Azmaiparashvili shocks Morozevich

By Arvind Aaron

SHENYANG, SEPT. 3. Georgia's Zurab Azmaiparashvili shocked second-seed Alexander Morozevich of Russia in the third round of Group A in the North Group Cup World Cup chess tournament in progress here on Sunday.

Morozevich (0.5/3) is out of the tournament now, having lost his chance to qualify for the last eight stage.

Top-seed Viswanathan Anand figured in a quiet 21-move draw against Boris Gelfand of Israel with the black pieces to keep his lead. Anand leads Group D with 2.5 points. He is one point ahead with two rounds to go. He plays Pavel Tregubov with white and Vladislav Tkachiev with black in the last two games.

It was a quick business-like draw that Gelfand and Anand played, lasting under 45 minutes. As black, Anand faced a queen from his opponent. He chose the queen's Indian defence to play against it. At move 12, Anand opted for a well-known line although he had been making draws with comfort against Karpov with Nf6. By sidestepping a possible preparation, Anand equalised easily and offered a draw along with his 21st move. Gelfand took it.

Anand had called the line they played on Sunday `a dead line' for white in his analysis two years ago. He said he had analysed it last in mid-1998 and had to brush it up with Yusupov, Leko and Ubilava before the Lausanne match against Karpov. Gelfand came with a idea which obviously failed but he explained how Karpov used it as white to win a point from Boris Alterman in an European Club match game. That no other player has found strength in this variation places a doubt as to whether Gelfand was playing for a win or just wanting a quieter result, his third draw.

In the same Group D, FIDE World Champion Khalifman became the first player other than Anand to win a game. He bounced back from Saturday's loss to score over Tissir Mohammed in 44 easy moves from a knight ending. The Tregubov and Tkachiev drew after the latter could not pursue his advantage in the ending. This group's standings: Anand 2.5/3, 2-5 Gelfand, Khalifman, Tkachiev and Tregubov 1.5 each, 6 Tissir 0.5.

Brazil's Gilberto Milos shot into joint lead in Group A with a well prepared 41-move victory over overnight leader Alexei Alexandrov. The Belarus player made a serious mistake on the 26th turn and thereafter, Milos coasted to win easily. ``I came specially prepared for this f3 variation of the Nimzo-Indian and it worked,'' Milos told The Hindu.

The results (third round):

Men: Group A: A. Dreev (Rus) 1.5 drew B. Gulko (USA) 1.5, A. Alexandrov (Blr) 1.5 lost to G. Milos (Bra) 2, Z.Azmaiparashvili (Geo) 2 bt A. Morozevich (Rus) 0.5.

Group B: M. Gurevich (Bel) 1.5 bt. R. Ponomariov (Ukr) 1, V. Ivanchuk (Ukr) 1.5 drew Xu Jun (Chn) 2, N. Short (Eng) 1 lost to Ye Jiangchuan (Chn) 2.

Group C: Zhang Zhong (Chn) 1.5 lost to A. Fedorov (Blr) 1.5, E. Bareev (Rus) 2 drew P. Svidler (Rus) 1.5, A. Rizouk (Alg) 0.5 lost to S. Movsesian (Cze) 2.

Group D: A. Khalifman (Rus) 1.5 bt Tissir Mohammed (Mar) 0.5, B. Gelfand (Isr) 1.5 drew V. Anand (Ind) 2.5, P. Tregubov (Rus) 1.5 drew V. Tkachiev (Fra) 1.5.

Women: Group A: Zhu Chen (Chn) 3 bt R. Pokorna (Svk) 1, Xu Yuhua (Chn) 2.5 bt A. Payet (Sey) 0, E. Kovalevskaya (Rus) 1.5 drew Alisa Maric (Yug) 1.

Group B: A. Stefanova (Bul) 2 bt K. Mouradin (Lib) 0, Wang Pin (Chn) 1.5 drew Amura Claudia (Arg) 2, Qin Kanying (Chn) 2 drew Almira Lautier (Mda) 1.5.

Group C: Pia Cramling (Swe) 2.5 bt A. Kosteniuk (Rus) 0, A. Laugshner (RSA) 0 lost to Wang Yu (Chn) 2.5, N. Khurtsidze (Geo) 2.5 drew M. Chiburdanidze (Geo) 1.5.

Group D: Y. Hernandez (Mex) 0.5 lost to Hoang Thanh Trang (Vie) 2.5, N. Zhukova (Ukr) 2.5 bt Irina Krush (USA) 1.5, Xie Jun (Chn) 1.5 bt Wang Lei (Chn) 0.5.

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