Anand settles for quick draw

By Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI, DEC. 6. Another short draw with black pieces for Viswanathan Anand. Not surprisingly, his campaign is following a now-familiar course in this edition of the World chess championship. The followers of his fortunes only hope that he once again comes good with white against Polish rival Bartlomiej Macieja when their pre-quarterfinal clash resumes on Thursday.

On Wednesday, out of eight boards, only one provided a decisive battle. Alexey Dreev - best remembered in this country as Anand's first-ever World championship `victim' in January, 1991 in Madras - scored a crushing victory over seventh-seeded Veselin Topalov.

This 25-move result in Slav helped 15th-seeded Dreev come within a draw of taking a place in the quarterfinals.

Like in the two previous rounds, Anand began with black and drew rather quickly. ``I am not unhappy with what happened,'' was how Anand summed up his 26-move deadlock in Taimanov Variation of Sicilian Defence.

The talking-point of this game was Anand's choice to move his king to `f8' on the 16th turn. With Macieja building a promising attack on the king's side, Anand wisely decided not to castle. Perhaps, that one move pushed the match towards the eventual result.

On this unusual move, made a few times by Armenia-born Czech GM Sergei Movesesian (who lost to Jaan Ehlvest on Tuesday), Anand said, ``after Kf8, white is a bit uncomfortable but the position is more or less equal. He managed to keep things in balance and perhaps, a draw was prudent,'' said Anand after facing the 23- year-old student of Physics from Warsaw University.

Considering the fact that Macieja has a 4-0 record in World Championship tie-breaker so far, Anand may well have a match on hands if it goes that far.

Dreev provided the brightest part of the evening when he notched up a surprisingly easy victory over Topalov. After mishandling the opening in Slav Defence, a dubious knight-exchange on the 14th move spelt doom for Topalov. Dreev won the `h7' pawn, displaced Topalov's king from its castled position before threatening to win the unprotected `e6' pawn by force. Topalov wisely chose not to continue.

Defending champion Alexander Khalifman, after Tuesday's long, hard victory over Peter Leko, agreed to a 19-move draw in Slav with Brazilian Rafael Lietao. This short game saw a series of quick exchanges before the two men shook hands. Lietao is the strongest player in Brazil and has come this far after getting better of three higher rated players in classical games itself.

Frenchmen Joel Lautier and Igor Nataf fell in the first game of their respective clashes. In between, Igor Nataf who had cut short Nigel Short's campaign, had lost in the second game of the second round. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise if Khalifman chooses to take this match into the tie-breaker and then find his way ahead.

Thrice Russian champion Peter Svidler and England's Michael Adams drew in the longest battle of the day, lasting 37 moves in Petroff. Adams gave a knight for three pawns in a long combination but could not exploit the situation.

In the bottom half of the draw, all matches ended in quick draws. Alexander Morozevich faced the Centre-Counter Gambit employed by Vladislav Tkachiev and eventually settled to share the point after 30 moves.

Estonian Jaan Ehlvest and Russian Alexander chose to trade pawns on the `c' file early in their English Opening game and signed the peace-treaty in just 14 moves.

Alexei Shirov and Boris Gelfand reached a similar verdict after 21 moves of Sicilian Najdorf Byrne Attack. The players castled on the opposite side and exchanged two minor pieces and as many pawns before seeing no point in continuing.

Evgeny Bareev and Boris Gulko, too, went as per theory in Nimzo- Indian. They completed piece-development and soon signed the score-sheet after just 17 moves.

The results (pre-quarterfinals: game one): Bartlomiej Macieja (Pol, 2536) drew with Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 2762); Rafael Leitao (Bra, 2567) drew with Alexander Khalifman (Rus, 2667); Peter Svidler (Rus, 2689) drew with Michael Adams (Eng, 2755); Alexey Dreev (Rus, 2676) bt Veselin Topalov (Bul, 2707); Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 2756) drew with Vladislav Tkachiev (Kaz, 2598); Jaan Ehlvest (Est, 2627) drew with Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 2606); Alexei Shirov (Esp, 2746) drew with Boris Gelfand (Isr, 2681); Evgeny Bareev (Rus, 2702) drew with Boris Gulko (USA, 2643).

The moves:

Bartlomiej Macieja (Poland, white); Viswanathan Anand (India): 1 e4 c5, 2. Nc3 Nc6, 3. Nf3 e6, 4. d4 cxd4, 5. Nxd4 Qc7, 6. Be3 a6, 7. Bd3, b5, 8. Nxc6 Qxc6, 9. 0-0 Bb7, 10. Re1 Nf6, 11. a3 Bd6, 12. Bd4 e5, 13. Be3 Bc5, 14. Qf3 Bxe3, 15. Rxe3 Qc5, 16. Qf5 Kf8, 17. Rg3 h6, 18. h4 d6, 19. h5 Rg8, 20. Re1 Re8, 21. Qf3 Ke7, 22. Nd1 Bc8, 23. Ne3 Be6, 24. Nf5+ Bxf5, 25. Qxf5 Rb8, 26. c3 0.5- 0.5.

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