0-0 12.Re1 Qc7 13.c3 a6 14. Bh4 Bd6 15.Bxf6 gxf6 16.g3 Rd8 17.Bg2 Bf8 18.Qh5 Bg7 19.Rad1 Qb6 20. Nb3 Re8 21.c4 Qc7 22.Qa5 Qxa5 23.Nxa5 Bf8 24.Re3 Rb8 25.Rb3 b6 26.Nc6 Rb7 27.Na5 Rb8 28.Bc6 Re7 29.c5 b5 30.Rbd3 b4 31.Rd8 Rc7 32.Bd7 Rxc5 33.Nc6 Bxd7 34.Nxb8 Bb5 35.Nd7 Bxd7 36.R1xd7 Kg7 37.Rb8 Rc2 38.Rbb7 Bc5 39.Rxf7+ Kg6 40.Rxh7 Bxf2+ 41.Kf1 Rxb2 42.Rh4 Bc5 43.Rc4 Bf8 44. Rc8 Bd6 45.Rc6 Be5 46.Rxa6 Kf5 47.Rbb6 Ke4 48.Rxe6 Rxh2 49.Rxf6 Draw.

Harikrishna completes second GM norm

International Master Pentyala Harikrishna moved closer to achieving his Grandmaster title when he completed his second Grandmaster norm result with a quick 10-move draw in the ninth round of the Grandmaster Group B section of the Corus chess tournament on Friday.

The 10-move pre-agreed encounter was fixed on Thursday night when the father of 13-year old Teimor Radjabov proposed a draw to Varugeese Koshy, trainer of Harikrishna. After checking the norm charts himself, Koshy gave the choice to Harikrishna who was interested in the draw.

It is a nine game Grandmaster norm. He has a 10-game norm from the Istanbul Olympiad already and requires another norm covering eleven games to become India's youngest Grandmaster.

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