Anand off to a splendid start

By Arvind Aaron

SHENYANG, SEP. 2. Top- seed Viswanathan Anand kept his winning ways in tact, by defeating FIDE World champion Alexander Khalifman of Russia for the third time this year. His latest victory came in the second round of the Group D match of the North Group Cup World Cup chess tournament being held here on a warm Saturday.

The well-timed 40-move victory places 30-year-old Anand in a comfortable position in his group. He has two points from as many games and leads by a full point. In the opening round on Friday, Anand had a winning start as he got past bottom-ranked Tissir Mohammed of Morocco with ease.

World women's champion Xie Jun of China was beaten by Vietnam's Hoang Thanh Trang and on the men's front Russians Alexander Morozevich and Peter Svidler suffered defeats at the hands of Alexei Alexandrov (Belarus) and Zhang Zhong (China).

Anand opened with the king pawn for the third time against Khalifman this year. After two successive defeats with the French defence, Khalifman opted for the Sicilian defence a more sharper and doubled edged opening. Anand went for the currently popular English attack. White had castled queen side and was looking for a break in the centre.

Black's pawn sacrifice on the 15th move was based on his greater control over the game and the advantage of bishops. Black's 23rd move levelled the pawn count but it gave white a thematic chance to break and Anand did not shy from. He sacrificed his bishop and weaved threats. He was at his creative

best thereafter. Khalifman decided to give up his queen for a rook and two pieces but white's attack was still on and Anand won in style.

Anand has mastered the knack of beating Khalifman regularly and has never lost a game to him. It was his third victory in four encounters this year.

Talking to The Hindu, Anand said black could have averted demolition of his position had he paused the capture of the pawn on the 23rd move for a defensive 23...g6. Theoretically, white's 16th move was a novelty but Anand said at least two other players, Gelfand and Svidler told him that they had analysed this line and had it in their computer. It was a question of getting an opportunity to use it.

Describing the game in simple jargon, Anand said, ``It was violently complicated but I managed to breakthrough.'' After his 27th move he said he was certain white was going to win. His trainer Ubilava who was in the analysis room working out various possibilities the game could take also looked relieved after white's 27th turn and turned his attention to observe other games of interest.

Also in Group D, Tkachiev and Gelfand made a 17-move draw after reaching the boiling point in a sharp English opening game. After a risky start they took a U-turn and decided to keep qualification chances alive and shared the point. Tissir Mohammed (Elo 2342) held Tregubov (Elo 2620) to a draw for a mild surprise in Group D. That gave Anand a one point lead and the result should be taken as a `missed penalty' by Tregubov, the European champion.

Group A was jinxed with draws in round one. As if to make thinks perfect, Gulko and Azmaiparashvili drew in just 12 moves for a near free day in the round robin stage. The sensational result of this group was Morozevich's 62-move defeat to Alexandrov with the white pieces. King's gambit, knight offer and risky play are all part of his young players gameplan. It did not work and Alexandrov kept the material and won a two pieces against rook ending to sail unexpectedly into lead with 1.5 points.

Group B favourite Ivanchuk had no problems making a draw with the black pieces against China's top rated Ye Jiangchuan in 24 moves from a Petroff's defence.

Women's section

Former world junior girls' champion Hoang Thanh Trang benefited from a serious blunder by Xie Jun on the 27th move to score this most important upset in Group D. Hoang threatened to win a knight and forced the champion to resign in 29 moves. Hoang, Zhukova and Irina Krush are leading this group with 1.5 points. Zhukova of Ukraine shocked higher rated Wang Lei of China with her ending skills while Krush outplayed Hernandez in 56 moves.

Qin Kanying of China who accounted for Mouradin of Libya joined WGM Amura Claudia in the lead with 1.5 points in Group B. Argentina's Claudia held group favourite Stefanova to a draw.

In Group C, second seed of the tournament, Chiburdanidze bounced back and rolled her central pawns to effect a simple tactical victory over Laubshner, seeded second from bottom in 29 moves.

