Anand has the edge

By Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI, NOV. 26. Tradition and turbulence, or say, convention and controversy, have kept company in chess like in few other sport. Thanks to some genius exponents of this cerebral discipline, chess has gained its present profile. Blame it on the eccentric streak of some of the celebrated champions or their king-sized egos, chess never lacked characters.

So, it does not come as a surprise that the process of finding a World champion has been sprinkled with some controversy or the other. Ironically, this war of pieces gained the maximum during 1972 World Championship final between American Bobby Fischer and Russian Boris Spassky. Though the `cold war' had a lot do with it, but chess became the hot topic.

Since then, Anatoly Karpov won and, equally easily, lost his title by default. In between Gary Kasparov rose to become the greatest in the game. And now Vladimir Kramnik is the latest. In short, those who have held the world title, whether the official one or the one deemed to be a world championship match between two of the strongest in the business, will be remembered longer than others.

And is it not time for our own Viswanathan Anand to join the gallery of greats ? All chess lovers in the country of over a billion people would agree. Many others around the globe want this wonderful ambassador of chess to take the title that has looked rightfully his. More so, in the absence of Kasparov. After all, the country which game this fascinating game to the world, needs a champion of its own.

When the 3.5-million dollar NIIT World championship begins at Hotel Hyatt Regency here on Monday, Anand will obviously be expected to justify his seeding. In 1997, in the process to find the challenger of Karpov, Anand emerged the strongest but did not have enough reserve to go further. The world sympathised with Anand, criticised the format but the fact remained : An exhausted Anand missed the world title yet again, like he did in the `final' in 1995 against Kasparov.

Together, these defeats made many question Anand's ability to cross the final hurdle. But Anand's triumph in the inaugural World Cup in September, that too, in knockout format, similar to the one to be followed here, has once put all doubts to rest. Even, Kasparov's webpage has tipped Anand to win.

The format suits Anand. The two classical games and if needed, the rapid tie-break matches, up to the semifinal stage, give him the edge.

A look at Anand's draw gives a fair idea of his passage, which looks comfortable till the quarterfinals. Seeded into the second round with 27 others, Anand faces the winner of Victor Bologan and Hannes Stefansson match. As he goes along, for a place in the semifinal, Anand may face one among the lot comprising defending champion and ninth seed Alexander Khalifman, fifth seed Peter Leko, 13th seed Nigel Short or Joel Lautier, numbered 29th.

The second quarter of the draw has players like England's Michael Adams, Bulgaria's Vassilin Topalov, China's Xu Jun, another Bulgarian Kiril Georgiev and last year's semifinalist Liviu- Dieter Nisipeanu from Romania, seeded third, seventh, 19th, 23rd and 55th, in that order.

From the bottom half of the draw, which has Abhijit Kunte and Dibyendu Barua facing a highly improbable third-round meeting, second seeded Russian Alexander Morovzevich finds himself in the company of the unpredictable Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk and Hungarian Zoltan Almasi.

Kunte's chances of moving up to the second round past Brazil's Gilberto Milos is similar to what Barua enjoys against Kazakh Evgeny Vladimirov, who spent a couple of months in India this year, playing and coaching. But let us not forget that Barua is known to pull off upsets. After all, he was the one who stunned Khalifman in the opener before going down via tie-breaker in the first round last year. However, this time, Barua's form looks suspect.

Coming to the last quarter, fourth seeded Alexie Shirov has to contend with Boris Gelfand, Mikhail Gurevich, Evgeny Bareev and last year's finalist Vladimir Akopian. This is one of the toughest quarters and it is unfortunate that first- time K. Sasikiran finds himself in such elite company.

Sasikiran opens his campaign against the much-talked about Zambian International Master Amon Simutowe, winner of the African Zone (4.3) title with a convincing score of 9.5 out of 11. Though the Zambian is rated far below the Indian, it may not be very easy for the Chennai lad.

Again, it is the format that makes it a little unpredictable. The underdogs can be expected to bring down a few pre-match favourites. That is one of the reasons why the majority of players love the format. What more, those who do not get to play in big tournaments at Linares, Dortmund etc. get to earn a fair amount. After all, even the first round loser takes home 6,000 dollars. The winner's cheque is a whopping 660,000 dollars. Also, for the first time, the women's World championship will be played alongside the men's competition, that too, on knockout basis.

Unlike the 100-man field, the women in fray total 61. Again unlike the men, who fight for three million dollars, the ladies have to split 500,000 dollars. But no one is complaining.

Like in men's chess, there is still doubt about the undisputed champion of the game. Here too, the strongest woman ever, Judit Polgar, is absent from the field. She does not compete in women's tournaments and did not qualify for the men's championship. Judit's elder sister former World champion Zsuzsa cut up with FIDE (world chess federation) and hence away. Last year, Zsuzsa defaulted her world championship final match against Xie Jun and FIDE made Alisa Galliamova, seeded two here, play the Chinese champion. After claiming the title, Xie Jun had thrown a challenge Zsuza but the Hungarian did not respond.

Interestingly, in the last edition of the World Championship at Las Vegas, Judit and five-time World champion Georgia's Maia Chiburdanidze had played. As it turned out, Judit lost to eventual champion Khalifman in the quarterfinals after Maia had been shown the door in the first round to surprise finalist Akopian.

Here, Xie Jun, Alisa and Maia enjoy byes into the second round, where they will be joined by 29 first-round winners.

Chinese challenge in the women's section has gained respectability after they upstaged the seemingly invincible trio from Georgia in the recent Olympiad at Istanbul. Earlier in September, Xu Yuhan's triumph in the World Cup at home had served a warning to all those in contention.

Besides top seed Xie Jun, the other Chinese expected to be among the frontrunners are, Zhu Chen, Xu Yuhan, Qin Kanying and Wang Lei, seeded fourth to seventh.

Georgians, led by Maia, will be looking forward to get even. Others are Nana Ioseliani, Nini Khurtsidze, former World champion Nona Gaprindashvilli and Nino Gurieli.

Sweden's veteran Pia Cramling and former World junior champion from Vietnam, Hong Thanh Trang, will also be watched with interest.

From India's point of view, for the first time, there will be some interest and hope. S. Vijayalakshmi, the country's first Women Grandmaster, meets Finland's Niina Koskela. Should she win, her next rival will be Nana Ioseliani, whom she had beaten recently in Istanbul. But a repeat triumph cannot be taken for granted.

Vijayalakshmi's younger sister S. Meenakshi faces stiffer test against Russian Elena Zayac, seeded 25th while Bhagyashree Thipsay, is slated to meet Peng Zhaoqin, the 23rd seed from the Netherlands.

In all, a spate of upsets cannot be ruled out, thanks again to the accelerated format. The days of waiting for years for a World champion is passe. The `instant' formula has found more acceptance in these times. Perhaps, it is just the right time and place for that one man from Chennai be make `The Championship' his own.

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