A day of quick draws

By Arvind Aaron

DORTMUND, JULY 9. Saturday saw games end quickly in draws with the favourites sitting behind the black pieces. Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Vladimir Akopian of Armenia in the second round of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting on Saturday to the dismay of the capacity gathering.

The only game to end decisive was marred by an accidental resignation from Robert Huebner of Germany against the computer programme Junior6. The free gift places Junior6 on par with human leaders with 1.5 points, while Huebner has no score yet.

Besides the computer, Anand, Michael Adams, Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Leko are also in the lead with 1.5 points from two rounds. Seven rounds remain to be played in this category 19 tournament.

Anand was one of those making a draw with the black pieces. He remained quiet with the black pieces, requiring just 17 minutes on his clock to make a draw and come out fresh. His opponent, Akopian, the losing finalist in the Las Vegas FIDE Championship last year did not make any attempt to play for the advantage.

Akopian, having white, offered a draw early that was agreed in 16 moves by Anand. In their Semi-Slav defence opening, queens were exchanged off and they reached an identical pawn structure position while deciding to share points.

Once Anand drew, others followed through. This round was a non- event lasting just three hours for all games to get over. Total moves played was 97 for all five games put together.

Junior6 lucky

The computer team was lucky enough to get a full point in such a manner. ``Nevertheless, we had an open position and a big possibility to win the game,'' said Matthias Wuellenweber who was the operator at the table.

When the result which was originally flashed `draw', programmers of Junior ran to find out why their operator had ceded a draw. The correction came late and they were happy. Wrong result postings have been perplexing spectators and commentators so far.

The chief arbiter, Lothar Schmid, himself a Grandmaster asked Huebner why he resigned. ``I resigned by accident,'' replied Huebner. It was his first game against the computer and he was nervous.

Kasparov resigned a game by mistake too against Deep Blue in 1997. It was a French defence, Tarrasch variation and Huebner had come close to equality. He thought he was losing a pawn and resigned on the 20th move. In reality he miscalculated and was not losing a pawn.

The pairing for Sunday's third round: Adams v Junior6, Kramnik v Bareev, Anand v Piket, Leko v Akopian, Huebner v Khalifman.

lThe results (second round): Junior6 (Isr) 1.5 bt R. Huebner (Ger) 0, J. Piket (Ned) 0.5 drew with V. Kramnik (Rus) 1.5, A. Khalifman (Rus) 0.5 drew with P. Leko (Hun) 1.5, V. Akopian (Arm) 0.5 drew with V. Anand (Ind) 1.5, E. Bareev (Rus) 1 drew with M. Adams (Eng) 1.5.

The standings: 1-5 M. Adams (Eng), V. Anand (Ind), Junior6 (Isr), V. Kramnik (Rus), P. Leko (Hun) 1.5/2 each, 6 E. Bareev (Rus) 1, 7-9 V. Akopian (Arm), A. Khalifman (Rus), J. Piket (Ned) 0.5 each, 10 R. Huebner (Ger) 0.

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