The results:

Second round:

Men: Group A: B. Gulko (USA) 1 drew Z.Azmaiparashvili (Geo) 1, A. Morozevich (Rus) 0.5 lost to A. Alexandrov (Blr) 1.5, G. Milos (Bra) 1 drew A. Dreev (Rus) 1.

Group B: R. Ponomariov (Ukr) 1 drew N. Short (Ukr) 1, Ye Jiangchuan (Chn) 1 drew V. Ivanchuk (Ukr) 1, Xu Jun (Chn) 1.5 bt M. Gurevich (Bel) 0.5.

Group C: A. Fedorov (USA) 0.5 drew A. Rizouk (Alg) 0.5, S. Movsesian (Cze) 1 drew E. Bareev (Rus) 1.5, P. Svidler (Rus) 1 lost to Zhang Zhong (Chn) 1.5.

Group D: Tissir Mohammed (Mar) 0.5 drew P. Tregubov (Rus) 1, V. Tkachiev (Fra) 1 drew B. Gelfand (Isr) 1, V. Anand (Ind) 2 bt A. Khalifman (Rus) 0.5.

Women: Group A: R. Pokorna (Svk) 1 lost to E. Kovalevskaya (Rus) 1, A. Maric (Yug) 0.5 drew Xu Yuhua (Chn) 1.5, A. Payet (Sey) 0 lost to Zhu Chen (Chn) 2.

Group B: K. Mouradin (Lib) 0 lost to Qin Kanying (Chn) 1.5, Almira Lautier (Fra) 1 drew Wang Pin (Chn) 1, Amura Claudia (Arg) 1.5 drew A. Stefanova (Bul) 1.

Group C: A. Kosteniuk (Rus) 0 lost to N. Khurtsidze (Geo) 2, M. Chiburdanidze (Geo) 1 bt A. Laubshner (RSA) 0, Wang Yu (Chn) 1.5 drew Pia Cramling (Swe) 1.5.

Group D: Hoang Thanh Trang (Vie) 1.5 bt Xie Jun (Chn) 0.5, Wang Lei (Chn) 0.5 lost to N. Zhukova (Ukr) 1.5, Irina Krush (USA) 1.5 bt Y. Hernandez (Mex) 0.5.

First round:

Men: Group A: G. Milos (Bra) drew B. Gulko (USA), A. Dreev (Rus) drew A. Morozevich (Rus), A. Alexandrov (Blr) drew Z. Azmaiparashvili (Geo).

Group B: Xu Jun (Chn) drew R. Ponomariov (Ukr), M. Gurevich (Bel) drew Ye Jianchuan (Chn), V. Ivanchuk (Ukr) drew N. Short (Eng).

Group C: P. Svidler (Rus) bt A. Fedorov (Blr), Zhang Zhong (Chn) drew S. Movsesian (Cze), E. Bareev (Rus) bt A. Rizouk (Alg).

Group D: V. Anand (Ind) bt Tissir Mohammed (Mar), A. Khalifman (Rus) drew V. Tkachiev (Fra), B. Gelfand (Isr) drew P. Tregubov (Rus).

Women: Group A: A. Payet (Sey) lost to R. Pokorna (Svk), Zhu Chen (Chn) bt A. Maric (Yug), Xu Yuhua (Chn) bt E. Kovalevskaya (Rus).

Group B: Amura Claudia (Arg) bt K. Mouradian (Lib), A. Stefanova (Bul) drew Almira Lautier (Mda), Wang (Chn) drew Qin Kanying (Chn).

Group C: Wang Yu (Chn) bt A. Kosteniuk (Rus), P. Cramling (Swe) bt M. Chiburdanidze (Geo), A. Laugshner (RSA) lost to Nino Khurtsidze (Geo).

Group D: I. Krush (USA) drew Hoang Tranh Trang (Vie), Y. Hernandez (Mex) drew Wang (Chn), N. Zhukova (Ukr) drew Xie Jun (Chn).

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