Grishuck shocks Ehlvest

By Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI, DEC. 8. Alexander Grischuk might well be the discovery of this edition of the World chess championship. This 17-year-old Grandmaster from Moscow continued his conquests by stopping the seasoned Jaan Ehlvest and gate-crashing into the quarterfinals beginning on Saturday.

On a day when the tie-breakers of the pre-quarterfinal was played, Michael Adams overcame Peter Svidler, Veselin Topalov ended Alexey Dreev's resistance, Alexei Shirov nailed Boris Gelfand and Evgeny Bareev got the better of Boris Gulko.

Though all other results came on expected lines, with the pre- match favourites justifying their seedings, 46th seed Grischuk's victory came as a surprise.

At his age, it is easy to relish the rapid games but then, Grischuk was up against 38th-seeded Ehlvest whose liking for the shortened version is well-known. In fact, in both the games today, Ehlvest was better but eventually bowed to the energetic youngster's grit.

In the first of the two 25-minute rapid games, Grischuk made light of the Sicilian Defence opted by Ehlvest and went for a kingside attack. On the 22nd move, Grischuk won a pawn and looked comfortably placed. But Ehlvest defended the position well and gradually repulsed the former's aggressive tactics. In fact, he seemed better off at one stage. Once the game reached a double- rook-and-pawn ending, Grischuk's rooks began calling the shots. Ehlvest did manage to push one of the pawns to the seventh rank but Grischuk's rook covered the queening pawn well. Slowly, Grischuk advanced his pawn to the seventh rank, too, won on the 67th move.

In the second game, too, Grischuk had to survive some anxious moments. In Tarrasch variation of Queen's Gambit, Ehlvest gained a pawn on the 16th move. Grischuk succeeded in exchanging most of the pieces to force a rook and pawn ending. Such was the position that Ehlvest's extra pawn could prove decisive and draw was agreed in 66 moves.

Grischuk, who now faces Vladislav Tkachiev (France) for a place in the semifinals, said, ``I agree I was worse in both games but I kept fighting. That's how the game goes. Sometimes you are better but lose, sometimes you win games like I did today.''

Trained for the last six years by Anatoli Bykhovsky, Grischuk refused to look ahead to the match and said, ``I am not even thinking about tomorrow. If you ask me, I would like to take a break (on Saturday) but it's okay. Now I don't want to go back and prepare. I'll just rest.'

In one of the better-fought matches, Topalov finally nailed Dreev in the two 15-minute rapid games to ensure his place against Adams. It may be recalled that Dreev had won the first of the two classical games on Wednesday but Topalov levelled the match-score by a fine victory on Thursday.

Today, Topalov took the lead by winning the first game but Dreev saw his chance in the next to force the second set of tie-breaker games. But then, that was as far as Dreev could get. Topalov, seeded seven - eight places ahead of Dreev - proved his superiority twice in succession. Earlier, Adams had stopped Svidler in the second of the rapid games to advance. After drawing the first game rather tamely, Adams overcame his biggest challenge so far in the championship by winning in 44 moves of Sicilian.

Shirov's victory over Gelfand ensured that the final could now be played safely in Tehran. Gelfand, representing Israel, lost in the second of the rapid games in 26 moves of Sicilian Defence. Shirov, playing white, had the upper hand from the beginning. He sacrificed a pawn on the 19th move and on the 25th, Gelfand had to give his queen for a rook and bishop. He was also in danger of losing a couple of pawns but he chose to resign.

The results (pre-quarterfinals, tie-breaker): Michael Adams (Eng, 2755) bt Peter Svidler (Rus, 2689) 1.5-0.5; Veselin Topalov (Bul, 2707) bt Alexey Dreev (Rus, 2676) 3-1; Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 2606) bt Jaan Ehlvest (Est, 2627) 1.5-0.5; Alexei Shirov (Esp, 2746) bt Boris Gelfand (Isr, 2681) 1.5-0.5; Evgeny Bareev (Rus, 2702) bt Boris Gulko (US, 2643) 1.5-0.5.

Quarterfinal pairings: Viswanathan Anand-Alexander Khalifman; Alexander Grischuk-Vladislav Tkachiev; Michael Adams-Veselin Topalov; Evgeny Bareev-Alexei Shirov.

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